Terse exchange with woman - lane swimming

[SirChenjins]

I've just joined a gym and have been using the pool in the evenings when it's quiet. It's not the biggest pool (20m x 8m) and is sectioned off lengthways, with half of the pool for classes and general use, the slower lane in one quarter and the faster lane in the other quarter. The lanes have boards at the end on the poolside showing the direction you have to swim in, and this is also covered in your induction.

When I got to the pool last night an aqua aerobics class was in the half sectioned off, so I swam in the slower lane. 2 people were in the faster lane, I was the only one in the slower lane. Around 25 minutes in, the aqua class finished and everyone left, although a few stayed in the pool. One woman got into the slower lane where I was, waited till I finished a length and asked if it was OK if we swam side by side. I wasn't sure what she meant, so said no, we're meant to swim in single file clockwise like the board shows. She wasn't happy and asked why, so I repeated what I'd said, and started swimming again. I was aware that she was close behind me, and when we'd finished a further 2 lengths she asked why we couldn't swim side by side. Again, I repeated what I'd said, and she wasn't happy - she said she was swimming faster than me, and it made sense. I said she was in the slower lane (it wasn't marked on the board last night for some reason, but I've seen here there before and it's always marked - plus we're told at induction which lane is which) and if she wanted to go faster she could use the faster lane where there was only one person swimming. Lots of huffing from her, before she reluctanctly moved into the faster lane where I could hear her complaining.

I spoke to the manager afterwards and asked if they could make sure the signs were on the board. They were really annoyed with her and said that the lanes are not wide enough for 2 people, that it's dangerous to swim side by side as people can be kicked, and that she absolutely should have been using the faster lane and not arguing with people in the pool. They want me to fill in an incident report. WWYD?

I explained in a subsequent post there was one person in the fastwr lane. That person was going faster than me, but slower than the fast woman I spoke to.

I've swum in lanes loads of times - a fast swimmer has never got in beside me and wanted to swim beside me in the slow lane when there were 2 other more suitable options for them.

Do you not understand side by side swimming?

Let’s say you swim in clockwise circuits. She sets off before you and is a lot faster than you. Then at some point she is going to turn around and be swimming towards you in her clockwise circuit and you will cross paths (eg when you are at “3” of the clock and she is at “9”). She eventually laps you and is stuck behind you overtakes you (mid lap or at the end) but she will regularly be swimming past you in the opposite direction, and if she overtakes you mid lap she will swim past you in the same direction.

The exact same thing happens if you swim side by side, other than she never gets stuck behind you. So she never has to adjust her stroke, she goes up and down in one lane, so do you and you just pass each other more frequently.

But any lane with a circuit must have enough room for you to pass each other in opposing directions, so it’s impossible that it doesn’t have enough room to swim side by side.

Maybe the other person in the fast lane was her enemy? Who knows op. Who cares. All anyone is saying is it’s a perfectly reasonable request for all the reasons already detailed, you could have easily accommodated it without any disruption to your own swimming whatsoever. You clearly don’t swim often so just take it from those of us who do that it’s a perfectly accepted, even preferred, way of accommodating 2 lane swimmers of different speeds.

Mayb she was her enemy, who knows, but if you're a fast swimmer and there's a lane for fast swimmers - use it. Of, if there's a part of the pool that has plenty of room for you to fo your thing without having to get annoyed when a slow swimmer declines ypur request to swim side by side, use that instead. Don't huff about it.

I bet she's given this far less headspace than you have

I don't know why you can't just acknowledge that side by side swimming is a perfectly reasonable alternative to circuits when there are only two people in a lane

Side by side is much better for two people. No more chance of being kicked as usually at different speeds so only pass once each length surely.

What an absolute drama over a completely reasonable and normal request. You were the problem OP

I think you were technically correct but in practice an absolute pain. At my pool 'shall we just swim up and down?' when there are two of you in a lane is a courtesy/hypothetical question - everyone would think you were mad if you said no to it because it so obviously makes more sense than two people in a circuit. This is presumably why she didn't want to go in the fast lane with two people in it - there would then have been 3 of them so they would need to go in a circuit, with you alone in the slow lane, rather than the much more sensible option of two people in each lane swimming side-by-side.

She probably did go home and have a quick moan about the weird woman who insisted on swimming in circuits!

Why didn't she just go ahead of you if she was faster? Or would she have caught you again too quickly. Storm in a teacup.

OP, from her description, doesn't appear to have allowed her to go ahead at the end of the lane, as per usual pool etiquette when you do have to swim in circuits and one person is faster.

This. Ive never been asked to swim side by side. I’d be confused and I’d say no too. Also the gym clearly indicates circular swimming.

I could not get annoyed about this to the point of making an incident report. How ridiculous.

This

Well quite - or gone to the fast lane, or the area which is much wider where she could have swum at the fast pace she wanted to go at without being held up.

Does everyone on here specifically get in a lane where someone's already swimming at a much slower speed than they are planning to swim, and get huffy when the fast lane or larger clear area elsewhere in the pool is pointed out to them?

The issue of her being in the wrong lane for the speed she was going is very different to the issue of the lane not being wide enough to swim side by side (yet wide enough to swim in a circuit???).
She was wrong to get huffy about being asked to move to the lane suited to her speed, but (as I hope you've seen on this thread) swimming side by side when there are only 2 people is a very common and normal request - most people think they've struck lucky if the lane is empty enough to allow that.

I swear I’ve seen your username before with sane, normal responses. But this is really batshit.

i do not understand- at all - how you don’t get this.

there was 4m width wise of lane swimming available. The other 4m was not allocated to lane swimmers.

you said in your op there was 2 already in the fast lane and just you in the other same sized lane. So, the absolutely obvious place for her to swim was where there was the most space available - your lane - and then to request side by side to account for the fact you’re different speeds.

I think you don’t understand what people mean by side by side swimming for some reason I can’t fathom.

you seem to think there should have been 3 people in one lane swimming space and then just you in the other equally sized space. Why would that make any sense at all?

If it's not really wide enough for two people to be side by side, then why would people want to swim side by side? Surely sticking to one direction but passing them occasionally would be much better? Otherwise you'd be repeatedly kicking or splashing one another instead of only risking that when you pass one another?

Op is the confusion you think side by side is literally that? It’s your comment she wanted to swim beside you, she did not. She wanted half the lane. To swim up and down at her own pace. You had the other half the lane. She didn’t wish to swim beside you.

The lane is 2 metres wide it's plenty wide enough!

I prefer side by side depending on who it’s with. Some of the bigger men that swim take up a lot of room. I am happy to swing going clockwise also but it just doesn’t work if one is faster than another or if one likes to pause for a rest.

No, I didn't think we'd swim up and down together! I was just surprised that she (as a much faster swimmer) was not happy when I pointed out the other 2 obvious options to her. She knew I was a slower swimmer, she'd seen me swimming up and down for around 20/25 minutes while she was in the aqua class and while she putting her weight back. There was only one person by that time in the 2m fast lane - if she wanted to swim side by side it would have made far more sense to do so in the 4m larger area of tge pool, or to go in the fast lane with someone who was closer to her speed. That's why there are the two 2m lanes to cope with different speeds and larger 4m area to do what you want.

All the material information was in the original post. It's perfectly clear that, at that pool, side by side swimming in the marked-off lanes definitely is not a thing, as the pool management confirmed. Why won't you accept that?

Yanbu. If there's only two swimming lanes it will often be the case that there's 3 or more "preferred swim speeds" and two people with different speeds must share a lane but side-by-side isn't the answer. I am a ridiculously slow swimmer so am often in a position where other swimmers who think they are slow will want to overtake me. The easy way is the the other person starts the circuit and I follow them. Obviously they go fasterand after a few lengths they have "lapped" me and are right behind me, it only takes a seconds for me to pause at one end and they overtake me again. Passing can only happen safely with one person stopped, not with both people swimming.

• one swimmer in lane = go clockwise (or anti clockwise, depending on the pool rules for that lane)
• 2 swimmers, side by side
• 3rd swimmer gets in lane - chaos. I joke, back to going clockwise.

The thing about lane swimming with strangers is you don’t know their speed, they are doing a different set, different breaks etc. I always find sharing a lane with more than one person leads to an uncomfortable swim.

Swimming ‘side by side’ is great for 2 people as one stays left, one stays right. You aren’t chasing each others tails.
Also side by side is literally just having one side each. Not swimming romantically together & staring into each other’s eyes as you take a breath.

One last thing while I’m here…. WALKERS in the lanes. Blood boiling stuff 😅