Swim Rant

I believe when Michael Phelps needs his own lane, he gets it no matter how crowded his pool is. I have some sympathy for out-of-shape people who swim slow. Some of them are not very flexible and have poor technique so they "swim wide" and end up in collisions when they try to share a lane, either with the other swimmer(s) or with the lane lines/pool walls/ladders. Please don't disrespect them for being stiff, slow or out-of-shape; everything is relative and they are doing what they can. I'm okay with people who are out of shape -- but if you only have 3 lanes, and 15 swimmers, we all need to share, is all I'm sayin' I've seen some pools that go so far as to post ideal swimming speeds for each lane, i.e. to swim in this lane you have to be able to keep 100's on a 1:20; and the next lane say's "....100's on the 1:30" etc. There could be lanes that are reserved for the less skilled swimmers, but they can't have the lane to themselves if people are waiting. If you only have "x" amount of time to swim, and people won't share their lane with you, you've just wasted your time (and $) showing up, and that's not fair. Just sayin' Too funny. I swam in a pool in Paris where they had strokes designated for each lane (which could help, really...) but I jumped in the freestyle lane and quickly ran into someone swimming breaststroke.... I'm all for sharing lanes - we have all of the pool in the morning and share the pool in the evening with other users. We have 1 lap swimmer female who insists on having her own lane and will yell at the coach when we try to clear her out of "our" space (4 lanes, designated by the pool). We call her the lane nazi....

I believe when Michael Phelps needs his own lane, he gets it no matter how crowded his pool is. I have some sympathy for out-of-shape people who swim slow. Some of them are not very flexible and have poor technique so they "swim wide" and end up in collisions when they try to share a lane, either with the other swimmer(s) or with the lane lines/pool walls/ladders. Please don't disrespect them for being stiff, slow or out-of-shape; everything is relative and they are doing what they can. I'm okay with people who are out of shape -- but if you only have 3 lanes, and 15 swimmers, we all need to share, is all I'm sayin' I've seen some pools that go so far as to post ideal swimming speeds for each lane, i.e. to swim in this lane you have to be able to keep 100's on a 1:20; and the next lane say's "....100's on the 1:30" etc. There could be lanes that are reserved for the less skilled swimmers, but they can't have the lane to themselves if people are waiting. If you only have "x" amount of time to swim, and people won't share their lane with you, you've just wasted your time (and $) showing up, and that's not fair. Just sayin' Too funny. I swam in a pool in Paris where they had strokes designated for each lane (which could help, really...) but I jumped in the freestyle lane and quickly ran into someone swimming breaststroke.... I'm all for sharing lanes - we have all of the pool in the morning and share the pool in the evening with other users. We have 1 lap swimmer female who insists on having her own lane and will yell at the coach when we try to clear her out of "our" space (4 lanes, designated by the pool). We call her the lane nazi....