To not want to get splashed in the face whilst swimming

[IKnowImAGrump]

Went for what was supposed to be a nice, leisurely and peaceful swim at 9pm on a Friday night and yet again some inconsiderate twat gets in and starts hammering from one side of the pool to the other, arms and legs flapping about everywhere and splashing me all over the face and hair (I'm doing breaststroke) every time he shoots past me. I even said "EXCUSE ME!" hoping he'd move across (he had room I didn't).

Yes it's a pool and yes you get wet, it doesn't mean you should put up with other people disturbing you with their fucking splashy, watery presence.

People are cunts.

If you're in a pool, you don't need to see that far. You don't need to see someone's features to know the blurry mass ahead is a body. I never worried about not being able to see far at the pool, though it was quite a revelation when I returned to swimming after having my eyes lasered and I could see the end of the pool. Being able to see my bag on the beach and all the way from the Needles to Old Harry Rocks was amazing - not being able to see it all before didn't stop me, though.

Having said that, I have heard very good things of prescription goggles bought online - including with different prescriptions for each eye, so if being able to see increases your confidence, they're definitely worth looking into.

YADNBU OP, even if it's not the worst thing in the world, I hate this too! I've swum for years and I only do (what I've only learnt from this thread some people consider) 'wrong' breaststroke with my face out of the water - it's just how I swim as an amateur swimmer who learnt that way many years ago. Nothing to do with being precious about make-up or hair (I don't wear make-up in the pool and wear a swimcap) or not wanting to get wet at a swimming pool! I love swimming in the sea and happily dive underwater/swim under lane ropes etc. I find my 'wrong' breaststroke to be good, gentle exercise as someone with a bad back and dodgy ankles, so I also think all the snobbishness about there being 'no benefit' to it or annoying others is unnecessary (and based on some rather nasty covert misogyny about female vanity).

I love going for a good hour's swim at my spa-type gym pool and it's my calming/thinking time (my mental health is much better when I go regularly). When someone is galumphing up and down next to me (usually in the middle lane and splashing over me in the slow) it really ruins my zen! It literally goes from a quietish pool with some gentle splashing noises to 'whoomph whoomph whoomph' and a regular full face of water which gets in your nose and mouth because you aren't expecting it. I do think it's the aquatic equivalent of manspreading, as it shows an entitled lack of consideration of how others around you are being affected by what you do with your body and in my experience it's always been men who do it. But as a PP said they are usually not in for very long so you can grit your teeth and wait for them to leave!

That said, my pet bugbear (which may be particular to my pool?) is the people who insist on going against the lane instructions! E.g. for the slow lane you're supposed to swim clockwise (up on the left, back on the right) which means as many people can join as needed in a long loop (you still have pacing issues, but you work it out at the ends). At least once a week there's a person who does straight back and forth instead (i.e. up on the left, back on the left), forcing the second swimmer to do e.g. up on right, back on right - and then there's chaos when a third swimmer joins and starts trying to do the clockwise loop! I just tut quietly and mildly glower at these people.

Oh my, this is a long and not very zen post on a minor issue . Maybe I should just stick to yoga.

There’s a perfectly good and sensible etiquette for overtaking in swimming pools used by anyone his ever done group training or tri competitions. The faster swimmer taps the feet of the swimmer they have caught up with - once - don’t annoy them by bashing them for half a length.

I am a fairly new swimmer but have had multiple lessons and DP is a very accomplished swimmer who used to compete - and I've never been taught this; nor has he.

The correct method of overtaking is how you would when you're driving; unless this is regional? The faster person pulls out and overtakes, providing there is enough room to do so. I've never had my foot tapped (was overtaken a lot in the early days; though!) and I wouldn't know what to do if I did - I'd probably either ignore it and think it was an accident or stopped mid lane.

You are a bit splashy if you are trying to swim hard. I try to minimise this and am very rarely out of the fast lane; and I still find it very annoying when people swim stupidly and whack you round the head or take up 80% of the lane - but I can live with splashing. I have my head under anyway; as will anyone doing a proper swim - swimming with your head up is really bad for your neck and your technique.

(Not that I think people doing a casual saunter should be splashed either - just incase anyone misinterprets me! Just that I'd expect those people are in the open part and not the lanes; so they shouldn't get as splashed.)

If you're in a pool, you don't need to see that far. You don't need to see someone's features to know the blurry mass ahead is a body. I never worried about not being able to see far at the pool

You do when you're taking your children swimming and you need to know which ones yours are.

Prescription goggles are "definitely worth looking into" 😂

If you're taking your kids swimming then you're not doing lengths

It’s always men who ignore the signs about not jumping or diving into the pool too.

Water is wet?

Don't mean to hijack the thread but ,.....

WHY do people glare at me and my 4yr old when it's s swim for all??? I was even asked once by another swimmer if she could go in the children's pool.My local pool has lane swim EVERY morning and evening so w

Posted to soon.

Why try to do lengths and then glare at my DD and me?

What annoys me, three lane pool fast, medium, slow you always get some slow person in the medium lane holding everyone up! Then you get the medium lane swimmer who is a bit slower who will not wait at the end of the lane to let you go first so you're stuck behind them.
A guy once tried racing me. he sped past nearly hitting me then nearly drown, he spent ten minutes coughing and spluttering, the big knob!

I get quite bad swim rage but strangely I never get road rage.

I can't imagine how a head up breaststroker can be really fast. They're surely almost in standing position which can't exactly be speedy
How do you work that one out then? They're laying down in the water with their head up. It's perfectly possible.

We also have a Splashy Man at the local pool. He swims back crawl but instead of keeping his arms straight he extends them out to the side as far as possible, apparently to use as much space as possible when he can't see where he's going.

We also had a bad backstroke swimmer for a while, who couldn't swim in a straight line and torpedoed everyone else.

I vote that all the Splashy Men should be forced to go to one pool at the same time to annoy each other with their manspreading.

I am mostly a keeping-face-out-of-water breaststroke swimmer - I know it's crap but I'm prone to ear infections if put my head under the water.

There's a few head up breaststrokers who are much faster than all us front crawlers at our local pool.

You’re making yourself sound bonkers. Surely with breaststroke your face is more or less submerged with every stroke?

As a swimmer I don't mind getting wet. But there is a massive difference between preparing to put your head under for breaststroke and having your face splashed by a discordinated swimmer, flailing past you. So yanbu.
I can't stand the whole lane swimming malarkey though, nothing brings out the British huffyness better than lane swimming.

There's a man in my local pool who swims an ok crawl except for a massive splash with his right foot on every breath.I can't imagine how he would even be aware of it and I have wondered about telling him because he times himself and it must reduce his efficiency

There's a man in my local pool who does front crawl on his side - he kicks his legs from side to side really widely. I usually change lanes if he is there as he kicks out too far and swims towards the middle.

If you're taking your kids swimming then you're not doing lengths

Yes, I am. Hence needing to be able to see them in other parts of the pool.

@FermatsTheorem it's the terrible astigmatism I have that, that would bugger up that idea then. I've never worn goggles, not sure I'd put up with them. I was a pretty fast swimmer when younger. I did put my head in then, it's as an adult with kids I need to see what's going on around me :)

yep, stupid astigmatism's the main reason I don't have prescription goggles. I'd have the mother of all migraines the following day...