Lane swimming : courtesy and discipline

[Cyclone 10]

Sadly not to me, or anyone else thinking of getting back in the pool. I'll stay out of it I think.

 

So what do you do?

 

---------- Post added 30-07-2014 at 12:50 ----------

 

I`ve learnt I have to modify the set I want to swim depending on how busy it is. In fact if it`s really really busy I won`t even bother getting in, it`s just a waste of time, but I try to go when that`s less likely. The more swimmers there are in the lane the shorter ones reps have to be, as an example I only do 200s if there is only one other swimmer in the lane. Usually it`d be 100s, but if the lane was busy I`d drop it down to 50s. I don`t tend to do continuous swims (I find it a bit tedious) but I`d only ever do that if I was sharing with a maximum of one other swimmer.

 

I normally swim a k, so I like to just keep plowing on with minor variations in speed to pass people or be passed.

[tinfoilhat 11]

I'm getting in the pool everyone will be faster than me I'll be getting in the way of someone - much to their annoyance clearly. But, as I said all this was theory only. I thought about going swimming again only to find a load of unwritten rules already in place about what I should do and more importantly shouldn't do to make sure those with the experience have good time. Carry on folks.

[Justin Smith 10]

I'm getting in the pool everyone will be faster than me I'll be getting in the way of someone - much to their annoyance clearly. But, as I said all this was theory only. I thought about going swimming again only to find a load of unwritten rules already in place about what I should do and more importantly shouldn't do to make sure those with the experience have good time. Carry on folks.

 

I wouldn`t let it put you off swimming, these days most pools have fast, medium and slow lanes. Just pick a lane to suit your speed and keep half an eye out on other swimmers as to whether they`re faster or slower than you. If you go in the slow lane then I don`t think you`ll get much impatience from anyone else, why should you if you`re in the "correct" lane ? If you`re restarting swimming you maybe a bit slow for a few weeks so personally I`d pick times to swim when the pool is less busy so it`d be more relaxing.

[Cyclone 10]

I'm getting in the pool everyone will be faster than me I'll be getting in the way of someone - much to their annoyance clearly. But, as I said all this was theory only. I thought about going swimming again only to find a load of unwritten rules already in place about what I should do and more importantly shouldn't do to make sure those with the experience have good time. Carry on folks.

 

If you're slow you'll be getting in the slow lane, there are lots of slow people that swim (and many who are faster than me, just to be clear that I'm not bragging).

 

The point being discussed is more about how you deal with being slightly slower or faster than other people in your lane. It certainly shouldn't put you off, it's just something you should consider.

[JME52K 10]

I'm a very slow breast stroke swimmer so never even go in the lanes, just do my best to swim up and down in the remaining area. I have actually been hit by a fast crawl swimmer in the general pool area who was trying to break the world record of swimming without watching out for any other swimmers. It flipping hurt.

[Justin Smith 10]

I'm a very slow breast stroke swimmer so never even go in the lanes, just do my best to swim up and down in the remaining area. I have actually been hit by a fast crawl swimmer in the general pool area who was trying to break the world record of swimming without watching out for any other swimmers. It flipping hurt.

 

I reckon you`d be better off in the lanes, albeit, going by what you`ve said about your speed, a slow lane. I wouldn`t worry how slow you are, some of the swimmers in the slow lanes (in fact some of the swimmers - incorrectly - swimming in the faster lanes....) really are pretty slow. But that`s what the slow lanes are for so I wouldn`t worry about it. At least in the lanes everyone is swimming in the same direction, or should be. The only problems that tend to occur in lane swimming is when people have to overtake, hence, as the thread stresses, swimmers should endeavour to adapt their swimming so overtaking is minimised.

I don`t understand why a faster swimmer would be in the general pool area, were the lanes closed or far too full ? You might be surprised that fast swimmer may not have been "trying to break a world record", there`s just a huge difference in swimmers speeds, arguably just having slow, medium and fast lanes is insufficient to cover it but I accept they can`t start having extra fast lanes.....

Edited August 13, 2014 by Justin Smith

[JME52K 10]

Thanks for the advice Justin, the lanes were busy. What I meant was the lad was not looking where he was going and if he wanted to go that fast, he should have been in a lane. Like it or not, it's a public pool and we all have to share with kids, old folk, poor swimmers and the ones who want to chat holding on to the side for half an hour. ;-)

[Flanker7 20]

Beside the fact that most breast-stroke swimmers are slower and therefore should not be in the same lane as front crawlers. It's a stroke that takes three times as much room as crawl and it has a powerful sideways action that is asking for trouble, even in an adjacent lane!

 

Therefore, give breast-stroker's an extra wide lane and let them kick each other to bits. AND leave the slim, streamlined, fast, crawler's a lane for them too.

 

This should be actively managed by the attendants all the time. As new swimmer's get in they should be monitored and advised which lane is best for them. I have never seen an attendant do this and it should be their job to create harmony and give everyone the best swimming experience possible.

[Cyclone 10]

Some of my friends can swim breast stroke just as fast as I can crawl. For distance speeds anyway (FYI we swim 1k, if we swam 100 metres I could up my pace more than they could of course).

 

---------- Post added 15-08-2014 at 09:16 ----------

 

This should be actively managed by the attendants all the time. As new swimmer's get in they should be monitored and advised which lane is best for them. I have never seen an attendant do this and it should be their job to create harmony and give everyone the best swimming experience possible.

 

To be fair to the life guards at Ponds Forge (firstly, they are lifeguards and not attendants) and secondly, they have in the past asked me to move up a lane. When I arrived the slow lane was empty and the fast and middle had a pair of swimmers each.

So me and my mate got in the slow lane and off we went at our crawl speed.

 

As someone else arrived and got in the slow lane, the lifeguard immediately stopped me at the end, and asked if I could transfer to the now empty middle lane, which I was perfectly happy to do.

[Flanker7 20]

Cyclone

"Some of my friends can swim breast stroke just as fast as I can crawl. For distance speeds anyway (FYI we swim 1k, if we swam 100 metres I could up my pace more than they could of course)."

 

I did say most breast strokers are slower.

It's not just my opinion that they are attendants - a spoke with a supervisor who confirmed that lane supervision is part of their duties and that attendants are trained to spot potential problems before they become real problems. This was after an attendant had directed two , almost non, swimmers into the fast lane. I had no joy when pointing this out to the attendant concerned.

 

I also go in the lane of least resistance where ever that may be and this involves swapping as new swimmers arrive and swapping when doing legs only drills. It's amazing to me that other swimmers cram into inappropriate lanes leaving empty ones next door. There is a maximum number per lane figure that when reached put a stop to new admissions till numbers decrease. There is also a maximum number of lanes that an attendant is expected to monitor. Mind you, Unlimited members (formally me) come in from the gym un-monitored. Sometimes I have to give up my usual session of 1500 mtrs due to high numbers and just fit in bits of technique or short sprints as best I can.

[Cyclone 10]

Fair enough, I've certainly seem them being less proactive as well as having experienced the proactive one. So maybe it just depends on who is on duty.

[Justin Smith 10]

I have actually been hit by a fast crawl swimmer in the general pool area who was trying to break the world record of swimming without watching out for any other swimmers.

 

You might be surprised that fast swimmer may not have been "trying to break a world record", there`s just a huge difference in swimmers speeds.

 

There`s actually a bigger point here. Slower swimmers might get annoyed at faster swimmers overtaking them and think they`re being aggressive but the fact is that a faster swimmer has to swim that fast or (from a fitness point of view) it`s a waste of time them even being there ! A swimmer who can do a 100m freestyle in 1 min 10 seconds* should be swimming 100m reps in about 1 min 20 or they really aren`t working that hard, believe me. If it was as slow as 1 min 30 they`d hardly be out of breath ! Obviously if they did a continuous swim they`d be going a bit slower (possibly 1min 35sec 100 pace) but they`d actually be overtaking even more swimmers because they wouldn`t be able to adapt their leaving times to try and avoid overtakes.

 

* And this really isn`t that fast at all, the world record is about 45 seconds, even an average Club swimmer (excluding "Masters" older swimmers) would be going under 1 minute.

 

---------- Post added 15-08-2014 at 13:30 ----------

 

Beside the fact that most breast-stroke swimmers are slower and therefore should not be in the same lane as front crawlers. It's a stroke that takes three times as much room as crawl and it has a powerful sideways action that is asking for trouble, even in an adjacent lane!

 

Therefore, give breast-stroker's an extra wide lane and let them kick each other to bits. AND leave the slim, streamlined, fast, crawler's a lane for them too.

 

This should be actively managed by the attendants all the time. As new swimmer's get in they should be monitored and advised which lane is best for them. I have never seen an attendant do this and it should be their job to create harmony and give everyone the best swimming experience possible.

 

I would agree it`d be nice if Reccy assistants sometimes "advised" swimmers to change lanes but like you I`ve never seen it done, ever. On the other hand I`m a relatively quick swimmer (for a lanes swimmer) but I don`t always go in the fast lane if that has significantly more swimmers in it than one of the medium lanes. I think it`s safer to go in a lane where the swimmers might be a bit slower but there are fewer of them.

 

Breast stroke is a slower stroke than Freestyle but I have frequently seen swimmers that can swim Breast faster than some swimmers can swim Free, so it isn`t always that simple

Edited December 28, 2015 by Justin Smith