Swim rage!

[Pittcuecothecookbook]

Two lanes - one fast, one unlabelled. One guy in the unlabelled lane right up behind everyone, overtaking without enough room and generally being an arse. I ask him, not that politely it must be said, to stop swimming so close behind everyone and to go in the fast lane if he can't swim slower.

He says "what do you want me to do if I'm not fast enough for the fast lane" and "you should swim faster". Well, actually, I'm quite fast but I am moderating my speed because I'm not in the fast lane and I don't want to be today. Plus, if it's that fucking easy to swim faster, you do it and go in the fucking fast lane.

I told him he was probably one of those drivers that drive right up the arse of the person in front. He said that in his plane he flies behind the other planes, and he did this stupid aeroplane thing with his hands. So funny, he looked like a right mug.

Anyway, yes I was unreasonable for being sarcastic and rude and for being happy when he made himself look stupid but aibu by MN standards? Please say No 😂

I think I have a solution to this problem. The pool should have flippers of various sizes to lend to slower swimmers to speed them up to a common standard speed. (By various sizes I mean different size fins so the amount of assistance is variable.)

At DD last swimming lesson there was a woman in another lane with both flippers and hand paddles who was travelling faster than I've ever seen anyone move in water. Her speed was really incredible, and she seemed to be able to maintain it effortlessly, without even splashing. I guessed she must be training for some sort of race, but I'm not sure what sort of race would allow you to use flippers and paddles. (I think ordinary swimmers do train with paddles to build muscle strength, but I assume flippers don't serve the same purpose?)

I don't mind waiting a bit. It's good to practice drafting. I try to check at the ends in case it's a good chance to let someone by.

I'm also human & sometimes misjudge how fast (or slow) anyone is moving or don't see an outside zoomer so may get in their way. No one gets to be perfectly considerate.

Only civilised if everyone does a bit of give and take.

I think butterfly swimmers are stone blind though. I've given up expecting them to ease off & make any allowances for other swimmers!

I'd let him pass at the next wall if he was catching you up. If it happened repeatedly maybe ask him to move up (politely). Or perhaps move down a lane yourself. We all need to watch out for fellow swimmers.

To those who hate tumbleturners. That is the proper way to turn in a pool. It's faster and more efficient, makes for much less faffing around. As long as the people who stand at the end keep to the edges so the swimmers have wall space, you will be fine.

@firesuit - fins are used to work on a swimmer's body position in the water, and allows you to concentrate on your hand technique (hence the paddles).

Yanbu. I used to lane swim years ago and guys like that felt my claws. Sometimes it worked sometimes not but they would leave with injuries. Serves them right for hitting my head with their aggressive cleaving.

There's a diligent gal at our pool, swims a very set routine, not that fast.
Diligent was in the middle lane the other morning. She pushed off the wall in backstroke the other morning & lumbered (flailing) into somebody else after about 20 feet.

Amused butterfly man watching from the fast lane. He says, "She don't half moan if I do that to her!" Recently, butterfly man (doing fast backstroke) lumbered into another bloke and they both collapsed into giggles.

See what I mean? Bit of give & take.

There is a ladies only session in my pool. It's bliss x

I really wish pools would somehow communicate lane swimming etiquette to swimmers. Something like:

1. Swim in the lane appropriate to your speed
2. Don't overtake cos you probably aren't fast enough to do it safely
3. If you are very tall with long limbs don't do breast stroke cos you will hit people - the only time I saw the lifeguards spring into action was when two men got into a fight. One was very very tall and kept inadvertently hitting the other man.
4. If you are very very slow leave the lanes.
5. Don't swim in the wrong direction
6. Shower before you get in pool.

Entitled men seem to infiltrate every single venue with the objective to own it. So boring. They're trying to lord it over everyone at the pool, on the running tracks, in the street, the restaurants... they need a handbook, How Not To Be A Dick

Good rules jewel1968. The problem with the no overtaking rule is that it relies on the slower swimmers having the awareness and consideration to let the faster swimmers push off first at the end of a length when they’re on their tail. This is rare outside of club sessions!

hotelduvin - I couldn't move down, I was in the second of two lanes, the other labelled fast. I repeatedly let him go, but he'd overtake without enough room causing people to have to stop swimming or else be swum into and was on my heels everytime he got behind me (and others). He needed to either moderate his speed, as I was, or go in the fast lane and "swim faster" (his advice to me). When I left the pool, he had in fact moved up so god knows why he didn't do that before. He wanted his own lane in the council swimming pool for people that go his exact speed and fuck everyone else.

My usual lane is almost 4m wide, we can overtake before the wall. We can get 4 swimmers abreast (happens, on occasion!) if they are all doing crawl.

How lovely for you ljlkk. At mine, om Saturday afternoons, they narrow the lanes so they can fit a third lane for swimming lessons in while the other half of the pool is for families. The oldies swim in there against the rope which is good.

my local pool has started putting the time required to swim in the lane: 0-30 secs fast lane, etc.
Once I was in the fast lane - quite rare for me - and there was someone -a man-swimming quite slowly in front of me and getting in the way. I was so chuffed when the life guard noticed, and told him he had to move over, the man of course challenged lifeguard and was told he had been timed and he was too slow. Big grin for identitycrisis!

Also pet hate - people (usually medium lanes) swimming one length crawl, fine I'm swimming at their pace behind them, who then reach the end, turn, and then set off doing breast stroke. So I'm up their arse!
I want to say to them - would you drive at 40/20/40 and not expect other road users to be annoyed. Instead I usually try to overtake nicely or if the lane is narrow, I move to the fast lane and try not to get in the way of everyone else.

Ime it's older white men that are the worst. Their egos won't let them go in the slow lane, or move out of the way, or let a faster swimmer go first, but they really don't move very fast.
I had an unbelievably frustrating swim the other day. The fast lane had a couple of guys doing very fast crawl, and I'm a breaststroker so there's no way I can keep up with that pace. So I went in the middle lane. I'm pretty chilled out about slower swimmers, I just make sure I give them a half length head start in front of me so I catch up by the end rather than having to tread water behind them. There was one incredibly slow person, and two quite slow people, and every time I'd given the incredibly slow person their head start one of the quite slow people would get to the end and overtake me. And it happened every length. Grrr.

Agree with identitycrisis I find swimmers switching speed frustrating. Was a bloke definitely out placing doing front crawl up the pool but I almost crashed into the back of him going back down as he switched to breast stroke (and I amazingly was faster than him at that).

I am slow so probably piss some folks off but the unlaned bit is impossible to do lengths in unless you like getting hit in the face by kids. I do however always stuck to the "slowest" lane, swim in the correct direction, wait at the end if someone is behind me and can keep ongoing for quite a long time. Therefore I do lane swim. When I go is usually quiet but was busy yesterday (half term I suspect).

This is why I swim with a club. Everyone is used to swimming as a squad and understands lane etiquette.

If i’m Swimming in a public session I always go early when it’s relatively quiet. It’s a complete waste of time when it’s busy.

Well who was right depends totally on what was going on in the fast lane, doesn't it surely?
If Micheal phelps and 7 other Olympians were in there, he was right to be in the unlabelled lane. You go in the lane closest to your own speed, whatever it's labelled. And, etiquette is that faster swimmers are allowed to overtake.

God lane swimming is designed to cause rage. There is an etiquette which most people follow but there is always someone who believes they entitled to do whatever they want. I know that this is a massive generalisation but it is usually a man. Yes I get huffy too when I have managed to actually take a lunch break and want to swim as fast and far as I can, but basic manners in a public pool would be nice.

Do not get me started on women only sessions. I have arranged to meet a friend for one tomorrow but I already know it will be full of women swiming in a group of three, having a chat and refusing to let anyone past.

I love swimming though. I am so lucky that I have a beautiful edwardian pool that I use, now run by a community group having taken it over from the local authority. If it was in a posh part of my city it would over run by wankers. As no hipsters venture to these parts it is mainly used by pesioners who spend the whole morning there using the pool and gym as a social space, kids swimming lessons and supportive locals.

Every time I go swimming I think about writing an AIBU lane etiquette thread. I'm a medium paced breaststroke swimmer and stick to the slow lane. I get driven nuts by the really slow people who decide they must use the lane but won't get their hair wet and don't use goggles. Even more annoying when the main part of the pool is empty!

It's funny someone mentioned club swimmers as knowing etiquette...

Our club is mostly teens. A few times, a bunch all got in our fast lane (under coach supervision, I don't recall why their regular club-only sessions weren't running).

It was carnage. The club swimmers had no clue how to swim in large ovals in a 4m wide lane; they only understood a 2 person wide lane, so they didn't use the space sensibly. The people training to swim the Channel demanded (& got) an extra lane to try to calm things down.

Another time when the club swimmers were in, everyone else left the fast lane except me & my teen son. We kept to the sides & tried to avoid being thrashed by rocket-pace-at-any-strokers. I think they were very used to bashing each other. I gave them huge space to tumble turn -- they certainly weren't careful about anyone else.

They're just kids, though. I wasn't annoyed. Interesting challenge.

Another time when the club swimmers were in, everyone else left the fast lane except me & my teen son. We kept to the sides & tried to avoid being thrashed by rocket-pace-at-any-strokers

From your description, this would be an example of when lane etiquette would require you to move to a slower lane, even if you are usually one of the faster swimmers. The youngsters weren’t actually doing anything wrong; they were just swimming fast.

With such a wide range of abilities using a local pool, from grannies in flowery caps doing head-up breastroke to fast swimmers that can churn out lengths in under 20s per length, it’s almost inevitable that swim rage will happen, especially when the usual 3 lanes are reduced to 2 to facilitate lessons.

Surely if you are faster than the other people in the lane, and the other lanes are full, the correct thing is to (following the direction you have to swim in) not complete a length every now and then so you are half a length in front? It avoids any close overtaking then.

It sounds like the guy was swimming too close on purpose for reasons of creepiness. There is just no need. And people argue about the need for women only swim sessions.

And this all serves to remind me why I hate swimming in public pools and don't swim unless I'm on holiday and it's nice and warm. Horrible people soup.

YYY to sharp toenails and a strong kick.