To say you don’t swim backstroke when the pool is busy

[CatWeekly]

Just as the title suggests, went swimming today and one man was doing backstroke every other length of the pool. He didn’t look where he was going at all and just expected everyone else to get out of his way. He had several glancing blows where he hit people but never stopped.

So YABU, he was perfectly within his rights to do backstroke in a busy pool.
YANBU he was a selfish wanker.

YANBU completely selfish

it’s a shared pool so you have to be mindful of others. Some people are selfish and aren’t

It’s selfish if he’s hitting people. When I swim backstroke in a busy pool I tilt my head back every few strokes and look behind me to ensure I keep my distance. It’s quite easy to do, and I’ve never hit anyone yet. So the issue here is the selfishness and poor technique, rather than the stroke itself.

It's a real issue at my local too, but seems to be fairly equally split between men and women doing it.
I try and go out of hours to avoid the aggro these days, which is annoying in itself!

Its always a man who does this and Usually older too.

It’s fine to swim backstroke if you know how to swim in a session environment and can do so without impeding anyone else.

if you are a Rec swimmer with no group training experience then no, don’t.

Yep!

I’ve been hit multiple times by men doing this. I actually stopped swimming because of it as I have PTSD due to violence and it was upsetting for me. I also saw a big strong lady do backstroke right into a tiny frail old lady who had just got into the pool, looked upset and immediately got out again 😞 The backstroke lady didn’t even register it,

This!

I agree its not the stroke its the person. When I used to go Lane swimming one fucker would always do aggressive butterfly which forced everyone out of his lane so he had it to himself 😤

The lifeguards at our pool are more proactive/confident in pulling up people not following pool etiquette these days e.g. in the wrong lane, dominating a lane with butterfly. It wasn't always the case.

I've not seen anyone hit people doing backstroke (well maybe the odd accident now and again).

I am confident enough to speak up for myself but I shouldn't have to, lifeguards should do it. No one should be intimidated out of the pool.

YANBU, it drives me nuts. Fine if you can keep a straight line and are actually mindful of people around you, but some people are just utter twats. See also: people doing butterfly and splashing every poor fucker around them

Twat in the pool - probably drives their car like they own the road, charges around shops oblivious to other people.....

Yanbu. Backstroke is only something that can be done in an empty lane.

Mind you, I find breaststroke tricky in a busy lane too. My toe was dislocated years ago when a fellow breastroker (?😳) kicked my little toe out of the socket. Our pools are basically too small.

IME twats will be twats. Some people can swim backstroke in a busy pool without being annoying because they make an effort and are aware of their surroundings, while some can't even swim breaststroke without whacking other people in the face.

Butterfly has no place outside competitive or wild swimming IMO. Agree about backstroke too.

I'm a (very) amateur swimmer, and if I do backstroke it's only ever if I have a lane to myself, or if the person / people I'm sharing with are swimming after me and I'm swimming away from the end where people enter the pool, so I know there is no one in my path.

There's a very tall man at my local pool that does very exaggerated wide breast stroke, slowly, in the medium speed lane, which takes up the whole lane and means you can't actually get past him at all. Even if you stop and float upright as he goes past he kicks you. Even worse is the 'slow' lane is actually 2 lanes without a dividing rope so plenty of room for him in there.

I changed the times I swim to avoid him, and if he gets in when I'm there I change lanes or leave if it's busy. I've noticed I'm not the only one. It's infuriating.

Our local pool has 4 lanes in lane sessions - slow, med, fast, and fast crawl. I tend to be in med speed and happily do back stroke there - but there is a divider for the lanes physically in the pool and a line of ventilation tubing running along the ceiling I can stay lined up on.

I almost never do it in an open session as there's too much chance I will hit someone (it is very free range then!).

Sorry in your case YANBU - he is being selfish

I changed the times I swim to avoid him, and if he gets in when I'm there I change lanes or leave if it's busy. I've noticed I'm not the only one. It's infuriating.

Has anyone talked to the lifeguards or management?

Agree. It is possible to do backstroke in a relatively busy lanes session if you have awareness of your own speed and of the others around you. If you can swim in a straight line then you should only need a few lengths of person ahead (behind).

I was shouted at by a man whose wife was doing backstroke and I was in the same lane. He was watching from the side ( outdoor pool) and told me that I couldn't swim in the same lane as his wife. The Life Guard came over, put him straight and told him to leave. He and his wife assumed that once you had a lane it was exclusively yours until you left. She liked swimming backstroke and so needed a lane for herself. I heard the man tell all this to the Life Guard. Some people and swimmers are unbelievably entitled.

To make it worse this was an after school casual swim, not a lane swim.

I think breast-stroke takes up more room in a lane.

But I can swim backstroke in a straight line, which I suppose makes a difference - a lot of people can't!

Unfortunately the lifeguards are usually poorly paid teenagers (they won't get full minimum wage because of their ages). You can't expect them to take on entitled customers. As a grown adult, I would say that if you think someone is behaving badly, you can tell them yourself. Easier said than done, I know as you don't know if someone is then going to launch a tirade of c and f words, or thump you.

If someone is actually hurting someone you should report it to the duty manager. Sometimes you will collide with someone, it can't always be helped - it used to happen sometimes when I was doing swimming lessons. But it's a one-off rather than all the time. If someone is deliberately taking up a full lane or knocking people "over" in the lane, they need to be reported and have their membership suspended if they don't change their behaviour.

I'm the only person I've ever known to swim backstroke at my pool. I wait until the pool is practically empty, with no "obstacles". It would be impossible if I didn't, as well as selfish.