How does lane swimming work if I am a very slow swimmer?

[Nitgel]

I know this has been covered before, but how does lane swimming work. I went today as that seems to be the only option to swim at my local pool and I am desperate for a swim. i stuck to the slow lane but people were overtaking me. Am i too slow to use the lane swimming?

I am a competent slow swimmer and haven't been in the pool for a year plus I have bad knee arthritis so was hoping this would help me. I felt like I was in the commonwealth games.

Should I find another pool? it's a pain as I use the gym frequently and get swimming too as part of the membership. I just breaststroke quite sedately.

Ex lifeguard here. You are doing the right thing by going in the slow lane. I suspect what is happening is that faster swimmers are going in the slow lane because their lane is much busier. The lifeguards should ideally manage the situation a little better because it can be intimidating having people zoom past. I would try speaking to the lifeguard or if that doesn’t help, email the management and ask them to manage it better. Your other alternative is to try a different time of day. Early morning swimmers for example tend to be the keen swimmers. 8:30ish tends to be quite a good time, assuming the pool opens at 7 or earlier. By then, the early morning swimmers have left but people who have to drop their kids at school have not yet arrived. The quietest time is often lunchtime.

But the other half of the pool is for general use - they could walk/exercise in there, is what I meant.

I do an aqua class most mornings at my pool. There is one 45 min class per day, in the morning when it's quiet. There is one lane for swimmers - There are usually between one and four swimmers there, so it's not a huge inconvenience.

The other week a man decided he wasnt happy with the class running and proceeded to swim in one of the lanes being used for the class. It's mostly older women who do aqua, some in their 70s and 80s, and this guy just shoved them all out of the way.

And nothing happened to him! No one said anything. The instructor didn't intervene and the older ladies didn't do anything (I was in a different lane).

Swimming etiquette right out of the window!

I find it's always the fast swimmers who cause the problems, not the slow swimmers.

I’ve been lane swimming for about 3 decades in the fast lane, no one has ever touched my feet nor me theirs, intentionally anyway! So long as slower people move over at the end or swim a bit closer to the edges if it’s a large lane with overtaking down the middle like ours is then you should be fine. If you’re in the slow lane and people are getting huffy about you being slow, they are in the wrong lane. Our lanes are the size of three singles so there is always plenty of room to overtake, that said you still get the odd one or two who swim up the middle quite slowly or wait until you’re just about to turn then push off grrrr

Probably didn’t clarify it very well, back in the days when our leisure centre had just general swimming sessions as opposed to lane swimming, it actually tended to be fairly quiet, my friend and I used to go a couple of times a week, neither of us were strong swimmers, but could happily swim widths , often better underwater than on top, however, when it moved to lane swimming , if you just enjoy a swim but not endless lengths, it became more difficult and less enjoyable as you couldn’t swim widths. Not everyone who likes to swim is an excellent swimmer and I think that sometimes gets forgotten

I sometimes accidentally touch person in front of me. Typically they are a bit slower than me and I am doing the backstroke. I think I have left enough distance but I end up accidentally touching them. I am mortified and apologetic. It can be difficult navigating the lane system.

Yesterday I went to the pool for lane swimming and they had one lane for land swimming. The rest was given over to water aerobics and lessons. It was a challenge. I think my pool is very poorly organised and it's very difficult to know when is a good time to swim. Early morning is probably best. A lot of the time there are only two lanes and one day they are labelled Fast and Medium and other days it's Medium and slow. I really think if you offer lane swimming it has to be a minimum of three lanes. There is no pool near me that is well organised but I do have a lido so I might try that this summer. 100 yards. It's pretty special but again have to go early morning.

Thing is, if there's more than one of you swimming in a lane, I don't think you should be doing backstroke, as you can't see the person ahead of you or swimming towards you.

No I don't do backstroke unless I have a lane to myself for that reason.

You were in the right lane: the slow lane is where people who can swim but like/need a leisurely pace go.

If people overtake you then they should consider moving to a different lane and you should not worry yourself about them.

And by the way if some random person touched my foot in the way some people describe describe on the thread I would not react well. Completely unacceptable as far as I am concerned.

I would also recommend women only sessions if available. Male swimmers can be an absolute pain: taking too much space, using fast and medium lanes to feed their ego when they can't keep the pace, making a point of trying to overtake woman even if they are struggling to do so again just for an ego boost...I love swimming and I am a good swimmer and I have countless issues with male swimmers over the year unfortunately.

Ideally you wouldn't do breast stroke either because I have lost count of the number of kicks I get from long legged swimmers. I do backstroke because I have significant back problems and it is the best stroke. I also do crawl.

You do realise 'swimming' has been a thing for thousands of years before pool with strictly drawn lanes and set distances were created?

It doesn't take that much imagination to understand the pp was probably talking about something like jump in, splash around, swim for a few metres, float for a bit, change direction, try a different stroke, dive down to the bottom, see how long you can swim underwater for, try to do a forward roll, get out, dive in, etc. You know, all the things people do in a lake or other open swim spot (or, indeed, kids do in general swimming sessions), rather than the regimented idea that swimming = 25metres of one stroke, turn, repeat x 30, get out.

Swimming can just be fun.

Male swimmers can be an absolute pain: taking too much space, using fast and medium lanes to feed their ego when they can't keep the pace, making a point of trying to overtake woman even if they are struggling to do so again just for an ego boost

I empathise with all of this. When a man makes a point of overtaking me when it’s clear they’re struggling and only doing it because I’m female, I then promptly overtake them on my next length.

Works a treat - especially as I often to do a medium speed breaststroke length, followed by a faster length of front crawl.

And don’t get me started on the amount of older men in the medium or fast lanes who haven’t accepted they’re no longer swimming at the same speed they were 40 years ago!