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...

Swim walkers in the lanes drive me nuts. We used to get this all the time at DW but am at David Lloyd now and they seem to get the etiquette. Having said that give me a swim walker over the tsunami of aqua aerobics any day.

Are you sure that the pool is indeed subdivided into 'fast lane', 'slow lane' and 'rest of pool'? (note - I don't swim so don't know if these are generally clearly labelled) I'm just wondering if it is actually one 'swim lane', one 'walk lane' and rest of pool.

@Airfixkitwidow PMSL at mad Swim Dancers!

@EggysMom Yes, massive signs at the end of each lane 'Slow Lane' and 'Fast Lane' with honking great arrows. They just don't care...

but if I'm backstroking there's no chance I'll see someone walking into my path in time.

I was with you until you said this. They should not be walking in a swimming lane but backstrokers really get on my tits. Backstrokers in a busy pool are the same people who stare at their phones while walking down the street and expect you to dodge them.

I am a fast swimmer but I do front crawl and breaststroke unless I am alone in the lane or maybe with one other person and we can co-ordinate our lengths. That said, I don't feel the need to do backstroke or butterfly, for that matter - which is another anti-social choice in a public pool, though thankfully most people don't attempt it.

With both front strokes I put my head down but when I raise my head to breathe I can see people. Backstrokers can't. They also always claim to follow the lines on the ceiling - usually after they've bashed into me or caused me to stop to avoid a collision.

Anyway, my suggestion is talk to reception staff and choose a quieter time.

I’m so glad swim walking doesn’t appear to be a thing at our pool. Why do people have no consideration for others?! It always baffles me, the last thing I want is to get in anyone’s way while I’m swimming, I try my best not to get in the way. Most people don’t seem to care about others when they’re in the pool though. It’s weird

@Ragnarthe The old ladies in our pool don't even pretend to swim, they just gather in gossipy clumps at opposite ends of the pool.

They seem so cliquey sometimes that I half expect them to break out into a West Side Story ginger-clicking dance number.

I hate it it is so annoying

Oooh this brings back memories, I used to swim regularly. My biggest pool pet hate was women who must have bathed in their perfume and not had a shower before entering the pool - swimming into a slick of someone's incredibly strong perfume mingling with the chlorine was just boaksome. I suspect those perfumed ladies probably swim walk now - they have that lack of awareness of anyone else's comfort mentality.

Speak to the staff and affect concern about the well being of the walkers and suggest they get their own section - may solve the problem without you having to reveal your inner swim rage.

Sorry only read half the ft, but

1. Ask walkers to keep to one side so you can swim up and down without bashing into them
2. Swim in the faster lane if it's free
3. Live and let live, there's no reason speed limit so they're just as entitled as you are says me whose gym has five lanes 🥳

But yes I feel for you

I'm confused, are they walking in both lanes?

I’m so glad swim walking doesn’t appear to be a thing at our pool. Why do people have no consideration for others?! It always baffles me, the last thing I want is to get in anyone’s way while I’m swimming, I try my best not to get in the way. Most people don’t seem to care about others when they’re in the pool though. It’s weird

I don’t know how I posted that twice sorry!

Today there has been a thread about a man who swims too fast and splashily (the general consensus seemed to be he was U) and now one about women who walk too slowly (also u). Clearly pool etiquette is a minefield. I’ll stick to walking I think.

winsinbin as long as it’s not in a pool...

@limitedperiodonly I promise I only do intermittent backstroke - only when I'm alone in the lane and not in expecting anyone to join suddenly and just stand there.

I agree some strokes are more problematic but I need to vary them a little (I don't attempt the butterfly as I don't want paramedics called to the woman seizing in the pool) so that all the upper muscles get a bit of a workout. Backstroke gives me a great backwards rotation on my shoulders.

Speak to the staff and affect concern about the well being of the walkers and suggest they get their own section - may solve the problem without you having to reveal your inner swim rage.

Definitely going to try this, I don't want to come off as a Swimming Psycho or someone that's a bit too precious about pool etiquette...

"please can you use the main pool lane, I would like to be able to swim in the swimming pool"

Just ask them to move 😕

We call them icebergs
I swim round them at high speed till they budge over to one half of the lane and leave me in peace

I am on the floaty-divider thing on this one.

Yes, I can see that they are getting on your nerves but they are pool users too - albeit non-swimming ones. I think public sports spaces (albeit a private members' club) have to allow for and tolerate people performing at the lowest level of ability. A gym member should be able to walk at 1 mile per hour on the treadmill if they want to, even if there is someone who wants to use it for 'proper' running getting frustrated about that.

I can see the logic by which they go in the lanes, as they are following the 'up and down' pattern of activity.

Speak to the membership coordinator about it?

YANBU.

These melts who dick about swim walking, do my head in

Ours has a very civilised fast , medium (where I reside) and slow lane
The walkers tend to use the slow and people swim around them

My hate is fast men in middle lane

Why can’t they fuck off to the fast lane ?

I had to laugh at the lady who got scratched by someone toes nails
I would have a word with membership OP

My other pet is people who swim in the wrong direction (it’s left up , right down )

Oh god I feel your pain. I’ve recently started swimming, I do fast breaststroke. I spend ages working out if I need to be fast lane or slow lane, depending on who is already in the pool and try to be considerate, but you can guarantee whichever lane I choose someone will then get in it and go 100 times slower, or walk, or randomly stop half way up it in front of me. It’s the ones who know I’m a lot faster than them but still set off right in front of me rather than waiting 2 seconds to let me past.
If I’m in the fast lane and a freestyler gets in I always move to the slow lane as they’re obviously faster ( apart from the odd one who seems to be able to swim in slow motion without drowning) but most people just seem to only care about their own swim and not the people around them.

Sorry QuizzlyBear. That was a bit of swim rage spilling over to dry land

I'm a good swimmer. It's the only physical activity I'm any good at. I am a ploddy runner and am so unco-ordinated I am Captain Catastrophe at all other things. I don't go onto the dance floor because I fear lives may be lost.

I had lessons from about seven and did competitive swimming but I wasn't good enough to compete properly. I'm no Adam Peaty.

But my breaststroke - favourite stroke - is faster than most other people's front crawl. What I really like is when men - it's always men - quietly hop over from the fast lane to the medium lane because they can't keep up. They always underestimate breaststroking ladies.

It's all down to technique. I'd recommend lessons but I spoke to someone at my pool who didn't want to say what she was paying her teacher but it was at least £50 an hour and I think it might have been approaching twice that. But her reasoning was that it was a good investment because after a block of 12 lessons she could go it alone and build on what she'd learned to become much fitter.

Anyway, complain to Reception about those pool walkers

My other pet is people who swim in the wrong direction (it’s left up , right down )
That depends on the pool.
Ours has signs marking the different directions that we pointedly ignore