AIBU to expect to be able to SWIM in the lanes at the local swimming pool?!!

[VanGogogh]

That's it really. Local pool has lane swimming every evening. 1/2 the pool is closed for lessons, there's one lane for adult lengths and then the rest is open for everyone.

I fully appreciate that not everyone is a strong swimmer. In my experience and until this week, the strong swimmers (think swimming lengths as a steady pace and not stopping) would pace up and down the lengths without worry of swimming into static people, and those who were leisurely swimming and chatting or resting, slow swimmers would enjoy the "general" area without worry that some crazy power swimmer would bash into them.

Sometimes the timings and speeds don't quite work out but we're all grown ups. We work around each other in a wonderfully British way.

I am, perhaps, still feeling very rilled by this. A trio of adults joined the lane. Each of them was only currently able to swim almost a length before a 2 minute break. By almost a length, I mean they would stop dead about 1/5 from the side and either walk in or pull in on the rope. This REALLY ruins the pace of the lane. If someone stops dead they're going to get swam into.

Then, during the 2 minute break, the three of them congregated, blocking the whole of the side stopping people completing lengths and turning effectively. They didn't wait until the stronger swimmers had passed before restarting the next length, on multiple occasions one of the three would start just as someone came to turn. It was ridiculous.

I bit my tongue. Hard. The angry energy made me swim another 15 lengths trying to calm down. It didn't work as this trio were seemingly unaware of others. Myself and other swimmers were ducking in and out of lanes to safely overtake and unfortunately, I did swim into a stopped body more than once when on my back as I was nowhere never the side.

AIBU to be furious? I know it's not my private lane and a public pool but these people just seemed to lack basic etiquette and social awareness.

WWYD if you were in that situation?

YANBU.

I've swum in many and various pools. The nadir being one that advertised lane swimming but didn't have lanes making it chaotic free for all.

My current pool has the genius idea of having four lanes: slow, medium, fast and 'front crawl only'. Thus all the inept splash creating, bumping into everyone front crawlers are kept together. Whilst everyone else gets on with their swim. Bliss!

Because even slow swimmers, who need a break, deserve the use of a lane without feeling bad. Stopping for a chat is mostly an excuse to get the heart rate down before continuing.

I can muster 4-5 length before I need a breather chat, or to just stand and watch my kids intently. (They are much better swimmers than me)

Can I add my annoyance to this? I belong to a private club that has two pools. One very large one for Lane swimming that has three normal lanes (slow, medium and fast) and one wider Lane for people who are not swimming proper lengths I guess or walking or whatever. Then it has a kids pool which is shallower and warmer. I take my three kids swimming there in a morning session once a week. (They are home ed). For us, the first twenty minutes is serious Lane swimming time. My eldest is a very strong swimmimer.. Much better than many of the adults in the adult pool, and as he has passed a test and wears the right coloured band, he can swim alone in there. BUT not in the three lanes - only the general one. So he ends up swimming faster than most of the others in there, trying to get around them, and getting dirty looks. When he would be better in the (often empty) medium Lane. But it's not allowed.

Them, we have all the elderly people who want to be in the warmer shallower kids pool to do their "laps". But they do not want my other two younger kids splashing about. In a kids pool. That they shouldn't be in. Argh!!

YANBU. Lanes are there to divide up the abilities of the swimmers and ensure those who are capable of doing multiple lengths without stopping can do so.

I'm a fast front-crawler and I stop too, much more than the other 'ironmen' in my lane. Mainly just to think about what I'm doing wrong in my technique as I want to improve in each session (and to chat to anyone who will talk) I've met some really nice folk in all the lanes doing this. I make sure I stand out of the way though.

I think we need to get away from the idea that swimming is about going as fast and far as possible. And there should be a splash-free lane, as no splash =more speed but the blokes are too thick to realise this

Who swims widths?

Children, adult learners, Or , like my DH, adults who can swim, but not very well and don't feel confident in the deep end. He always swims at the family swim though, he would not go to a lane swim for that reason. The problem arises when people want to lane swim at a family session, and believe everybody should get out of their way in the shallow end as well, so that they can complete their entire length. Never mind that learners/children might be swimming widths at the same time.

(goes off to dream wistfully of badgerlady's front crawl only lane...)
(wishes there were splash-free lanes too)

PS Wiifitmama if your DS is a competent swimmer who wants to swim lengths, let alone goes faster than most of the adults, surely he should be allowed to swim in the serious lanes, that seems ridiculous!

YANBU. I'm not a v good or regular swimmer but lack of lane respect drives me potty! Pools are for exercising or learning to swim in. If you just want to lol around, go to a spa or an oddly shaped leisure pool. Know your own ability and if there is more than one lane graded by swimming speed, stick in the one that you fit in, rather than the one you aspire to.

Is annoying that to get a decent uninterrupted swim in you need to be a member of a swimming club and / or willing and able to swim at the extreme ends of the day. 10pm swim anyone??!

Unfortunately, IME, most lifeguards and pool staff couldn't be less interested in problems like this when you raise them.

Yabu. One of my pet hates is 2 friends who want to swim side by side slooooowllllyyyyy.... Ffs in a narrow adult swim area this is not feasible. It means less space for the people doing reasonably paced lengths.

If they were clogging the side I would have repeatedly swam in between them to touch the side, just to make a point. Don't know if that's wasn't feasible.

Can't imagine ever talking to a lifeguard. They're just youngsters who don't seem to care, generally.

I also thought yesterday about why its always me swimming out of the way. Never the fat old blokes. I'm heavily pregnant, not that that means anything. I just zig zag around the pool .

I had to give up swimming as it came impossible to actually swim at our local club. I swear my blood pressure used to double.

What.is.so.hard about swimming clockwise/anti clockwise round a lane instead of (slowly) up and down the bloody middle!? OR stopping half way down a lane and then standing up, turning round, and starting to swim straight back at the person who was following - ie: me! What is so hard about standing to one side when you finish a length to let an obviously faster swimmer pop in front of you for the next length?

Don't even start me on the 'stand around and chaters', when there's a huge bloody jacussi right beside the pool.

This why I swim in the sea every day.

I've given up swimming a few times over the years because of extremely frustrating etiquette on the part of other pool users. I swim to relax, but coming out feeling like I want to kill somebody is somewhat not the idea.

Just things like when there's a big emptyish pool (I chose my time carefully) entirely for lengths, with, say three people in it. Why then does somebody choose "my" lane (complete with water bottle at one end) when there's 75% of the pool width empty to go swim in? It makes no sense -t hey could have a whole empty lane (heck six empty lanes) to themselves but they picked mine, which is honestly not a special one. WHY?!! It's like taking the seat next to somebody in an empty train carriage, heck no, it's like sitting on their lap. I end up having to move over, taking my bottle with me etc and ruining my tempo. Once, okay. Twice, gets annoying. It was when it happened four times in the first 10 lengths that I said enough was enough and didn't go swimming again like that for two years. It was the final straw after months of this sort of thing!

Far too many people have no manners or common sense.. I go out of my way to avoid annoying other swimmers but it seems a sizeable proportion just don't think. At all. They're probably the same people who never let any cars out in front of them either or who "accidentally" push in in queues.

This is why I stopped swimming.

People couldn't pace themselves or understand about timing.

Having a faster swimmer whacking your feet or randomly cutting in front of you is NOT fun, and can really put you off.

Slower swimmers would often just 'stop'. Was awkward.

I had a 'friend' who admitted she wouldn't swim in the 'medium speed' lane because she liked being near the sides but would then slag off the slower people, keep going round them (making it difficult for the person coming the other way) and generally be an arse.

We're not friends now, swimming showed her true colours!!

My local pool has time-tabled sessions for lane swimming especially for people wanting to swim in proper lengths. And to accommodate different skills, there are 3 broad lanes set up: Slow, Medium and Fast. Also we have arrows pointing to the direction you take in a particular lane, as there's room enough for going up one side, across a bit at the end, and back down the other side, all to reduce bumping etc.

A good system.

This why I swim in the sea every day.

I wish I could, but living in the midlands makes it a bit difficult

There was a woman last week swimming in the only lane available as lessons were on, she swam proper head up breaststroke, so she could bloody see what was going on. Every time, she pushed off right in front of me and I couldn't overtake as there were others in the lane. So I got out after 15 mins and made the club customer service rep stand and watch at the poolside. We got another lane put in after that. I am very polite but direct. They think I am insane

This why I swim in the sea every day.

It's not much further for me to get to the sea than it is to get to the leisure centre. I can see both from where I'm sitting. But - it's far too cold for my arthritic body to want to risk it. Would be exhilarating though, the waves are magnificent today.

"My current pool has the genius idea of having four lanes: slow, medium, fast and 'front crawl only'. Thus all the inept splash creating, bumping into everyone front crawlers are kept together. Whilst everyone else gets on with their swim. Bliss!"

My pool has a front crawl only lane too. I bloody love it - hardly anyone but me goes in it, as most people don't do front crawl all session.

"I'm a fast front-crawler and I stop too, much more than the other 'ironmen' in my lane. Mainly just to think about what I'm doing wrong in my technique as I want to improve in each session (and to chat to anyone who will talk) I've met some really nice folk in all the lanes doing this. I make sure I stand out of the way though."

This is me too. It's perfectly possible to be at the end of the lane in the corner and out of the way, rather than in the middle with your arms sticking out.

I am most bemused by people's insistence on a particular lane in a quiet pool. I turned up the other week and there was one person in the fast lane, one in the front crawl only lane (doing breaststroke ) so I got in the medium lane and started swimming. A lady came along and jumped in the fast lane, despite the fact that a) she was swimming considerably more slowly than both the bloke in the fast lane and me in the medium lane, and b) The slow and very slow lanes were completely empty. She carried on swimming at half the pace of the other bloke in her lane for her whole swim, whilst the other two lanes remained empty. I just don't get it.

YANBU OP - some people seem to have zilch consideration when swimming in lanes.

But my personal gripe is actually about the people who choose not to use the lanes. In our pool we have two lanes for swimmers one marked slow, and one fast. Now granted that does cause some irritations deciding which lane to go into - I'm medium so I tend to go in the slow lane and just cut short my lengths if I need to overtake a particularly slow person.

However despite having lanes for you know, lane swimmers, I have come a few times with DS and a pal and gone to the half of the pool called family swim area, only to find people doggedly swimming lanes and tutting loudly at the DCs when they try to have fun swimming, splashing and jumping in. It wouldn't be so bad if the lanes were really full, but one time we were there and there were 5 people swimming lengths in the "family area" and no one in the lanes. Utterly ridiculous.

There is one particularly irritating lady who ploughs down the middle of the family area all the time for about 40 mins then does some convoluted workout with water weights at one end, I get kind of stabby feelings when I see her and have stopped encouraging the DS not to swim in her way.

Anyway as I am actually at the gym I should go and work out and stop posting on Mumsnet .

Sometimes it's better to command than to ask: 'watch out, coming throoouugh' or 'mind your backs there!'. Followed by a cheery 'thanks' with potentially a bit of self deprecation if it makes you feel more comfy 'I'm blind as a bat in here and don't want to knock into anyone'.

It's better than 'excuse me would you mind' as it doesn't give them the option to say they'd mind.

arethereanyleftatall Wed 22-Jan-14 07:39:08

op yanbu. I am a very strong swimmer, think Rebecca adlington nearly!, and am lucky that this seems to grant me license in telling people like this to move out of the lanes. Or I do fly or tumble right on top.of them.. (only if they're not following lane etiquette but normally telling people works).
Butt - you seem to want everyone to dance to your tune.

---

I don't know quite what you're getting at here. I'm supposed to put up with men trying to bully me out of the pool? That shit doesn't fly in Butt World. And you admit to swimming on top of people? Go you, I guess!

Anyway, WOOHOO SWIM LIKE A NAVY SEAL:

It saved my life once when I had done something really stupid in the sea

Our pool has a fast and a medium lane.
I am prepared to flit between the two according to the speed and stroke of the other swimmers,but I don't think it's unreasonable to expect that people who take part in lane swimming should be able to swim a length without stopping.

I wouldn't say anything though.I'd either take myself outside of the lanes to swim or give up for that session.

(I get more annoyed with very big men who do a very wide and vigorous breaststroke leg kick or people who do backstroke with their arms flailing out to almost the entire width of the lane.)

Quote in the summer I swam in a lake where for a short period I was the only swimmer in there.

It was absolute BLISS!

I would love to wild swim much more than I get the opportunity to.The thought of all the pee and chlorine in pools is just gross...

is there a thread for swimmers anywhere? I'm getting back to 3 x a week & would love to chat about it & how to improve stamina etc.

If there isn't, I'm happy to start one (where?) if anyone lese would like to join in.