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pool etiquette

If you have a slow person in the fast lane how do you usually handle it?

We had some wee fat bloke in the fast lane today, as i was just getting in. Some woman decided to put him in his place and got proper narcy with him. Poor guy looked like his motivation got demo'd and he left. I ask as i just usually overtake or politely ask them to move lane. It especially made me think she were rotten cause her and her boyfriend were cuddling at the end of the pool while she boasted about it....i called her a rotten c word as i passed....then i felt bad cause they left too!

Comments

  • Jack HughesJack Hughes Posts: 1,262
    Oh dear. And I have a whole week in Glasgow next week. I had even worked out a pool that I can go to, on the assumption that I get the nod from the Surgeon that It is OK to start swimming again.

    Maybe I will just spend the evening cowering under the bed clothes in the hotel like the wee sassenach jessie that I am.
  • haha its usually a really nice pool with a good atmosphere just every so often a chavmonkey gets in. You know to spot them when they still get in the pool with 1/2 a kilo of gold hanging round their neck.

    What pool were you looking at jack? ill give you the comanighttrain pool report.
  • Jack HughesJack Hughes Posts: 1,262
    I'm being a bit "large scale" for the geographically challenged. It's actually Airdrie, and the John Smith swimming pool. Simply as it is the nearest one that I can find to the Hotel. Motherwell/Airdrie, it's all the same wasteland that's ultimately connected to the Glasgow conurbation.

    Not sure if I will be up to driving that far.. so I might not have a car which will probably put paid to the idea.
  • ahhh never been there. Airdrie is pretty rough, my friend used to be a pool guard in airdrie and apparantly the chavs used to have battles (not fights, i mean like gang battles) in the changing village. I personally didnt think swimming was a blood sport...but there you go
  • Jack HughesJack Hughes Posts: 1,262
    It is grim. I would only venture out for an early morning swim, hopefully while the locals are still sleeping off their buckies.
  • just dont let them hear the accent.

    Im from the highlands but i have been attacked for being american, canadian and english.
  • risris Posts: 1,002
    what the hell was she doing cuddling up in the fast lane? that lane is for pouring on the pain at 20sec intervals, not copping off. some people just aren't in the pool for the right reasons...
  • Jack HughesJack Hughes Posts: 1,262
    Well, if I don't post after next week, you'll know where to find my body. Well, bits of it at any rate.
  • BopomofoBopomofo Posts: 980
    Grrr... I wish that search worked properly and all the old threads had been moved over successfully. We had a massive noisy thread about a year ago on this topiuc.

    I think the dredgers generally fall into three categories:

    1) Genuine misunderstandings - usually newbies
    2) F*ckwits - "I've been swimming in the wrong lane for years"
    3) Deliberately obstructive - "I can swim here if I want, 'cos rules don't apply to me"

    1 and 2 can usually be politely corrected.

    I once got bitched at by a lady from the lane next door who had a right go at me for 'splashing too much'. She was trying to keep her hair dry, it seems... "I'm awfully sorry for getting you wet but it is IS one of the hazards of swimming. If you wish to stay dry can I suggest you take up jogging?" made me feel a lot better.

    I've also had to deal with the rutting couple at the end of the pool. Also, the gang 'o' mates who all stand at the end chatting (new members of the club) who then start saying "Well, I mean it's not a racing pool anyway" in loud voices. I had to stop and say "Oh? Isn't it? You'd better tell the manager, then, because there's a swimming club and a triathlon club based here that would hate to think the pool was only for standing about."

    I used to get really angry about stuff like this, but it isn't worth getting stressed over. Make sure they realise they're being idiots then let them get on with it. I can;t remember who it was that said they just modify their session if there's a dredger in the pool. I agree. Its funny to overtake people when they're being he-man for their girlfriend and you are doing one-arm drills.
  • gavinrigg06gavinrigg06 Posts: 176
    This is occasionally a problem at my local pool - dependant on which session it is (lane swim / general swim)

    The lane swim issues are the people that want to go at 150% for 2 lengths (50m) then spend the next 15mins clogging up the end of the pool whilst they try hard not to be sick, or the breaststokers that think they are faster than they actually are, but generally these people are quite polite and let you pass.

    The general swim sessions are marred by Kids bombing into the pool inches from your head, I generally find that a quiet word usually sorts this out - failing that I tend to accidently swim over them, this seems to work well, plus it's good practice for OW starts !!

    Another rant I have about my pool, is women with too much perfume on - WTF why have a bath in the stuff before getting in the pool !! and then hang around in the shallow end not even getting the top half of your body wet !! - I really hate coming up for a breath and getting a moutfull of anais anais or some other dodgy smelling scent.
  • we have a narrow fast lane at our pool which only allows 'crawl' .. the other day a guy turned up and did butterfly in one direction and breast-stroke in the other, with a really wide leg kick .. i thought it was a wind up.
    I thought about doing butterfly in the opposite direction as a live demo of why it was not allowed, but there's every chance i would have come off worse. Instead i tapped him on the head and pointed at the sign, he said sorry and switched to crawl ,annoyingly he was way faster than me so i then had to keep giving way. but i was right !
  • durhamvamdurhamvam Posts: 246
    My latest one was a chap who was swimming just slightly slower than me which was fine when there was a length between us. I was doing a pyramid set and didn't want to break in the middle obviously and then he waited right until I got to the turn and pulled out in front of me - too many people in the lane for me to get past so I used him as drafting practise for a couple of lengths until he stopped and had a break. I thought that would be the end of it but he did it again so I drafted again - I think I annoyed him as he changed lanes but I do feel I was in the right but perhaps I'm wrong......
  • Been thinking about posting about pool etiquete for a while... what is good form and what is frowned upon?

    A quiet word with people who are being blatent idiots is one thing but my problem is what to do when everyone could claim legitimate right to be in the fast lane.

    I am lucky in that swimming comes relatively easily to me and usually the fastest in the fast lane but this means that I seem to spend my wole time stuck behind people. I have absolutely no problem with people swimming and would encourage as many people to do so as possible but for me it is a bit like the running debate recently. Please participate, but PLEASE be considerate to those trainig faster than you and

    a) select the correct lane, if you want to switch to a slower stroke switch to a slower lane.
    b) don't push off immediately in front of people who are faster than you, even if you are doing sprints and they are going long.
    c) give way at the end of the length if someone catches you up.

    If I really get stuck behind someone I give a little tap on the feet to let peope know I'm there. I wish that pools (or my pool) would put up a sign outlining reasonable etiquette so that everyone is clear.

    If it is really busy and bad I wear a tshirt to slow me down so I don't have to overtake so often.

    My sister used to be a national level swimmer and when she has come to the pool with me she doesnt bother with any of the above... she is SO much faster than everyone else (including me) that she overtakes slow people by swimming butterfly kick underneath them and popping out again in front!!
  • md6md6 Posts: 969
    ewan - surely that's undertaking... sorry slow day in the office

    It is interesting how some people are totally oblivious to those around them. My pool has the lanes set out and the signs up for slow, med, fast etc but no one seems to pay any attention to them. On the weekend i went to the pool and found that there wer 4 people in the fast lane, who were going slower than one of the 3 in the medium lane, and the only person in the slow lane was going faster than anyone in the pool. It seems that at my pool everyone thinks they are ian thorpe. It gets so stupid when the slow lane is going at the same speed as the fast lane (and not because there is a fast guy in the slow lane). The lifeguards have not once tried to manage it and short of going and asking them to do something (which i have had to do a few times) they do nothing. So annoying - and i tend not to get in the fast lane either must be even worse for genuinely fast people.
  • Very topical as I just suffered a bad case of poor etiquette the other evening. Showed up to find a club of some sort in half the pool (wasn't on the schedule and having not gone at that time before I didn't realise) so the rest was general swim. Spent the first half hour farting around hoping it would clear out enough for me to do a 1500 m TT. Finally slotted into a spot only to have this humongous guy billy breastroking across my and his lanes so I kept having to steer around him b/c he kept kicking me! Ok, so I know it was a general swim and people can do as they like but honestly if you see someone clearly swimming for a purpose don't get in their way! During the day I find the lane swimming a real pain as people cannot judge their speeds and I always end up in the fast lane when in fact I am more of a medium lane swimmer. However, I cannot fathom having to constantly overtake people who are breastroking so I slot in with the fast guys who are fast and try to keep up, feeling like my heart is about to explode the whole time b/c I don't want to be 'that girl' who is in the wrong lane. I do find at night after 10 people seem to always slot in the right lane and it is much more enjoyable. I think people who swim that late are actually quite dedicated to doing it correctly. My other nightmare is on a Monday morning when all the old ladies who are waiting for their aqua aerobics class just decide to jump in the end and stand around and chat 10 minutes before their class. B/c I only have 40 minutes in the pool I need it all to do my 1500 and on several occassions I have actually had to stop short b/c they are too many in my way to continue. It is really upsetting when you are doing a TT and so close to finishing. Twice I've had words with the lifeguards but as they are just kids really (some I used to teach!) they do nothing. So annoying as there is no reason they need to be in there then!
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