Temporarily evicted from the Z-Center pool due to a swim meet, we’ve been swimming during rec swim hours at the alumni pool. Usually we show up with at least 2 - 3 masters swimmers per lane and try to do our workout, which involves things evidently foreign to the lap swimmer species: set intervals (we stop, check the clock, wait till the interval is over, then start swimming again), butterfly, drills and sprints. As predictable as the sunrise every morning, somebody will join our lane, jumping in without communicating and swimming heads up breaststroke at half our speed. We think it’s great you swim, really! But it can’t be fun to be passed by a group of masters swimmers every lap, although some of you seem blissfully unaware that you’re, you know, IN OUR WAY! Particularly when you push off the wall right ahead of us and we have to float behind you tapping your feet just to have the same thing happen again at the next turn.
To make sure everybody is safe and happy in the water, here a few pointers on lane etiquette:
- Pick the right lane for you: this means choosing a lane with people who swim close to your speed. No, I mean your real speed. Often the lanes are also marked slow, medium, fast - why do you think that is? Right! The closer your speed is to the other people’s in your lane, the less need for passing and the less potential for collisions. Before you get in, look what people are doing and how fast they swim. Are they swimming non-stop or are they doing a workout? Oh, and when you see people kicking at the speed you’ll be swimming at that usually means they swim twice your speed. Be warned. And remember, as the person joining others in the lane, it’s your responsibility to pick the right lane and not get in the way of what they’re doing. They were there first, show some respect.
- Getting in: Don’t jump in until you know that the other swimmers are aware of your presence, it’s NOT safe!!! If they stop at the turn, talk to them and ask if you can join. If they do flip turns and don’t stop, slowly get in and start swimming with enough distance to the other swimmers, all the time aware that they may not have noticed you.
- Splitting the lane vs. circling: with only two swimmers a lane you have the choice of splitting instead of circling. If you split the lane, stay on your side and be aware that you might have to switch to circling to accommodate other swimmers as they arrive (and offer to do so!). Circle swimming can safely accommodate more than 2 swimmers in a lane, particularly if they swim at similar speeds. It works like driving, you always stay on the right side of the lane. Easy as that.
- Passing/being passed: It’s safest to pass somebody at the wall. So, if somebody touches your feet, don’t keep going! Stop at the wall to let the swimmer pass, make sure there’s plenty of room before the next swimmer arrives, then continue. If you’re very fast, you can pass a slow person mid-lap if there’s no oncoming traffic. Usually that means one of you is in the wrong lane. Swimmers of varying speeds can do okay in the same lane as long as they stay out of each other’s way. That means, the faster swimmer gives the slower one enough room when starting a set and the slower swimmer gets out of the way so the faster can pass (at the wall).
- Crowded lanes and equipment: If lanes are crowded and narrow, try not to use paddles or fins. Getting hit with paddles is painful and eating somebody’s bubbles from fin kicking comes too close to open water swimming, not what people expect to have to deal with in the pool.
- Never stop in the middle of the pool or hang on the lane line kicking wildly into the lane next to you. It’s distracting at best and an accident waiting to happen at worst.
Follow these rules, be courteous and use common sense! That way we can all happily coexist in the same pool and there won’t be any danger of my yelling at you to get out of the way (not always in nice words). Not that I have any strong feelings about this or anything …. 