Lane etiquette question

I WISH I could get some of the cads that swim with us occasionally to leave 3 seconds between us! Even if there are only a few people in the lane & the set is such that lapping/passing won't be an issue...there's a few that are still RIGHTTHERE when I'm turning. My only go-to has become the middle-of-the-lane-flipturn that creates a bit of a brushback (like the inside pitch in baseball for the plate crowders)....it only marginally works. I get it when the lane is packed or when lapping might be an issue....but drafting is not an artform. I was on deck watching a couple of the triathletes earlier this week & made them leave a few seconds in between themselves. Magically their sets of 50's got tougher. Made one guy a little snippy. I said "it's swim practice, not drafting practice!"

Never tried reverse! I will try to work this into a practice. I suspect many crashes!!!

This is a good idea. My team always does our warmup in reverse (i.e. CW circling).I need to do this (even though I almost always warm up in my own lane). I recently learned to do a back->*** turn but I can only do it when touching the wall with my left hand extended. I suspect it is because I'm used to doing ccw circling and have adjusted my flip to accommodate that. As for tailgating, I'm horribly spoiled. There are typically only 3-5 of us working out in 3-4 lanes. I usually get my own lane for most of a practice. When we do share lanes, everyone is really good about putting the fastest first and if there is any doubt, we just go 10 seconds back. Everyone is roughly the same ability so lapping is never a real problem. That said, we do 1k-2k sets where we intentionally draft. Each swimmer takes 200 yards up front swimming hard while everyone else hangs on in the draft. After 200 yards, the front swimmer drops off and rejoins at the back while #2 takes the lead. After swimming hard for a while and then drafting behind 5 others, you can't help but tap an ankle or toe every once in a while. The real problem is the flip turns. With a close draft, the first swimmer can get out of the way easily by flipping in the middle of the lane while the second swimmer is still in the right half of the lane. But the second swimmer doesn't have a lot of time to cut over to the middle to get out of the way of the third swimmer. The problem compounds itself down the line. I wouldn't want to do a whole practice like that.

in my last two work-outs (start at 6 am) we were two in one lane. Olympic conditions :banana:

I WISH I could get some of the cads that swim with us occasionally to leave 3 seconds between us! Even if there are only a few people in the lane & the set is such that lapping/passing won't be an issue...there's a few that are still RIGHTTHERE when I'm turning. My only go-to has become the middle-of-the-lane-flipturn that creates a bit of a brushback (like the inside pitch in baseball for the plate crowders)....it only marginally works. I get it when the lane is packed or when lapping might be an issue....but drafting is not an artform. I was on deck watching a couple of the triathletes earlier this week & made them leave a few seconds in between themselves. Magically their sets of 50's got tougher. Made one guy a little snippy. I said "it's swim practice, not drafting practice!" :applaud: for the use of the word cads (great word, underutilized in the US) :applaud: for the brushback/inside pitch analogy :applaud: for the snippy rejoinder (it would have come to me too late) I have to admit that while I'd love to have real coached workouts, it is nice only have to (at worst) split a lane.