snobs in the pool

Last summer I visited Wash DC and took the tours with my family.. I visited with a friend she swims at a college there DC University I think ( shes my age not a student) . and I believe she said it was free if you live in DC as she does. She also goes to a place in Maryland that she said was real nice. We went out to Va to the valley beyond the Blue Ridge and on the way went for a swim in a Fairfax County Va. pool about 15 miles from DC .It was a bit high 8 dollars each because we did not live there but it was a beautiful place huge with a big exercise room and olympic 50 meter pool and it was not crowded! My friend said they had several of these pools in Va. You might want to check them out for a swim now and then. Theres a huge subway system as you know and she said she normally used the subway to go to some of the pools and the Maryland one.

Arent there rules posted in any of your pools? We have a huge sign with the rules. I had this p[roblem with the snorkle bearers too until I started really (clawing) tapping on their feet. At one point I had tu pull a guy back by his flipper and when he got angry I just said I thought he couldnt feel the tapping due to the flipper. Anyway, it also helps if you started getting recognized as the unofficial coach or experience swimmer in the pool. People are always looking for help, etc...and this brings up the opportunity to talk about lane rules, etc... Thats my two cents Dolphinccc

Wow, I guess my Y experience is different than some of the stories here. I swim one of two primary times depending on my schedule - either M-F 7:00am to 8:30am or M-F 11::30am to 1:30pm. At either time, I usually share a lane with one other swimmer - we split the lane in half. (Of course my defintion of serious swimmer is "someone who is esercising and can stay on their side of the lane" as opposed to Ion who defines serious as "somone who can swim world class times as a warm-up".:rolleyes: The people in the pool are always the same group - we are all familiar with each other. Usually, once a week I have a lane to myself. And I have to swim circles (three or more in a lane) maybe once a month for half of a workout. The only exception is when I miss a couple of workouts and try to make it up either in the evening or on the weekend. The pool is a zoo then. This is at a Y with a 25 yard indoor pool and a 25 yard outdoor pool that is only open Memorial Day through Labor Day. We are in the Philadelphia suburbs. Maybe my schedule just works out really well with the crowds at the pool.

Unfourtuntly(excuse my spelling I always wanted to enter a worst speller in the world compition), the time I can go swimming is right after work. This is when other children are coming from school and swimming. It isn't always that bad. Today was a good day and I had a nice swim. Part of the problem is the small size of our pool. It's 25 yrds. but it only has four lanes.

Posted Pool Rules? Who reads them? Not the ones who have no pool etiquette. I'd fall over in a dead faint if I saw any member of the A/C where I swim take the time to read them. I teach kids' lessons there, too, and you'd be amazed at what I've seen. I watched a women "teach" (a stretch of the imagination here) her grandchildren to get used to the deep end of the pool by letting them hang on the coping on the side of pool and pull themselves down from shallow to deep end. And, they could not swim. I asked her if the kids could pass a swim test and with a 'tude, she told me they could. Hmmm. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe there's a new phenom in the pool and it's not Michael Phelps, it's pool rage. My 1/2 cents' worth. Aquageek, I can top the grossness of the guy and his using the Suit Mate wringer. There's a man who repeatedly stands in the steam room and shadow boxes in the buff, during which time he's almost completely red from the heat and sweating like a horse. We're waiting to see who volunteers to administer CPR when he has a stroke. Then there's the swimmer who shows up in a suit that's in dire need of replacement and either the tummy is too big or the suit's too small. Yuck.

I have more of a problem with the kids that swim in the pool. At my Y we have only one lane to lap swim. The guards never seem to be paying any attention to the pool and the kids are always coming over into the lap lane. I'm scared one day I'm going to be doing a flip turn and run right into one. Sometimes if thier not in the lane they are hanging on the lane line and their feet are kicking underneth it. Let's just say I've been kick plenty of times in the side. If I get one more ball bouncing in my lane I swear I'm going to pop it.

Originally posted by SWinkleblech If I get one more ball bouncing in my lane I swear I'm going to pop it. To this day (well, not any more, since I quit), if someone's toys or equipment comes into the lane, I stop and throw it to the deck on the other end of the pool. Want it? Get out and go get it. If you put it back in my lane, it goes right back to the deck on the far end of the pool. If it's an outdoor pool, it might just go over the fence. When I first started using this forum, I was dressed down by the legendary Emmett Hines for saying I would throw stuff out of the pool, both for being discourteous and for the danger of hitting someone with the projectile floatie. He said that if I had done it at his pool, I would have been suspended from using the facility. But you know what? These crappy pools are like the Wild West, where rules are mostly ignored. I have no faith left in pool management to fix the problems at these places. I'm tired of having to psych myself up for battle just to swim laps. The swim was supposed to work out the day's stress, not add to it. Emmett actually seems like a good administrator whose pool probably doesn't have these problems, so he probably wouldn't have ever had to kick me out for taking the law into my own hands. But it seems to me that his pool is an exception. The rest, quite frankly, suck. I'm headed for the trails.

I dragged the Cannondale out of my storage unit and am no longer swimming. No Shakey No! Don't turn to the dark side.:eek:

Last summer, I had the problem of kids all over the lap lanes as well. The problem went away when I informed pool management that the next time it happened, I intended to contact their liability insurance company and inform them that they were being lax in promoting a safe environment. Of course, I wasn't exactly loved for the rest of the summer. -LBJ

I just get out my biggest set of Tyr Catalyst paddles and keep on swimmin'. Well, that's what I tell myself I ought to do....:p