Swim Rant

Rant. The fitness club I sometimes swim at on my own has 4 lanes and the expectation is "no sharing". So if you don't get your own lane, you just have to wait until somebody decides that they are done lane hogging (ie, by standing in the water talking, swishing their arms a little). Circle swimming is unknown; splitting a lane is unheard of unless you are related; and when most of them swim, their arms and legs cover the width of the lane so there's not much point introducing the concept. There are no pool rules posted other than "No Lifeguard" "Swim at your own risk". If you are doing intervals, other people assume when you stop on the wall that it's OK to swim right across your lane to get across the pool. When somebody did that behind my back it made for a nasty collision. Headbangers: at my Masters practice years ago there used to be a woman who would shut her eyes while she swam (because it relaxed her) and she would swim right down the middle of the lane (so she wouldn't scrape her knuckles on the ropes). Never mind that there were 3-5 other people in the lane. Coach said, "Oh, that's just Betty; deal with it". Another headbanger: Novice teammates who will swim backstroke outdoors and won't check to see if they are going straight after 2 head-on collisions during a freestyle set. We only had 2 laneropes for the 6-lane pool, and the swimmer was all over the place.

Rant. The fitness club I sometimes swim at on my own has 4 lanes and the expectation is "no sharing". So if you don't get your own lane, you just have to wait until somebody decides that they are done lane hogging (ie, by standing in the water talking, swishing their arms a little). Circle swimming is unknown; splitting a lane is unheard of unless you are related; and when most of them swim, their arms and legs cover the width of the lane so there's not much point introducing the concept. There are no pool rules posted other than "No Lifeguard" "Swim at your own risk". If you are doing intervals, other people assume when you stop on the wall that it's OK to swim right across your lane to get across the pool. When somebody did that behind my back it made for a nasty collision. Headbangers: at my Masters practice years ago there used to be a woman who would shut her eyes while she swam (because it relaxed her) and she would swim right down the middle of the lane (so she wouldn't scrape her knuckles on the ropes). Never mind that there were 3-5 other people in the lane. Coach said, "Oh, that's just Betty; deal with it". Another headbanger: Novice teammates who will swim backstroke outdoors and won't check to see if they are going straight after 2 head-on collisions during a freestyle set. We only had 2 laneropes for the 6-lane pool, and the swimmer was all over the place.