Swimming lane etiquette

[Flowersandforests]

hi everyone - I’m recovering from a back injury & have started going swimming. At my gym you have to book a lane depending on your speed.

I was swimming today (backstroke) and could see a woman a few strokes behind me who was trying to overtake. She wasn’t swimming faster than me & I didn’t slow my speed so she just sort of stayed behind me but in the middle of the lane (if that makes sense). This went on for a few lengths until she cut across me at the end of the lane - then she massively slowed down and i got stuck behind her while she caught her breath and doggy paddled. In the end, i waited at the end of the lane so she was far enough ahead of me that her speed didn’t interfere with my swimming but it really threw my concentration !! I saw her do it to a few other people too….

Is this normal?! There was another guy who was super quick so he was easily overtaking people but it didn’t interfere with anyone else’s swimming as he was so fast. So should you slow down if someone wants to overtake even if you are swimming at the same speed?!

At my pool they make the slow lane extra wide so it has room for 3 people - you can then have an up, down and overtaking lane.

However I can no longer go at a certain time slot as it's populated by 2 older ladies , they either swim side by side or one in front doing a sort of backwards walk swim and one forwards all whilst having a chat. Every single time I have seen them. I used to just get so wound up.

You can't dictate what stroke people choose to do. There can be all sorts of reasons why people need to do backstroke! But the all the shit described in this thread is exactly why I fucking hate swimming!

I'm super conscientious about stopping at the ends to give way as I hate to hold people up, but it is sometimes hard, at least at my level of experience, to tell whether someone is getting held up by you or just happens to be doing a similar pace. I'm rubbish at judging my own pace or anyone else's and not very consistent in my own speed.

And yes some people are unnecessarily nasty about it. I once got it wrong with someone swimming just a little behind me (I mistakenly thought he was a man that I'd given way to earlier only to find he was much slower than me, so I didn't want to repeat that) and rather than tap my feet he grabbed my leg forcefully and yelled at me which came very close to putting me off swimming. (I have a bit of a hate-hate relationship with swimming and was having one of those days when I feel I'm never going to improve so that was nearly the last straw!)

Most people are lovely about it though - they signal clearly if they want to pass and give you a smile when you do.

14 per lane?! Unless the pool is 50 meters that’s beyond insane and borderline dangerous.

My swimming club (yes I am that sad) is 6 per lane. 25 meter pool. Any more than that and the lifeguards can’t properly watch everyone + it makes the water to choppy…

I wouldn’t touch a pool with 14 people in one lane.

At the leisure centre where I am a member, it's a maximum of 12 to a lane. But the standard 25m pool is split into 3 lanes overall (so double normal width). 1 medium, 1 fast and 1 slow.

He sounds like an idiot @UnaOfStormhold I’m glad you didn’t let him put you off completely 😊 I was yelled at by a man too. I’ve mentioned it to the lifeguards before but they don’t seem to do anything. Not in London anyway. I’ve now ended up joining a Virgin Active just for the pool as it’s always quiet compared to leisure centres. It doesn’t work out that much more expensive than paying for a couple of swims per week anyway

It’s 25m pool - there are 3 lanes and it’s 14 people per lane. Tbf I’ve never been in when there has been 14 but the 0630 slot is always fully booked !

The most I’ve seen is 8 which felt like loads - very selfish of me but I would pay extra to have the lane to myself lol

14!?

I was having a chat with a woman in the pool last week congratulating ourselves on being well matched and considerate lane-mates. She joked about 'butterfly' man. It turns out there's a notorious bloke who often joins the (narrow) lane and crashes up and down for ten lengths doing butterfly and oblivious to the carnage he leaves in his wake. Obviously this knackers him, so he is slower than most from then onwards but still inconsiderate. I don't know if I look forward to meeting him one day or not....

I dunno if there is such a thing as swimming lane etiquette. Plus if there is such a thing, it varies by lane. So in the slow lane, there isn't a concept of getting in people's way. You can just dead stop. You can wobble around. I've spoken to 'serious' slow lane swimmer who found this infuriating.

In the middle lane, overtaking of any sort is slightly frowned upon. As is anything splashy.

In fast lane there is overtaking both ways and plenty of splashing.

Some people are oblivious to letting other people get by. It happens.

I dunno if there is such a thing as swimming lane etiquette.

There is.

In our pool, they used to have a print out stuck to the back of the slow, medium, fast lane signs. Not sure if they still do. There have been one or two swimmers who should have been made to go and read it, but most are pretty good.

There were a couple of aggressively fast swimmers not long after covid who were told by the lifeguards to be more considerate to other users or to get out.

I go twice a week and try to time my swim for around 2pm. All morning swimming lessons are finished by then, and I'm hoping that any lunchtime swimmers will have gone back to work. Mostly this works out, and there are usually only a few of us in the pool.

The pool is divided in half, with one half further divided into two lanes, for length swimmers. Often I can have one of the lanes(either fast or slow) to myself, which makes swimming backstroke lengths more feasible.

But this week when I went, both lanes were occupied. Each with a woman walking in the lane. Right in the middle of the lane as well. So I went to swim in the other half of the pool, only for a big, fat bloke to arrive, who then proceeded not just to swim slowly in the middle of the pool, but to veer from side to side, so I had to spend all my swim time swimming around him, which meant I never really got into my own rhythm.

Sometimes I think other people are just blind!

No no no.

i hate foot tapping. It’s intrusive and rude. I also find my reflex is to kick at whatever is touching my foot to get it away.

what do you want me to do anyway? Stop mid length and let you past?

i know if you’re trying to overtake. I will get to the end and let you past.
if you’re too impatient stop slightly short and turn before I do, if there isn’t room to overtake side by side.

if you are catching me up mid length regularly move to the faster lane. Men in particular are bad at this, their ego means they can’t move into a lane with swimmers faster than them, so they stay in the slower lane catching me and tapping at my feet every other length.

don’t intentionally touch or grab anyone.

This. If someone touches me I always assumed it was just an accident. If there's someone too close behind me I always let them past. If I am then waiting at the end too often I move to the middle lane.

I generally swim in the fast lane but our pool has wide lanes so it's no problem to overtake. If I move to the middle lane I'm generally overtaking the whole time but move back to fast when it quietens down.

Slow swimming gives everyone the rage. I really don't want to hold anyone up so I get a bit concerned if overtaking in the fast lane as then no one can overtake me.

I do do back stroke and then am slower so I some move to mid to do that depends on how busy the lane is.

Being cut up by a splashy man who is not faster than you is a fact of life.

OP I'd have done half a length to put some distance between me and doggy paddler. To be fair it's unusual to overtake then slow down to doggy paddle. I've never seen that.

The overtaking rule I employ is if I can cruise past them with no effort and leave them in the distance then I do it. If I have to try then I just loop round or wait at end.

Love swimming etiquette!

I move between lanes, depending on whether I'm doing front crawl or breast stroke. I won't do back crawl in a busy lane (and the council hasn't yet seen fit to clear a lane just for me whenever I'm there - though if I time it right, that can happen anyway.

I would like to be clear that that time abloke was doing back stroke in the same lane and I clonked him in the nuts, it was an accident. Though hopefully he learned to keep to his side of the lane and swim other strokes when it's busy...

Couldn't agree more!

Neah, I still don't believe in supposed 'swimming pool etiquette'. Or if there is such a thing, there's no real consensus what it is (witness debate here about foot tapping being acceptable or not). I've always wondered about how 'foot tapping' happens: how do you avoid getting kicked if you're the deliberate tapper? I would never try to tap deliberately.

No one has mentioned getting scratched or kicked by wide breast-strokers. They are the ones I find toughest to share a lane with. Or to have in the lane next to mine, because they easily manage to hit people outside their own lane, too. I'd rather swim with feral 12 year old club competitors who literally swim over the top of me than share lanes with many breaststrokers.

The ridiculousness of swimmers complaining about getting splashed by other swimmers never ceases to amuse me.

One reason I swim in fast lane is overtaking happens routinely anywhere & 85% of us just get on with facilitating that. Middle lane swimmers seem to struggle with any overtaking.

It would really freak me out if a stranger tapped my foot. How does that even work if you're moving your legs to swim?

Tapping could be a triathlon thing - in pool triathlons the advice when racing in the pool is never to overtake but to tap on the feet and the tapped swimmer then gives way at the next pool end. We do the same in triathlon swim training sessions so I'm kind of used to it.

I find foot taps happen fairly naturally with crawl swimmers if you get a bit too close as their legs are are in a fairly consistent central position - not sure how it would work when overtaking a breaststroker.

I have to say that if I'm swimming breaststroke, and sharing a lane with someone else, when they pass me I'm always careful not to kick my legs out wide - it becomes a sort-of front crawl kick instead.

But I agree, I'd hate it if someone tapped me on the foot. If I'm too slow, wait till I've got to the end of the lane, or overtake me.

I swim in cold hearted London and there is definitely no toe tapping in either of my local pools. Eugh.

The only way I've found to have a good swim is to go off peak. I'm a middling swimmer and there's always someone faster and someone slower and at my usual pool no one takes any notice of the fast/medium/slow signs.

The foot tapping is in the pool rules though, it’s literally written on a piece of paper at my local leisure centre but having grown up as a swimmer, it’s a universal sign across all leisure centres. People aren’t doing it to be annoying or gross, they’re just following the rules. It should only be done to people who haven’t realised you’re stuck behind them, and only gently. It’s a polite way of saying, excuse me, please can you let me past at the end of the lane, you don’t seem to have noticed me. It’s much better than swimming over someone and barging past, like a lot of blokes tend to do. I’d prefer someone tapped me once on the foot if they wanted to overtake than aggressively swim past me and push me out of the way.

https://www.speedo.com/blog/advice/the-7-commandments-of-lane-swimming/#:~:text=Foot%20tapping,lane%20to%20let%20you%20pass).

I am also terrified of wide leg breaststrokers cos I don’t want broken ribs 😂

I don’t agree with foot tapping before the person in front has had a chance to stop at the end of the lane, it should only be used after a few lengths if they haven’t noticed you’re stuck behind them. I know some people do it aggressively

Most wide leg breaststrokers won't be kicking that hard. You don't really want to kick much wider than your body - you want that sweet spot of increased forward propulsion with as little as possible increased resistance. If your legs are wide, you're increasing the drag area.

I've never heard of the foot tapping 'rule' - and there's certainly nothing about that displayed in the pool at my gym.