to think swimming pool = swimming?

[thevassal]

I love swimming. The pools by me have been closed or as good as throughout the pandemic and have only recently opened, which is great however has caused me to remember how annoying other people are!

I should clarify that I always go to a session called 'swimming for fitness' which is described as 'lane swimming for competent swimmers aged 11 plus.' The pool is set up only in lanes with signs saying what directions to swim in etc. There are lots of other sessions for families and general 'swim for all,' etc. which I tend to avoid.

AIBU to think if you are attending a swim session clearly marketed as swimming for fitness you should spend most of the time, well, swimming, and following the rules of the session, not standing chatting at the ends, floating aimlessly, glaring at people who overtake you, walking up and down, ignoring the 'clockwise/anticlockwise' 'slow/fast' directions and just swimming determinedly in "your" half of a lane at whatever speed you fancy, clearly not showering before entry so the whole pool can smell your stale smoke/overpowering perfume, etc etc. Or am I BU to expect too much from a public pool (unfortunately I cant afford to pay for my own, that would be the lottery winning dream!)

I have the opposite issue OP. Our family swim / general swim sessions include a couple of speed designated lanes and 'the rest if the pool noone will swim in the lanes! Often, the rest of the pool bit is full of people swimming as though they're lanes swimming and the bloody lanes are empty! I just want to teach my toddler to float in peace

Why won't the lifeguards etc recommend people use a different bit of the pool?! Our lifeguards all stand in the corner chatting and messing around, so they're not watching for people drowning!

Pos make me so

My pet hate pre COVID is when I am lane swimming, I always try to be in at the wall as I do back stroke to help my bad back and some idiot parent then comes over and starts bobbing about with their child at the bottom of the lane I was first in and they can see I was happily swimming lengths, it really annoys me!
You have the rest of the pool to bob about why come over and do it in my lane? Like someone else said above , I lane swim because I want to get in, do my lengths and get straight out, not have to work out how to get round you and your learning to doggy paddle child. Haven’t ventured back but hoping to very soon. I’m pretty sure I’ll still meet them!

I went to a female only session this week. I am not a swimmer so I went in the slow lane. Never again.
I was there to actually swim. So many women just hanging onto the sides yapping and blocking the space. One woman walking with a pool noodle. One who couldn't t seem to grasp what "clockwise" means.
The final straw was a woman who got in wearing leggings and a t shirt and just stood there.

I get you, I'm a fitness / tri swimmer but now as the owner of kids who haven't been able to go to a pool for nearly 18 months and the only sessions are fitness I want to get my kids in the water.

that's right - we must all forego lane swimming so kids can splash about. Unless your kids are lane swimming, book a family session.

Come to Germany - whatever the session is for is enforced with a no one strike policy where i live. You can be as slow as you like but if you don't turn and swim at the ends, or keep moving somehow, in the lanes, it's "loud whistle you! get out"

My ideal is to always have a mix of lanes and space to potter so people get the chance to do what they want. 100% lanes annoy me as does total free for all. Leisure centres need to start doing more to allow family swims as well. It’s bloody impossible to book a slot anywhere near me. Mine have got lessons so that is fine but there is clearly massive demand so I don’t understand why the teaching pool is closed on a Sunday when they could be doing family swims.

Come to Germany - whatever the session is for is enforced with a no one strike policy where i live. You can be as slow as you like but if you don't turn and swim at the ends, or keep moving somehow, in the lanes, it's loud whistle you! get out*

My kind of pool. I'd be happy with that.

@Lachimolala

Try hotel pools instead.

They tend to be way too small - a length is 4 to 6 strokes.

Dixie, you might swim in my local pool! 😀. Thankfully I never see any inconsiderate behaviour - everyone swims at the length swims. I’m also somewhere between slow and medium and choose the quieter one.

I’m fortunate enough to have access to an Olympic standard aquatics centre (not in London). We have 9 lanes for public lane sessions. 3 slow, 3 medium, 3 fast. No problem with walkers/rehab/other things in lane 1 of slow. That leaves 2 lanes for slow swimmers, 3 for medium and 3 for fast. No-one has made an announcement, we just all know…Lane 1 is for super slow….

This is why I'm much happier in my lake sessions! I've been back to the pool, but my tolerance for people faffing about, not obeying lane etiquette, the fast lane swimmers deciding that there are more of them in the lane than they'd like so invading a (working perfectly well) medium lane, and those who can swim 2 lengths really fast but keep stopping and starting so they are always out of sync. No lifeguard enforcement in my local pool, not even of the person who hit me because in a lane with 4 swimmers she decides to do backstroke every so often

Just to add, I go to adults only lane swimming sessions at my gym. I'm complaining about the joggers at those. Not the place for it, as some have said.

I get massive swimming rage for these kind of things.

There was a fantastic kick off in my local pool shortly before Covid. A woman took a toddler into the lane swimming session to try to teach him to swim. The kid couldn't swim at all and wasn't wearing armbands or a float so the mum was just standing splashing with him.

The lifeguards asked her to go to the leisure pool instead and she went nuts, screaming that she had the right to teach her child to swim. I don't know what goes through people's minds, I only started to take DS into the lane swimming at about six when he could comfortably do 100 metres and outpace me!

ignoring the 'clockwise/anticlockwise' 'slow/fast' directions and just swimming determinedly in "your" half of a lane at whatever speed you fancy

Under lockdown swimming slots, I've sometimes ended up with only one other person in the lane and often we'd end up with this arrangement - you get less in each other's way as no need to overtake. You do have to agree to it though, not just start swimming determinedly wherever you like! You have to stop if someone else comes, as the standard lane set-up only works with two, but you're not forced to inconvenience yourself to no one's benefit just because the sign says so.

You can be as slow as you like but if you don't turn and swim at the ends, or keep moving somehow, in the lanes, it's "loud whistle you! get out"

No opportunity for a break without leaving the pool? Even club swimming training lets you take short breaks within sets XD

OP, I agree with your general point. While our swimming slots under lockdown (except for when it was closed altogether...) were only 50 mins and bookings opened at an inconvenient time, it actually made for a more pleasant and easy swimming experience than I had a lot of the time under normal conditions. Our swimming timetable has been getting steadily worse and the one in 2019-20 pre-first lockdown was the worst of the lot. Lots of "learn to swim/improve" sessions, but little for those who could actually swim to do so, especially if you couldn't go in the morning. The highlight was a scheduling choice of one booked activity, 15 minute free lane swimming, then another booked activity. Who is going there to swim for 15 mins?! They always took the lane half for everything is well, never the not-so-swimming open half.

YABU Ours are now 'swim for fitness' all day every weekday, and 'family sessions' at the weekend. So anyone who wants to enter the water mon-fri has to book swim for fitness. Swimming pools do not only belong to good swimmers! Usually people are just doing lengths but this week there were some young men sitting and chatting and diving in in the lanes. However if they just opened the half of the divided 50m pool as well as the lanes then they would have somewhere to hang about without annoying anyone, I don't see how that could be any more COVID making.

I'm a 'competent swimmer' in that I don't sink like a stone. However, I'm not good enough, thanks to disability, to be able to manage with children leaping in all around me, Dads showing up for the fortnightly Disney session where they throw their kids around, do handstands and generally piss around and all the other things that happen in a free for all. I need to take breaks. I need to do exercises that go some way to addressing the pain and immobility in some joints, I need to take a break but still want to move rather than sit on the side.

So what do I do? Go to the free for all and spend all of it hanging on the side halfway up because it's too deep for the kids and too shallow for the show offs? Or book a lane and use the lane to the best of my ability, even though that angers people who are better than me not dealing with disability ? I'm not disabled enough (and I work) to elbow my way into a Swimming For The Disabled session on a Wednesday Afternoon. Even if I didn't work, during the day, there's school swimming. Every evening's taken up with club swimming or the occasional aqua zumba class in the shallow end. Every weekend it's closed for kids' parties, cleaning or another club. But I could get there at certain times when lane swimming is available and do a mixture of swimming, stretching, active resting and just enjoying the cooling sensation and support given to painful joints and tendons for a while.

With you on the getting in dirty, though. It's a swimming pool, not a large container of sheep dip - which some people usually on the family swim sessions appear to be using it for.

Come to Germany - whatever the session is for is enforced with a no one strike policy where i live. You can be as slow as you like but if you don't turn and swim at the ends, or keep moving somehow, in the lanes, it's "loud whistle you! get out

Well that's all very well but what if you need a rest or are doing intervals? That isn't very inclusive either as it assumes everyone can swim for 30/45/60 minutes without stopping, whereas people might want to swim 10 then have a minute's rest, then continue. That actually betrays a lack of understanding of training needs.

@chocolatesaltyballs22

Just to add, I go to adults only lane swimming sessions at my gym. I'm complaining about the joggers at those. Not the place for it, as some have said.

What a nasty sentiment. Are you more important or is your money worth more than the joggers? Is your space in this world more precious?

I am relatively new to lane swimming, swim breaststroke and don't like putting my face in the water. I always choose the slow lane and take regular (short) rests for stretching etc. Not everyone is confident and goign around huffing and puffing, tutting and splashing might just put off less proficient swimmers. Not really fair, that. Also - why the digs about unfit, bigger people in non - speedo costumesfrom PPs? y
You just sound bitchy and superior.

Why won't the lifeguards etc recommend people use a different bit of the pool?! Our lifeguards all stand in the corner chatting and messing around, so they're not watching for people drowning!

Because they're crap lifeguards. Ours have made people change lanes to a more appropriate speed. They have also told off some rather aggressive over-takers. And it's quite possible to chat while also watching the pool, you just don't have much eye contact with the people you're talking to (says ex-lifeguard.)

I love swimming at the moment. Numbers are limited, so it's never too crowded. Fast, medium and slow lanes are clearly marked. We do get the odd jogger, but if they're in the slow lane it's fine. We get a few chatters, too, at lane ends, but they don't get in the way, and I think the lifeguards would have a word if they did.

Friday evenings are quite quiet with us. I had a lane almost to myself tonight, save for one other man, another regular. Our whole conversation was, "Hiya!" And a few lanes later, "it's like treacle tonight." And I did laugh at him when he stopped at one point, and stared disconsolately at his watch (not sure if he was checking lap times or heart rate.) I hope he realised it was in solidarity rather than laughing at him.

@Myothercarisalsoshit

I am relatively new to lane swimming, swim breaststroke and don't like putting my face in the water. I always choose the slow lane and take regular (short) rests for stretching etc. Not everyone is confident and goign around huffing and puffing, tutting and splashing might just put off less proficient swimmers. Not really fair, that. Also - why the digs about unfit, bigger people in non - speedo costumesfrom PPs? y You just sound bitchy and superior.

Absolutely agree, thankfully I have a thick skin, and will carry on using the pool to get fit, even if it pisses off some superior examples of the human race.

If you pay your money for your session you can use it however you like. I think the worst thing about the pandemic for me personally, has been witnessing just how little tolerance we have for almost every fucking thing that other people do differently to ourselves, it’s endless.

that's right - we must all forego lane swimming so kids can splash about. confused Unless your kids are lane swimming, book a family session.

Think the issue is that in much of the UK currently the family sessions are non-existent or v few.

My youngest’s swimming lesson has been cancelled. I’m keen to keep up her water confidence but there are literally no family sessions on my day off within travelling distance (I’m in london - there are plenty of pools)! The lidos are all adults only.

Now I haven’t taken my tiny child lane swimming, because I’m not a knob, but it’s yet another example of their needs being ignored as lockdown eases. Why is water confidence, safety and familiarity in children (potentially life saving) less important than the exercise preferences of adults?

CarnationCat, lots of plump or slow people in our lanes sessions. some of the fairly fat people are fast swimmers.

@NeverDropYourMoonCup I have a disability too (with one of my arms so affects my swimming a fair amount) which is why I’m usually in the slow lane. I don’t think anyone’s annoyed about people with disabilities swimming slowly (or people swimming slowly in the slow lane for any other reason), the annoyance is people who book lane swimming but don’t actually want to swim lanes.

I’ve just got back from swimming actually and there was a lady who was doing a smaller circle in only the shallow half of the slow lane, totally fine as I assume she didn’t want to get out of her depth. Everyone was letting her turn around with no issues. I also don’t have a problem with people stopping at the end of the lane to take a break and that is accepted at all the pools I’ve been to, as long as you indicate to others that they should go ahead and pass you.

Not fine is the people at the LAC I mentioned earlier turning up in the lanes and just paddling about side by side and wanting to play, people who go in the wrong direction, and people who get in the slow lane but swim really fast.