Paddles, gloves etc..

Originally posted by ShariL Why is swimming a contact sport at your YMCA? Bert understands and explained it pretty well, but I'll give you a more complete picture of the situation. At every one of the dozen or so pools I've used regularly in the past (including four other Y pools), people were for the most part courteous, traffic in the pool wasn't ridiculous, and you could expect to get a reasonable workout without stress or personal injury. At THIS Y, however, the pool is extremely crowded. Part of the overcrowding is because of unusually high interest in "swimming" (or some attempt at it), but a large part of it is because of poor scheduling on the part of management. The pool has six lanes. Each lane has a sign over it to designate the speed in that lane. There are two slow lanes, two medium lanes, one fast lane, and one very fast lane. The slow and medium lanes are on the outside, with the fast and very fast in the middle. As I mentioned earlier, I don't consider myself to be very fast; but at THIS pool, I end up in the fast or very fast lane because I am faster than the majority of people who use the pool. If I find myself in one of the fast lanes with people who are much faster than I am, I usually move, because I know how irritating it is to have one guy slowing down the whole lane. But that situation is rare for me. Unfortunately, this pool attracts a lot of inexperienced swimmers who pay no attention to etiquette guidelines on lane usage, and the lifeguards (who the aquatic director has told me are supposed to police the lanes) pay little attention to much of anything. Swimmers are supposed to enter from the shallow end, but people jump into the lanes from both ends of the pool without signaling their intentions to the people who are already there. You might be lucky enough to be there during one of the few uncrowded times and have two in a lane swimming side by side, and a third guy will jump in and start swimming circles without observing what the other people are doing and without making his presence known to them. One guy did this and ran into me head on. My "contact sport" signature actually came before that encounter, from several other impacts with other swimmers. There are an inordinate number of people here who use a monstrously wide breaststroke kick and kick under the lane ropes. I've been kicked several times in the sides and legs. Some sweep unusually wide with their arms under the ropes, and I have been hit, scratched and even had one snag my suit and pull it down a little. I've also been hit and scratched during wide backstroke pulls. Then there's the wide freestyle recovery over the lane ropes. I've had my hands smacked so many times there's no count. One girl hit me so hard it split my knuckle open. It's particularly bad when you get one of those guys next to you who thinks he needs to smack the water really hard to feel as though he's getting a good workout. Then there are the people who can't swim a straight line or who can't stay on their side of the lane. I had one guy cross over and miss me head on, but somehow he managed to hook his elbow under my arm. Smack! Then there are the people who want to "race" you. You get a chance to pass someone who is just poking along in front of you, but when you move out to the side they suddenly pour in every ounce of effort to keep you from passing. There's this one silly jerk who swims there regularly that I avoid like the plague because he does this. Once when I attempted to pass him, he turned his head and looked back at me, put on the speed and started moving toward the middle of the lane to crowd me out. He managed to stay just ahead of me to the end of the pool, where he did a really violent flip turn and tried to shove off into me. Speaking of that guy, he's a perfect example of the intimidators Aquageek mentioned. He will get into a lane with swimmers who are slower than he is and start doing butterfly. His stroke has a whole lot of splash in it and takes up almost the whole lane. He'll come up on them from behind slap his arms violently against the water to splash them. The jerk even takes other people's towels. And let's not forget the ones who push off the wall right in front of you as you're approaching for a turn, when they KNOW you're faster than they are. Their intervals are so important that they can't wait five more seconds for you to get off the wall. Or worse, I've actually had some that have taken off at the same time, so that two swimmers are suddenly competing for the same spot in the space/time continuum. All these problems with bad swimmers are irritating enough, but they are compounded by the sheer number of swimmers in the pool. At one point last week there were EIGHT PEOPLE in the fast lane, including me. There's supposed to be a limit of five, but the lifeguards don't pay any attention. One of them was blocking everyone while she used a kickboard. Another had these really long fins and was kicking up and down the pool backwards in a sitting position, with his head out of the water. The fins were so awkward that he and the fins got in everyone's way at each end of the pool when he had to struggle to turn around. I cut my workout short and left. The population problem is increased by the programs the Y schedules for the pool during the most crowded times of the day. Water aerobics happens in the mornings and evenings, during the most busy times for the pool, and takes up two lanes. Masters takes up two or three lanes. Adult swimming lessons take up one or two lanes. Children's lessons close the whole pool. The triathletes take up two or three lanes in the mornings. Some of these programs overlap, such that the pool has actually been reduced to two lanes for lap swimmers. On some weekends, which are already crowded with "family swimmers," they'll close half the pool for water safety instructor courses. I no longer go there in the evenings because of the overbooking of the pool. I was swimming in the mornings, but lately there have been way too many people in there. The only time when the pool is NOT ridiculously crowded is during the work day (except lunchtime), so I try to slip out of the office when I can. Why don't I go somewhere else? Convenience, money and a lack of suitable alternative. I pay $80 a month now (the most expensive Y I've ever heard of), but they're just about the cheapest in town. I tried going to one of the local high schools that has an open swim time. I walked in, saw people waiting to get into a lane, and walked back out. I found a pool that isn't very crowded, but it will cost me $135 per month and add a minimum of 90 minutes to my day to get there before or after work. In contrast, the Y is right near my office. My line of work has taken me to several cities, and nowhere have I encountered the kind of problems I experience here. To be honest, I'm swimming less and less these days, and actually considering giving it up until I can move away from here. Sorry for the long rant. It was going to be quick, but once I get started it's hard to stop whining.

Originally posted by ShariL Why is swimming a contact sport at your YMCA? Bert understands and explained it pretty well, but I'll give you a more complete picture of the situation. At every one of the dozen or so pools I've used regularly in the past (including four other Y pools), people were for the most part courteous, traffic in the pool wasn't ridiculous, and you could expect to get a reasonable workout without stress or personal injury. At THIS Y, however, the pool is extremely crowded. Part of the overcrowding is because of unusually high interest in "swimming" (or some attempt at it), but a large part of it is because of poor scheduling on the part of management. The pool has six lanes. Each lane has a sign over it to designate the speed in that lane. There are two slow lanes, two medium lanes, one fast lane, and one very fast lane. The slow and medium lanes are on the outside, with the fast and very fast in the middle. As I mentioned earlier, I don't consider myself to be very fast; but at THIS pool, I end up in the fast or very fast lane because I am faster than the majority of people who use the pool. If I find myself in one of the fast lanes with people who are much faster than I am, I usually move, because I know how irritating it is to have one guy slowing down the whole lane. But that situation is rare for me. Unfortunately, this pool attracts a lot of inexperienced swimmers who pay no attention to etiquette guidelines on lane usage, and the lifeguards (who the aquatic director has told me are supposed to police the lanes) pay little attention to much of anything. Swimmers are supposed to enter from the shallow end, but people jump into the lanes from both ends of the pool without signaling their intentions to the people who are already there. You might be lucky enough to be there during one of the few uncrowded times and have two in a lane swimming side by side, and a third guy will jump in and start swimming circles without observing what the other people are doing and without making his presence known to them. One guy did this and ran into me head on. My "contact sport" signature actually came before that encounter, from several other impacts with other swimmers. There are an inordinate number of people here who use a monstrously wide breaststroke kick and kick under the lane ropes. I've been kicked several times in the sides and legs. Some sweep unusually wide with their arms under the ropes, and I have been hit, scratched and even had one snag my suit and pull it down a little. I've also been hit and scratched during wide backstroke pulls. Then there's the wide freestyle recovery over the lane ropes. I've had my hands smacked so many times there's no count. One girl hit me so hard it split my knuckle open. It's particularly bad when you get one of those guys next to you who thinks he needs to smack the water really hard to feel as though he's getting a good workout. Then there are the people who can't swim a straight line or who can't stay on their side of the lane. I had one guy cross over and miss me head on, but somehow he managed to hook his elbow under my arm. Smack! Then there are the people who want to "race" you. You get a chance to pass someone who is just poking along in front of you, but when you move out to the side they suddenly pour in every ounce of effort to keep you from passing. There's this one silly jerk who swims there regularly that I avoid like the plague because he does this. Once when I attempted to pass him, he turned his head and looked back at me, put on the speed and started moving toward the middle of the lane to crowd me out. He managed to stay just ahead of me to the end of the pool, where he did a really violent flip turn and tried to shove off into me. Speaking of that guy, he's a perfect example of the intimidators Aquageek mentioned. He will get into a lane with swimmers who are slower than he is and start doing butterfly. His stroke has a whole lot of splash in it and takes up almost the whole lane. He'll come up on them from behind slap his arms violently against the water to splash them. The jerk even takes other people's towels. And let's not forget the ones who push off the wall right in front of you as you're approaching for a turn, when they KNOW you're faster than they are. Their intervals are so important that they can't wait five more seconds for you to get off the wall. Or worse, I've actually had some that have taken off at the same time, so that two swimmers are suddenly competing for the same spot in the space/time continuum. All these problems with bad swimmers are irritating enough, but they are compounded by the sheer number of swimmers in the pool. At one point last week there were EIGHT PEOPLE in the fast lane, including me. There's supposed to be a limit of five, but the lifeguards don't pay any attention. One of them was blocking everyone while she used a kickboard. Another had these really long fins and was kicking up and down the pool backwards in a sitting position, with his head out of the water. The fins were so awkward that he and the fins got in everyone's way at each end of the pool when he had to struggle to turn around. I cut my workout short and left. The population problem is increased by the programs the Y schedules for the pool during the most crowded times of the day. Water aerobics happens in the mornings and evenings, during the most busy times for the pool, and takes up two lanes. Masters takes up two or three lanes. Adult swimming lessons take up one or two lanes. Children's lessons close the whole pool. The triathletes take up two or three lanes in the mornings. Some of these programs overlap, such that the pool has actually been reduced to two lanes for lap swimmers. On some weekends, which are already crowded with "family swimmers," they'll close half the pool for water safety instructor courses. I no longer go there in the evenings because of the overbooking of the pool. I was swimming in the mornings, but lately there have been way too many people in there. The only time when the pool is NOT ridiculously crowded is during the work day (except lunchtime), so I try to slip out of the office when I can. Why don't I go somewhere else? Convenience, money and a lack of suitable alternative. I pay $80 a month now (the most expensive Y I've ever heard of), but they're just about the cheapest in town. I tried going to one of the local high schools that has an open swim time. I walked in, saw people waiting to get into a lane, and walked back out. I found a pool that isn't very crowded, but it will cost me $135 per month and add a minimum of 90 minutes to my day to get there before or after work. In contrast, the Y is right near my office. My line of work has taken me to several cities, and nowhere have I encountered the kind of problems I experience here. To be honest, I'm swimming less and less these days, and actually considering giving it up until I can move away from here. Sorry for the long rant. It was going to be quick, but once I get started it's hard to stop whining.