Swimming pool etiquette?

[miaowmiaowhiss]

Went swimming today and it was one of the set ups where they have slow/medium/fast lanes, and you pick the lane you swim in based on the people already swimming in them, not your own ideas of speed (eg you might think you're extremely fast, but if the fast line is full of Olympians, you'd pick a different lane). There are signs up specifically telling you to pick your lane in this way.

I was swimming in the fast lane with two other people -we were clearly faster than people in the other lanes, so it was the right place to be. Another man came and got in the pool twenty minutes after I got in, and he was swimming much faster than any of us were going - which obviously means he kept running up the back of other swimmers! Every time I knew he was directly behind me I'd pause at the end and let him overtake me for the next one, but he kept huffing and rolling his eyes. He then started overtaking all three of us during lengths - which is fine in principle, just not if it means the person coming the other way had to stop and wait and the person he was overtaking got nearly kicked in the face each time.

AIBU to think this is really inconsiderate/rude? There was just so much tutting and eye rolling at the audacity we had to be swimming faster than people in other lanes, yet not swimming as fast as this man clearly wanted to. Minor issue in the grand scheme of things but it really annoyed me - as well as actually being quite dangerous RE being kicked in the face/kicking him in the face - and made my swim a lot less enjoyable

Surely if you want to swim faster than everyone else you time it right and wait for everyone else to be on the length back before you start, or something, not just passive aggressively showing your displeasure at other swimmers?

And this is why I love my gym. 25m pool and there's usually only 2 people in a lane. The other day I had the lane to myself so used it as an opportunity to practice butterfly!!

tomato - haha, you're probably right! I should have given him a sarcastic round of applause...

I'm on the side of the man on this one. Its so frustrating as a fast swimmer when you have to constantly slow down or stop for slow swimmers. I hardly ever go for this reason, I just don't feel like I've really exercised if I'm having to slow down all the time. It's one of those things that will never be resolved though and I can see why you started in the fast lane. He was rude but probably really frustrated too.

At my old pool the slow lane was almost all made up of people walking - however, I sort of thought the walkers were possibly using the resistance of the water to build up their muscles for normal walking, if you see what I mean? Which I can totally understand/accept.

Can't see why ANYONE would feel the need to walk up and down the pool when other people are trying to swim with some speed though! How ridiculous!

tricky
so he should have pushed everybody else out ?

I love my pool - no lane markers other than the one that moves around the sky

tricky

I can totally understand that. But on the other hand, it's incredibly frustrating to spend a whole swimming session feeling pressured into going faster than I wanted to for fear of being kicked or kicking someone. Although he was going faster than me, I was hardly going slowly so all of his drama just seemed unnecessary.

I'm quite often faster than most in my lane but not fast enough for the next one so I wait until I have enough space to go at pace or I slow my pace as I don't want to worry them. I've only overtaken once but it's a repeat offender who should be in the slowest lane but thinks they can cope in ours (usually same people at same time day etc)

He was rude.

I love my pool - no lane markers other than the one that moves around the sky my brain is in the slow lane, do you mean the sun?

I agree with Tricky. It's the fast lane. He doesn't have anywhere else to swim fast. You have the medium lane if the speed of the fast lane is increased beyond your preferences. The fast lane is for fast swimming, not for the pace of the fastest person first in it.

Yes plec but if you have, say, 4-6 people swimming in the lane, similar speeds and faster than the other lanes and one person joins and is significantly faster than the 4-6, then the 4-6 should move ?

Guy did this to me, swam under me, didn't swim far enough, swam up to my side, then pulled my costume strap off, pushed my escaped boob, I stopped and smacked in on the back, he got me thrown out for hitting him.

Swimming pool lane etiquette is hard. I am a reasonably fast swimmer - used to swim for my county at school, although I am really a breaststroker but can't do that any more because of knee problems. I don't use public swimming pools much any more, but used to go regularly. I usually opted for the fast or fast freestyle lane (my pool had 4 lanes) and tended to stay in the same lane if someone faster got in unless the next lane down had sped up. If two faster people got in, though, I'd usually drop down a lane. So OP, I think YWNBU.

My pet hate was blokes (because it was always blokes) who would start off right behind you, catch you up and bang on your feet, so you'd let them overtake and then they'd stop after 50m, breathing like an asthmatic hoover. Idiots.

tomato
yup - I swim and tan at the same time.

tiredbut
sorry but that is assault.
I'd make them physically drag me out of the water and then call the police

welsh
yup I had a chap do that to me
I swim head up breast stroke - its just that I do a mile in 35 minutes
chap kept trying to crash into my feet till I finally kicked him hard in the head, stood up in the lane and told him to eff off

manners maketh man

you can be the fastest swimmer in the world, but in a shared lane HAVE SOME MANNERS

Coming on to agree with tricky, It s incredibly frustrating to have to try adjust your training set all the time for slower swimmers.
Th arguement that the middle lane was crowded shouldn't really stand either as if the middle lane swimmers were going in order of speed then they should be able to swim lengths without being on top of each other. The fact was that when the faster swimmer got in the over all pacing of the lanes changed and the other swimmers didn't adapt accordingly, it might have meant that some had to move to the slower lane (medium to slow and fast to medium) but if you were worried about someone passing you out the sensible thing is to move lane.
I m a fast swimmer - my natural pace is faster than most swimmers I encounter at my pool. I train with a club a few times a week but for competition prep I need to supplement that with extra drills.
I too only have a certain time slot in the pool and I can't hang around all day to wait for the slower swimmers to finish their set, it s not about ownership of the lane (as in who was there first) either.
If I m in a fast lane and there are slower swimmers -
I try to wait and not have to overtake and certainly if there s a few in the lane then it s more difficult but I do think it s the lifeguards job to watch and intervene for safety sake.
I have often gone and adjusted my training, I time it so it go at quieter times too so I won't be racing past slower swimmers. But there really is no other option for a faster swimmer. Also I jump lanes - so I would pop into medium for breast stroke as it s my weaker, whereas FC and BS I can handle at a fast lane pace.
I often try wait until the other swimmers are at at least 1/2 way or a good 15 m ahead, but sometimes even still, I end up consistently lapping them. Most people just move, I often apologise and tell them I hope they don't mind me passing them out- most don't, I ve never had anyone get cross about it tbh. Add mostly I assure them to just keep their own pace that I ll watch out for them and go around them and then they re comfortable. I m usually in control enough of my swim too to watch when I overtake and know the pace and give them enough space before I slot back in so they don't feel I could kick them in the face. So from the POV of him PA eye rolling and tutting and slotting back in on top of you I think he was being rude and unnecessary.

But I get his frustration. It s not nice having to overtake all the time too, and it s really frustrating when you leave time and you still end up catching the person in front, it s clearly telling you something about the pace if it happens repeatedly. However IMO, the pool rules as you say indicate that you or some of the other swimmers should have downgraded to the medium lane and then a knock on effect of the medium lane swimmers to the slow lane. The amount of people in the lane or space per swimmer doesn't come into it as much. Tbh at swim training the lanes are often packed, if you re all in the the right pace order and leave a count of 5 between swimmers everyone churns along and gets a decent swim. I appreciate this wasn't quite the situation, but the fast swimmer I doubt would have wanted his own lane, more that he probably didn't want to constantly overtake or stop or down around you ? (I m guessing obv :)

When I swim train with swimmers in swim / tri clubs this etiquette is understood and a tap on the toes usually indicated to people to pull over and let someone ahead. This all happens at club training without any hassle it s understood (I ve trained and swam for years with a few clubs).
It s just my opinion and my experience, I don't think you were being rude or obstinate or anything, but at the same time why didn't you all rearrange. How many fast swimmers would it take for you to justify a move? No ones swim is more important than the others, but in theory IMO if the guidelines set out on lane pacing were followed then it would probably have been less of an unpleasant swim for you all.
I think sometimes it s a bit like getting on the motor way where the speed limit is 100kph and trundling along at 50.

turquoise
What gives you youngsters the right to push us out of the way?
Why should you not adapt your speed - as you will expect people to adapt for you in 30 years time?

If you want full pelt, then go to the pool
(a) when its quiet
(b) during club swimming times

manners maketh man

"Why should you not adapt your speed - as you will expect people to adapt for you in 30 years time?"

Not a swimmer but surely the entire point of lanes is for people to be able to go into the correct land so as not to have to adapt their speed??

I certainly can't see a swimmer like Turquoise who seems to know rather more about swimming than you expecting other people to slow down for her? She appears self-aware enough to move into the appropriate lane.

OP - YABU, according to your OP the lane-speed is set by the swimmers in it, therefore if a faster swimmer gets in then they set the new pace.

I've just thought of something that could be important - is this what drip feeding is haha? The lane wasn't a traditional width - it was more like 1.5x the size of a normal lane. Hence why I got so pissed off with his inconsiderate overtaking and running up the back of people - there actually was room to overtake safely without messing up everyone else's swim! Possibly important information to have included, oops.

kevin
but if the lanes are full

• the slow lane with slow people
• the middling lanes with middling people
• and the fast lane with fast people

what gives a semi pro swimmer the right to make the other 15 people all shuffle?

by the same token, if two really slow people got into the slow lane, should all the faster people move over to the faster lanes to slow them down a bit?

the lane-speed is set by the swimmers in it, therefore if a faster swimmer gets in then they set the new pace.
Manners maketh man
you clearly have no manners

turquoise in this situation I would say it was the other way round. A motorway where everyone is happily travelling along at 50mph and one person turns up and decides they want to do 100mph and doesn't care who gets in the way, making dangerous manouvers to show their irritation.

Turqouise When I swim train with swimmers in swim / tri clubs this etiquette is understood and a tap on the toes usually indicated to people to pull over and let someone ahead. This all happens at club training without any hassle it s understood

But this is the rule for swim club, and you will have your own sessions for this practising. For people swimming as a leisurely activity or pastime,
these rules wouldn't apply, surely?

(I only think this as DD was in a swimming club and is now a lifeguard and swimming teacher). Not because I am an expert on swimming etiquette myself, but observations on some etiquette was noted as a parent observer

What I meant to say was - a casual swimmer would not be aware of the "rules" of a professional swimmer. Therefore, it is unreasonable to expect them to abide by the Rules.

turquoise - as to how many fast swimmers it would have taken me and the other 2 people in the lane to rearrange and push down into the more crowded lanes, more than one. As I've said, the medium lane was very congested, and the slow lane was equally busy.

If we're talking about overall speed of the lane, the mean speed had increased a bit (but still 3 reasonably fast swimmers against 1 faster swimmer, so mathematically can't have been much ) but the mode speed of the lane had not increased. More people were swimming at the initial speed than his speed - and plenty of signs up saying to match your pace to the other swimmers. I don't know about the others, but I did speed up in order to try and maintain spacing etc.

I totally understand that people might want to swim faster than me, so I'm very happy to hang back at the end of lanes or to have them [safely] overtake me during a lap - but I'm not happy being tutted at, sighed at, and being put in dangerous situations to facilitate someone else's swim at the cost of everyone else's.

If he was training for something and needed to really push himself constantly, maybe a public swimming session in a pool with only one fast lane is not the place to swim.

I understand the toe tap etiquette and agree that most people who lane swim regularly -should- do. But that means let the person behind you pass at the end of the lane. If you are the odd one out in a lane, regularly being lapped/overtaken by others then you should move to a slower lane. Unfortunately if you are the one person repeatedly lapping all the others then you just have to slow down/live with overtaking at end of lane - you don't have the right to overtake and force the swimmer coming towards you to stop and wait!

Skiers have to abide by certain etiquette rules. (I speak as a skier - I can't swim, but can ski).

If you are behind someone who is slower than you, it is your responsibility to go around that slower skier, avoiding them - not go through, or over, or under them. The slower skier has priority. It should surely be the same for swimming? (If you're not in a race situation)

We have a fast lane, a medium lane and a double slow lane. I vary between the medium and fast lane, depending on which stroke I'm doing and how busy it is/who else is swimming.

When it's really busy (i.e. January before people have given up on new year's resolutions), you have to adjust your speed. If there are 10 people in a lane, you simply can't go as fast as when there are just 3. It's part of swimming in a public pool. As has been pointed out above, if you want to go full pelt all the time, you go to a club session.

Whichever way you do it, if it's busy, everyone has to adjust, and that means no eye-rolling or huffing. If the medium lane was at least as full as the one you were already in, you were there first, and he'll have to adjust his speed downwards. If the medium lane is quieter, then it would be polite to move over. But you're not going to get your fastest speeds in a busy pool.

I do sometimes consider accidentally drowning the elderly man who swims at the same pace every single length, never stopping, even when there are others right on his toes. His pace is usually a bit slower than everyone else in the medium lane. He seems to have no awareness of any other swimmers. In public sessions, there's bound to be some differences in speed - people have different levels of abilities and fitness - but if slower people let the faster ones over take at lane ends, it's usually fine. Some people seem to have no sense of this, though. And some - nearly always men - seems to think that everyone else will just get out of the pool and watch their swimming in awe and wonder as if they are God's gift. Often, their style is not very refined, and they could probably swim faster if they improved their technique to be more efficient, rather than just power up and down. Splash is not the same as speed.

People might walk up and down a pool if they're recovering from injury. I knew someone who had a body belt and ran up and down the lengths, but without touching the pool floor.