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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Swimming pool etiquette?

202 replies

miaowmiaowhiss · 28/07/2015 16:36

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 Angry

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?

OP posts:
MardyBra · 30/07/2015 16:04

Chatenoeuf. I have a length counter - just a basic one like this:

www.amazon.co.uk/Saekodive-Swim-Lap-Counter/dp/B000R3X0AC

There are fancier ones out there too.

SantanaLopez · 30/07/2015 16:35

I used my tempo trainer this morning and it was brilliant- thanks for the recommendations!

And the pool was empty, joy all round.

I have to do back stroke as it's the only stroke I can do (I am a very poor swimmer but no money/ time for lessons). Yesterday I had my extra slow lane to myself and got a whole 10 lengths in (feel rubbish today though, still building up endurance). Should I keep going or am I annoying everyone else as I seem to be committing a lot of swimming sins!

As long as you can go in a straight line at a reasonable pace, backstroke is fine. If you are weaving all over the place and torpedoing other swimmers... you need to move!

arethereanyleftatall · 30/07/2015 16:47

To keep track of lengths I use the 60 second timer clock on the wall of most pools. I know if I turn each 50m in 40 secs, then in twenty minutes I've done 60 lengths. Helps with your pace too. And working the maths out gives you something to do too!

CMOTDibbler · 30/07/2015 16:56

I have a Garmin which tracks my swim. I wouldn't have bought it just for swimming, but I really like seeing my stats change over time

EBearhug · 30/07/2015 20:00

really struggle to keep count of lengths. How do you all do it? Break it up. I'll usually do something like 200m frontcrawl, 200m backcrawl, 100m breaststroke, but the exact combination depends on how busy it is, how energetic I feel, and so on. Either way, it's easier to count 4 lengths, 8 lengths, whatever.

Obviously if you can only swim one stroke, this strategy won't work - might be worth trying the stroke counter things mentioned above. I haven't tried those, but I actually find the counting lengths is quite meditative, repeating the numbers of lengths and strokes to myself as I go up and down - it means I really do tend to get work out of my head.

As for swimming with your head up - I guess if you do it all the time, you train yourself into it, but I did it when I had an ear infection (obviously not swimming at all might have been a better option), and my neck and shoulders were killing me by the end. Normally, even with breaststroke, I'd put my head down except when breathing.

bespokebunting · 30/07/2015 20:04

Old guys don't tend to worry about their hair - if they still have any!

Mermaid36 · 30/07/2015 20:15

I have a sportcount which is dead easy to use to count my laps :-)

www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-listing/B005O0MCRU

FindoGask · 30/07/2015 20:32

When I had one of my many running injuries a couple of years ago I started swimming instead. I loved it for approx two weeks, as I like being in the water and I'm a half-decent swimmer, then slowly began to hate it. Even though I went as early as I could (6am) I never got a lane to myself. It was so crowded and claustrophobic. I felt I was always either irritating someone or getting irritated by someone else; I recognise so many of the scenarios in this thread. I much prefer the freedom and solitude of running even if I do keep breaking myself doing it.

Plus goggles in the morning, at my puffiest time, give me dreadful panda eyes for several hours thereafter.

ElkeDagMeisje · 30/07/2015 20:46

Try open water swimming if its warm enough FindoGask. All the benefits you mention of running, without the stress on the joints or on healing injuries.

FindoGask · 30/07/2015 21:04

You're right Elke, I really should. I'm in Edinburgh but I could always get a wetsuit!

jennybluetree · 30/07/2015 21:57

Elderly men are the worst! Really slow swimming in the medium lane! I don't understand why retired people do't go to the pool during the day when it isn't as busy!

Zizio · 30/07/2015 22:02

I am a slow swimmer and I do get to use any one of the lanes if they are free as I enjoy having my own space in the pool. However I am always on guard and if someone swimming faster joins I move and leave them with the space. Its just common sense, and people do move in and out of the pool quite a lot. It also depends with the time and myself as slow swimmer tend to avoid busy periods.

AliceScarlett · 30/07/2015 23:28

Tell the lifeguard, they'll be grateful for something to do ;)

dougieroseagain · 30/07/2015 23:47

Didn't you know that you were swimming in his own private pool? No wonder he was cross!

Idiot. Him. Not you.

sleepwhenidie · 30/07/2015 23:53

I agree that lifeguards should intervene more often.

Ebear I think that swimming with head out of water - keeping hair dry style - is incredibly bad for your neck, as is only breathing on one side doing crawl. I count my lengths in blocks of ten and find it meditative too - occasionally I forget which block of ten I'm on but know my pace well enough to work out where I am from time spent!

dougieroseagain · 31/07/2015 00:00

But ... sleepwhenidie - I swim with my head out of the water as the water really stings my eyes. And goggles hurt my eyes too wuss

UptoapointLordCopper · 31/07/2015 07:52

They merged two lanes yesterday. Shock It was chaos. Collisions and overtaking and competitions.

When is this school holiday business going to be over so order can be restored?

sleepwhenidie · 31/07/2015 09:12

Dougie just be very alert to neck problems, I couldn't care how people swim but holding that horizontal body position with your head up is hard work for you back and neck, not in a good way.

bruffin · 31/07/2015 10:04

I agree that lifeguards should intervene more often

Ds is a lifeguard, I do have a good moan at him when I get home Grin

StregaNona · 31/07/2015 10:43

Oh G*d, I recognise all these scenarios. I am always coming home from my supposedly relaxing swim in a RAGE.

Just a quickie though, all you who are saying the pool is quieter in the day, are you sure? I always thought that and then I went with my work one day. There were school swimming lessons just about everywhere and also several groups of elderly disabled people with their carers. So there were even fewer lanes available than in the afternoon.

I don't know if it is like that every weekday, but it did open my eyes up.

bruffin · 31/07/2015 10:49

I go for a Wednesday 10.30 lesson and stay for a swim afterwards and sometimes its quiet but other times the lane swim is chaos, as I said above there is no slow lane and we have from a old bloke who drifts along on his back with his arms out,so making it difficult to pass to the very fast serious swimmer who zips up and down the middle. The old bloke shouldn't be in the lane swim and has a go at people if he thinks they are in the way Hmm
There is a special needs group that comes along but they don't go in the lane swim.
Thankfully our class is now becoming an hour swim so we can muddle along together without anyone getting in the way.

DamsonInDistress · 31/07/2015 10:50

Ah the fresh layer of hell that is school swimming lessons! Our town pool has school lessons four out of five weekdays from 9:30 to 2:30... It's not so much the reduced amout of lanes, but the noise, my god the bloody noise! Screaming fussing kids and incredibly turbulent water. Urgh.

DamsonInDistress · 31/07/2015 10:52

And then there's the Over 50's aqua fit class with the dodgy 60's soft pop music blaring out! Our pool is great in that it provides some really great opportunities to lots of different groups, but sometimes at the expense of bang-it-out lane swimmers.

Goldrill · 31/07/2015 15:38

Ooh! Toe tapping is a serious breach of etiquette in our club! If you are feeling fast then we swap when the sets change. If you have picked your position you stay there and do not swim up someone else's bum, do not tap their toes, and DO NOT ostentatiously slow down and start doing breaststroke. And then you change at the end of the set, and we are all friends.

If you are much faster than everyone else it is the height of bad manners to stay in the wrong lane and cause upset - move up or slow down.

misssmilla1 · 31/07/2015 15:46

I've started doing early morning lap swim sessions at our local free pool - so far, so good in that everyone manages to contain the rage. the evening sessions are total carnage with lots of people getting very pissy about lanes and speed.

In my experience, it's 98% of the time men who can't / won't pace themselves in the right lane, do overtaking in a lane (when the point is you shouldn't need to overtake if you pace and do the right speed) which is the top transgression imo, and / or do ridiculous strokes badly - i.e. butterfly which results in tidal waves of splashing.

Have been getting in some daytime start of session swims which have been excellent until this week when school summer camp started and took over. It's like people soup in there Shock

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