Pool Etiquette

[WFEGb]

I'm just back from an hour (short in time, so I should have stayed there only for half an hour... but today I couldn't resist) in an outside tempered pool. Big snowflakes were falling. Swimmer's lane whole time for myself. Be assured, this has do be part of paradise...

Regards,
Werner

PS: Hashu33 told me the secret time when the pool always is nearly empty. THANK YOU!

[Mike from NS]

WFEGb,

Your post brought back some really pleasant memories for me ! Thanks !! I had a week's skiing at Sunday River in Maine last winter ..... and there is a really nice outdoor (heated) pool attached to the hotel at the resort. It was a variable cloudy night with first quarter moon in the sky along with frequent snow flurries. I just about had the pool to myself ! In the distance, up the hill, you could hear the groomers working the trails and see their lights. With the location, the moon, the flurries and the fog rising from the pool, just as you experienced .... this too was heaven !

On pool etiquette: .... last Friday two young (early 20's) and muscular fellows jumped in the next lane. What followed as they swam down the length was nothing short of similar to the results of a hurricane - not unlike Sandy. They did move fast; but the last time I had seen so much white water was while visiting Peggy's Cove Lighthouse after a huge storm. If these guys, with such fitness, followed the TI program and style, I expect it would have been a joy to watch them. As it was, people were probably reaching for the Gravol and ducking the tidal waves. Sure enough they were in another lane. And the lane lines have only a slight effect on waves of this magnitude. The others in that lane came to "my" lane. I commented to one of them ... at least you have experienced swimming in a tsunami ! They agreed. The interesting thing is that these two young guys burnt out very quickly and left..... allowing calmer waters to prevail!

Mike

[kentakirk]

Excuse me, but to support the lane invaders etiquette, or lack of it, is not right. The lady that wanted to use the lane had several opportunities to stop and ask if you were done swimming but instead she chose to just jump over. A polite request to share the lane would have been a much better way to handle it. She clearly is new to swimming or just has a bad entitlement attitude, because as a group, we know that sharing lanes is part of the deal.

[daveblt]

Thanks for agreeing with me . I would never just jump in on someones lane . I myself do not like the idea of 2 people just standing there talking for a length of time but I will ask them if they are done and if so that I would like to use the lane and if their not then I'll ask if we can circle swim.And circle swim they must for 3 or more in a lane .

Dave

[Caro]

In all the pools I have swum in anyone is allowed to join a lane at any time they are not expected to have to ask other people using the lane for permission. Sometimes people say hello, but that is it.

If a fifth person had turned up would you expect them to ask permission to join one of the lanes?

Where I swim there is a slow, medium and fast lane, sometimes I am swimming in the fast lane and more people come and join the lane, they then get offended when I move to one of the empty lanes. (I move back if someone slower wants to swim in that lane) They don't seem to understand that you can do your own thing better in a lane by yourself.

[CoachJohnB]

Originally Posted by Caro

In all the pools I have swum in anyone is allowed to join a lane at any time they are not expected to have to ask other people using the lane for permission. Sometimes people say hello, but that is it.

That's not what has people's feathers ruffled. The lady was already in a lane with someone else. She just assumed the two people weren't swimming anymore.

Instead of asking if they still swimming, she just assumed they were done, so she jumped over while they were planning on what they were doing next.

People are not required to ask for permission. They are expected to ask, "do you mind if we share(or circle depending on how many are in the lane)" This is more of a respectful way of saying "I plan on swimming in this lane"

This is more about how the lady handled the situation than it is about lane sharing itself.

[Caro]

I do understand what people are thinking but that is not how it works in the pools I swim in. I have swum in public pool length lanes for 30+ years, in council pools people get in and out whatever lane they want to without speaking to anyone. The whole point of length lanes is that 5 or 6 people can swim together (or a dozen if you are in Norway).

The last few years I have mostly swum in my gym pool where obviously you get to know people more, it is still accepted that people may swim in whichever lane they want, and may move from one lane to another, they just do it. People often get in at the opposite end of the pool to where people are standing after they have been in the sauna or steamroom. People often get in the fast lane and then proceed to do a very slow breaststroke, I'm not sure why they do this but it would never occur to me to ask them to leave, they usually go when you have lapped them a couple of times.

On many occasions I have stood at the end talking, it would never occur to me that someone would ask if they could move into the lane. Most people would consider it more impolite to interrupt the conversation. If someone does move into the lane and I am still talking I make sure I keep out of their way. On the basis that people just tend to join a lane if someone asked me if I had finished swimming I would probably think they were having a dig at me for talking. It is not that people are being rude by not asking it is just accepted that everyone has as much right as anyone else to be in a lane. Lanes are for sharing.

The lady in question was probably frustrated at seeing a lane empty for 5 minutes. Would people have found it acceptable for her to join the lane initially without asking as opposed to moving from another lane? If she had asked would the people who were asked feel they needed to start swimming again to keep 'their' lane, would they have said they were going to use the lane and continue talking for another 5 minutes or would they have felt obliged to let her join them?

The other point is that those people should not have been swimming side by side when there were two people in the next lane - it is very dangerous, it would be ok if the next lane were empty or just one person swimming down the middle.

[Richardsk]

At the pool I swim in - a small four-lane 25m pool, they have lane swimming three days a week at lunch time and the lanes are marked as fast, medium, medium, and slow. Usually the faster swimmers swim in the fast lane but sometimes in the first medium lane, which then doubles as a second fast lane. I swim in the fast lane although I am not fast but since most of the fast swimmers swim continuously I find that I can sneak my not so fast lengths in quite easily without getting in anybody's way. It means I'm generally restricted to 25m lengths and I can generally do about 500m of freestyle swimming in half an hour that way. After the first half hour quite a few swimmers have done their bit and I can then sometimes move to one of the slower lanes to do some breaststroke, backstroke or even my weird butterfly. Sometimes a really slow swimmer will get in the 'fast' lane but they usually get the message quite soon. The lifeguards never intervene, or at least very seldom. Once one of them asked a slow lady breaststroker to move over a lane but she refused point blank and was very indignant. Here most people take the view that it's everybody's pool and they can swim where they damn well like, which in many ways is a healthy attitude, although sometimes inconvenient for the dedicated pursuers of perfection or faster times, whichever distant goal they may be striving for.

We dedicated seekers of improvement form a kind of bond together.

On days when there are no lanes it's a free for all and the devil take the hindmost. Sometimes cross words are spoken.

[Caro]

Quite right.
People hate being told where to swim, a while back I was swimming in the fast lane and a guy got in and did the slowest most bizarre stroke ever. I swam around him a couple of times and then noticed that the life guard was asking him to move. The guy was absolutely furious but he did leave the lane.

[DD_l_enclume]

This really comes down to a cultural matter.
And that is very interesting in this international forum to read the different culture.

In my country, same as what Caro said : you never mention you're changing lane.
I see a guy here doing transversal lap, and enjoying it.
He starts a lap on one lane, then dive to the side lane. Sometime 3 lanes per length.
Can be frustrating, but he is careful.

The only time people talk to each other is when it is starting to become dangerous: someone diving on your face, swiming across you, and so on.


But it is not a "pool" behavior, really cultural.
People don't queue up for bus here : well, why bother standing in line if you can overtake everyone ?


I cross the border a few weeks ago to see our german friends :
1) no fence to reach the subway -> Nothing to prevent you from "not buying the ticket" !!
2) Newspaper available in a transparent box anyone could open -> well, why bother paying if I can have it for free ....


This is absolutetly ruled out here.
The basic rule is : if you don't a have a rule enforcement, then there's no rule.


No lifeguard to enforce the "etiquette" -> no etiquette
no cop to check you bought a bus ticket -> no bus ticket
and so on.


Am I out of topic here ? Sorry, just came from out from company christmas party ...