Swimwalking in the Swimming Lane

[QuizzlyBear]

This may be really trivial and petty but I'm not sure if I'm being U or whether I've misread the swimming pool etiquette...

Ok, I've taken up swimming in the last few months - not training to swim the channel, just twice a week, 50 lengths at a time, in an effort to get fitter.

I go to DHs golf club (technically also a country club but that makes me - and it - sound far more upper-middle class than we are) after the school run and dog walk in the mornings and it seems to coincide with the same 'swim crowd' each time. They're all a bit 'ladies who lunch' and about 10-20 years older than me.

The thing is, whilst the pool is split into three parts with the floaty dividers, (main pool, a slow lane and a fast lane), there's a few women who eschew the main pool and go in the lanes and WALK?! This must be their regime - they walk up and down the pool for half an hour. Ok, each to their own, but it means you have to swim at the same speed if you're in the lanes, or crash into them repeatedly.

It's giving me Swim Rage (if it's not a thing, it bloody well ought to be) as I finish a length right up their backside, then have to wait until they get halfway down the lane before I set off, then slowly come to halt and repeat. It's crap! There's a whole pool for them to do this in and they walk in the swimming lanes! (Clearly marked).

AIBU? They're very cliquey and entitled so I don't want to ask them not to walk there, as they must know it's annoying for swimmers and remain defiantly unbothered...

I assume this is a constant depth pool, otherwise I'm wondering what happens to the walkers when they get to the deep end!

Do they use a lane each? I think I would just swim lengths in the main bit and avoid them. Or go at a later time.

Just swim in the main pool but?

It is a constant depth pool but now I've just snorted lemon squash out of my nose at the image of Swim Walkers slowly disappearing under water...

They shouldn't be in the fast lane. I walk lengths sometimes but wait until the pool is empty.

The proper thing to do is have a word with the Manager.

The swim rage thing to do is swim through them.

I saw someone swim diagonally across the small pool I go last week. She ended up nearly taking an elderly lady out at speed.

@PotteringAlong and @EvaHarknessRose the trouble is, in the main pool but you have people standing around randomly doing exercises and stretches. There's not a clear 'line of sight' for a direct swim, especially if you're going quickly (I'm not quick yet, but if I'm backstroking there's no chance I'll see someone walking into my path in time).

@Whatdoyouknowwhenyouknownowt - I have no problem with Swim Walkers per se, I just don't see why they always seem to use the swimming lanes when there's room for them in the main pool bit?

I crashed into one a couple of times, I think she either slowed down dramatically or I misjudged how slow she was moving. She now gives me dirty looks and whispers to her friends whilst standing with them to chat at the end of the lane

I might also have hit her in the boob with my breaststroke (I wasn't expecting someone to be blocking the end). Apparently my clumsiness has a well-developed sense of irony.

I can understand the frustration, but from another point of view... I had a major surgery a few years ago and I had to do quite a lot of walking exercises in the pool as part of my rehab. I often went in the lanes at the pool simply because it was a smaller area so I was less likely to get knocked and injured whilst I was recovering.
Just wanted to offer another view

@Chocaholic46 I do sympathise (and hope you're ok now) - and I've wondered if that wasn't the case with some of these people - but it's a very sedate time of day, in the main pool area people are generally standing around (in awkward places for swimming but not for walking) and stretching. There's plenty of space for Swim Walkers to walk safely, and plenty do.

There's just a couple that evidently see three people swimming in a lane and decide to get in and walk - thereby creating a weird, conga-style tailback.

I know someone who swim walks. She has MS and it is one of the best exercises for her.

I used to experience this at the pool I go to. Health club pool with a lane for slow swimmers and one for fast swimmers. Rest of the pool free. I can accept swimmers being slower than me - I'm not fast - in the slow lane. That's fair enough. But there was one woman who used to walk in the slow lane and she was incredibly slow. It meant that no-one else could swim in the slow lane. She seemed totally oblivious to the fact that she made the lane unusable for anyone else.

@LoniceraJaponica I should be clear - I have absolutely no issue with Swim Walkers per se, just the idea that they go in the swimming lane, causing tailbacks. I hope the exercise helps your DF.

There are a few people with obvious mobility issues in the pool doing their exercises, they just do their regime in the main pool, which seems to be a far more considerate place to do it.

I don't want to make a stink about it at the club, I just wondered if it was BU to find it odd.

@Janecon that's exactly it! She seems completely oblivious and yet how can she be? She reaches the end of the lane with three people waiting behind her within touching distance.

Crazy! I would speak to the manager and ask him/her to have a word.

they sound really selfish.

Ask them to put an extra lane in for walkers, with a big sign!

@woolduvet I like that - it makes it sound as though I'm bothered about their comfort and welfare, not my own frustration

Do they go in both the slow and the fast lanes? Also, why do you care if they're talking about you? If they keep getting in the way and splashed they will eventually move out of your way into a more appropriate area to glare at you.

I got swim rage when a woman swan right in front of me, kicked me and left toenail claw marks down my thigh. She must have known she hit someone. She didn’t acknowledge it and blanked me completely so obviously I did the only thing possible and ignored her as well. Bitch.

We used to have one guy who did this when I used to swim at DL - it was fine as there was a spare lane but if there's not a lane you can swim in and its meant to be a swim lane then would raise it with staff. I think walking in slow lane is OK as long as all lanes aren't full.

No experience with swim walkers but that would drive me nuts! I do feel your pain though, it’s annoying when people break your swimming rhythm. I go swimming 3 times a week and am not a particularly good swimmer (fairly slow, can only do breaststroke), but I do 70ish lengths swim for an hour or more without stopping so I use this as my main form of exercise. Unfortunately I spend a lot of this time dodging other people in the pool, who seem to have no consideration for others. The worst are the aggressive middle aged men swimmers who do the swimming pool version of manspreading. I swear the pool could be empty and they’d still swim straight at you, or right past you doing a very splashy stroke.
In our pool they have two lanes. One lane that is for swimming lengths/laps only and the other part is for general swimming/teenagers splashing about etc. Whenever there is a swimming class or Aqua Aerobics the Swimming Lane is used for this and the only part left is the general swimming area (which they also reduce down to 1/4 of the pool during activity time) Because of this a lot of people are normally crammed into one section. The result is that you can’t have a proper swim unless you go between 8 & 10am. No chance of a weekend. Even going between 8 & 10 youbget the aggressive ‘manspreaders’

I get the rage with the women who swim up and down while having a chat. Drives me mad.

I get anxious trying to decide whether I’m swimming too slowly or too fast for the others in the medium lane (wouldn’t dare use the fast lane!), so I’m boggling at the absolute brass neck of walking in a swimming lane. Where I swim you’d get karate chopped in a hot minute. Speak to the manager, chances are you won’t be the only one who’s complained!

Ragnarthe yes me too! At our pool there’s usually a group of 3 old ladies who swim up and down the middle of the pool chatting. I reckon they could walk faster. It’s infuriating
#mustwinlotterysoicanbuymyselfahousewithapool 😁

@Papillon45 I've never encountered a Swimming Manspreader. There's a new delight in every pool!

Yes, the best time to go is 8-10 or you've either got young children or Aqua Aerobics going in just a few feet from your head (basically it feels like swimming in a washing machine on the spin cycle). I'm very impressed by 70 lengths, it'll take me months to work my way up to that, though I do 'brisk walk' the dog for an hour and a half - two hours a day, so my Fitbit is impressed with me at least...

I swim in a small golf club pool with four single undivided lanes. This means only four people can use the pool at the same time. Recently there has been a big influx of walkers who walk up and down the pool sometimes for an hour. One or two add to this regime by tossing a float in the air as they walk. Some like to dance doing little skips and jumping twists. One elderly man likes to zig zag across the lanes. I am a competent front crawl swimmer and am found it distracting/painful to have a float land on my head or have someone dance into me. They are usually oblivious to me. I now go at 9pm when the pool is usually empty.