Swimming rant - was I in the wrong here?

[clary]

Arrgh need to vent
Had a lovely swim today but there was an annoying man. I swim there often and I have seen this man before. He swims in the medium lane (lanes are 2 x slow, 1 x med, 2 x fast) doing a very splashy but inefficient front crawl, slowly. I am a diehard medium lane swimmer – front crawl but not very fast.

I have no issue with people swimming in the lane at a different speed. But when they don’t move over it really bugs me. I left him a length to get ahead but still caught up with him within about 5 lengths. He MUST have seen me but didn’t move. I tapped his feet (ugh) and he still didn’t move. It took him four lengths to stop and let me go first.

Then the exact same thing happened again. Then again. The third time, I overtook him (we were the only ppl in the lane) as I was getting annoyed. I had finished my swim so I stopped at the end to say something to him, as he does this all the time and the older I get, the more I want to call out crap behaviour.

I politely said to him, can you try to be more aware of others in the lane and how fast they are going – you should stop and let them pass. He pretended not to understand, so I repeated it, then he unpleasantly said, speak to the lifeguard and see what they say; you were too impatient to wait for me to stop [wtf?] so it’s your fault. And he swam off.

He's massively out of order, no? If you are in a lane you need to be aware of other swimmers – it’s not hard. If I am in a faster lane (occasionally) I am hyper aware of the fast ppl and get out of their way, every other length if need be. Plus wait for him to stop? He was finishing his length and then immediately setting off again even tho I was right behind him – how can I wait for him?

To avoid the push off problem, I'd turn exactly halfway down the pool so you're still only doing one length between pushing off and still working in whole length numbers.

And hopefully if he was only just ahead of you when you turned, you'll end up a full length apart.

However once every 5 lengths or so it's a solution surely? Other people exist!

Good idea, but I think she'll still catch up to him after a few lengths.
Push off is part of finding your rhythmn too, so interrupting your length frequently just defeats the point.

This annoys me too. Swimming is my main fitness activity. I'm medium - medium/fast and I'm swimming for a specific reason, not just a gentle relaxing swim.

No one would ever consider trying to jump on your treadmill while you were exercising, but for some reason it seems to be a hobby for some swimmers to purposefully get or stay in your way.

Yes, other people exist - which is why you let them pass at the end of the lane !

Every 5 lengths for me (my pool is 20m so fairly short in fairness) would feel like all the bloody time

Male swimmers are arseholes. If he’s being too splashy speak to the lifeguard.

This conundrum with a certain brand of male swimmer put me off going swimming. YANBU. He was rude.

Mind you, and not the point of the thread, I find it horrifying that clubs are telling swimmers to touch someone's foot in a pool. So inappropriate. (Yes, read the thread, yes I know clubs suggest it). As a survivor of abuse, I would instinctively react to be touched by some random in a pool. And not in a good way.

Of course you can vary your swimming speed! Can you vary your walking and cycling speed? It’s exactly the same.

I've been in this situation many times, and I tend to move into the (empty) slow lane. Men never want to admit they are slow, so it’s often completely empty. I can then swim up and down at a decent speed. Yes, I’m sure if looks ridiculous that the fastest swimmer is in the slow lane, while a load of inefficient slow men try to do butterfly badly in the medium and fast lanes, but that’s not really my problem (obviously I don’t do this if there is somebody in the slow lane, but generally due to fragile male egos there isn’t).

WHY are they always the splashy ones? Front crawl tsunamis.

Totally this
You are faster so move into the fast lane
As for " Tapping feet" WTAF!
You would get both barrels from me, it's completely unacceptable to touch people .

You do know we're not exactly fondling or grabbing somebodies foot and seriously, most people just follow the etiquette so no need to touch toes.
Mostly if it does happen, it's by accident and apologies are made at the end of the length.

Nobody is weirdly fondly people's toes (and if they are - definitely speak to the lifeguard)

It's completely unacceptable to touch other people !

Personally I would stop and let someone go however many men won't do this. A good way around this is to overtake them without going to the end of the pool.

So they're in front and you're close behind but near the end of the pool, simply turn around and go back up the pool. Better done in the shallow end as you can get a little push off the bottom.

Whilst I agree with others about overtaking this isn't always easy if it's busy as you need quite a lot of speed and often the person will speed up to prevent it.

With respect, this is what most public swimming pool signs advise, as part of their sign at the ends of the lanes depicting lane etiquette. It is afterall a physical activity in a busy shared space… there’s going to be an element of being very near or coming into contact with people…. I don’t particularly like randoms touching me in public, but I accept that it’s part of certain sports and if I want to do those sports with others in shared facilities then I’m aware of what the ‘done thing’ is and I don’t freak out about it.

payyourselffirst
It happens in training when you clip somebodies arm going the other direction down the lane or sometimes you catch their toes. It can get quite crowded when you have 6 or 7 swimming in a lane.
Same as when you bump into somebody in a crowded street.

It's very old fashioned.
I've been a swimmer at various pools for 30 years and it's an absolute no no .
Touching anyone will get you banned and it happened to someone recently at my main pool.

Tapping toes is deliberate, it's an old fashioned thing to do, it's not bumping into someone

Ok everyone – I have said more than once that not only do I not usually touch someone’s foot (except by accident), but also I will now make a major effort not to do it even by chance.

As for varying my speed, no I really cannot swim consistently faster – yes for a length or two but I can’t increase my pace so it’s fast enough to be in the fast lane. Not even the slower fast lane. At least not today (I checked).

Of course I can swim more slowly but as I say, why should I? I did swim slowly behind the slow man but got fed up after four lengths. I have been known to swim in the slow lane if it’s empty (vacating once a slower swimmer comes in) but today there were three ppl in each slow lane as well. Swimming more slowly than me.

Lifeguard-wise btw – recently when swimming in the slow lane (I had a choice of two lanes, v v slow or v v fast), the lifeguard came and asked me to move as I was too fast. I did point out that the four men in the fast fast fast lane were much faster than me, but I saw his point. I was perhaps less annoying there. And yes, I did stop at the end of almost every length (rather than making them overtake and cannon into each other!).

Anyway thanks as ever for the interesting cross-section of opinions (not a cross section as I recently saw in print! But that’s a comment for pedants’ corner).

I am often the fastest in the medium lane but not quite fast enough for the fast. Most do let me pass at an end as I do if a faster swimmer is there. I do also wait if I need to. I would never tap another swimmer. Some men are bad at giving way and I will over take if needed.

Oh the feet tapping is disgusting.

Can't believe that as a suggestion!

That goodness where I swim we are allowed to overtake!

Why isn't it allowed Op?

The thing you aren’t taking into consideration, @clary , is that this poor fellow had to swim in the medium lane.

It’s a known fact that if a man chooses to swim in the slow lane (in keeping with the speed he can actually manage) his testicles and knob shrivel up and fall off. The slow lane literally unmans them.

You don’t want his tackle bobbing around in the pool like an unflushed turd.

So sadly you have to tolerate this inadequate bloke in your lane until either he gets tired or you get fast enough for the fast lane.

payyourselffirst
Well, If you let people pass at the end of the lane, it's not an issue.

When I swim at the club, nobody needs to touch my toes as I move out the way if they are faster and let them pass. I still occasionally get touched by accident.
What else should somebody do if they don't let you pass? Cutting the length short is a pain as you haven't got the wall to push off and you lose momentum particularly in the deep end.
I'm a fast swimmer and it's always men who behave like this. They just don't like being overtaken particularly by a middle aged women.

I also quit swimming because of annoying men, who always seemed to want to race me. Even if I moved into the slow lane and went faster then them, they wouldn’t move out of medium.
Either that or they would try and chat me up.
If fast was quiet I would go up but as you say, you then annoy the fast swimmers.
I’d recommend finding a ladies only swim if you can.

Umm… no. It’s not “very old fashioned” and won’t “get you banned”
😝

In the Victorian public baths I attend and the ultra-modern university training pool I use weekly, as well as the Olympic pool I train in there are signs up with instructions on pool etiquette including:

• gentle touch on toe to signify wanting to pass
• slower swimmers give way to faster swimmers at end of lane.

It really annoys me actually that you assumed because you’ve “been swimming 30 years” that my experiences are “old fashioned” and out of date… you assume absolute knowledge and the final word, but you haven’t asked me how many years or to what level I might have also been swimming. 😉 🤫

Oh I know what you mean. I did lots of swimming when pregnant and was medium lane swimmer (definitely not fast lane - I tried it and no!) and this woman I was behind for ages I then tried to overtake her and someone else was coming so I had to awkwardly dart back in and this woman was oblivious in the end I had to say very loudly and clearly to her to just let me past! But it must’ve been about 8 lengths of me making it very obvious I needed to get past! Each length I was getting closer and closer to her and no matter how much of a head start I gave her I caught her up eventually! She was so oblivious it was so strange.