Swim Rant

People who blow snot in the gutter and miss. Can you believe this actually happens? I see people "blowing" their nose in the pool quite a bit. Yucky. :shakeshead: And one definitely cannot swim backstroke without backstroke flags. I don't even like it when they're flopping in the wind outdoors.

I think this thread is a HOOT !!! Most have covered mine, but I have a couple: Pool temperature too hot (I get out and leave) Drafting: when a person in the draft line cuts over in front of the lead swimmer mid-pool and takes the lead themself, then stops at the wall and proceeds to go to the back of the line. When someone decides to swim butterfly when everyone else is doing freestyle circle style. I had an injury because of this doofus. Right before you make a turn, someone jumps in where you would be turning toward. And they don't swim, they just jumped in. Swimmers in the wrong-speed lanes; wrecks my sets. People in medium-fast lanes who decide to hang on the wall--can't they move to the outside lanes? People who blow snot in the gutter and miss. People who you have tagged on the foot and at the wall they don't let you pass, they keep swimming slow. And, because I am one of these, no backstroke flags!!! Donna

OOps. I'm new to this. We have some "floaters" that have petitioned the management to raise the water temp to 85-86! Any suggestions?

Whining narcissitic lap swimmers who complain to management and get a whole Masters swim team time moved because they think lap swimming means if they get in the lane first they get the whole lane to themselves. I agree. Now why are lap swimmers like this? When I go swim myself and ask to share a lane during "lap swim" time, I get glared at. What's so bad about sharing a lane if you split sides? I like your version of civil disobedience. I hope it works.

Donna: You are much smarter and more experienced than me. I am still blaming those fluttering flags for my absolutely god awful finishes in my backstroke events at my last outdoor meet. I dove for the wall on one event and wasn't even close. It really cost me. I had to come back up and take another stroke. But I will keep this in mind for next summer.

Sprinter Girl, You have probably already figured this one out, too, but just in case, I never look at the flags, I look at the line they are mounted on so when the wind is really blowing and the flags are at horizontal rather than vertical, my stroke count into the wall remains about the same at all times, even when the cord itself is moved slightly due to the wind. Figured this out when I flipped over and the wall wasn't there and I was DQd for "swimming freestyle." Donna

Whining narcissitic lap swimmers who complain to management and get a whole Masters swim team time moved because they think lap swimming means if they get in the lane first they get the whole lane to themselves. I kid you not this just happened to our team this month. I told the Aquatics Director that he needed to educate the membership as to what lap swimming really means and what etiquette is required when lap swimming. Sooooo...most of us are not going to swim at the new time, and we are now offically "lap swimmers" who will swim at the old time.....:thhbbb: The spin machine at our facility is on the end of my arm.....

Money grubbing administrators who move a whole Masters swim team, who are all dues paying members, to a later time, because a class for fee paying non-members draws better at 7pm than 9pm

Folks who take up a full lane which is dedicated for circle swimming and start a set of walking in place with a hip-float. :frustrated: After swimming laps at the local Y for years, I wholeheartedly AGREE with this one..... The Water Walkers are the WORST. They think they should have the whole lane for one person taking up a few feet in the deepend, but that their hair (much less their face) should NEVER GET WET! Don't even think of doing a flip turn near them! They'll report you to the Y Directors! This pool is only 4 lanes to begin with! There was one in the later pages in this thread on the guards clearing the pool from high chlorine..... That might not have been a joke That has happened more than once at our local Y. :shakeshead: It generally means they dumped a "toxic" amount of chlorine into the water and are actually scared they are going to harm you (Strip Skin, dissolve hair etc.) ! But then this would have to be a huge amount at our Y, over and above what they normally ran the chlorine at. (see "booger-eating hillbillies"-as one of my old bosses used to say) The Aquatics Director there believes that the chlorine should be at >3+++, to keep down the germs in the pool with all the kids. So (as all of us chemists know) More HAS to be better! The chlorine test sample is a bright neon yellow, way off the scale of the tester! So the pool EATS suits in 't green--too much bleach to even keep that color! Unfortunately the local health dept. does not have an upper limit on the chlorine concentration for a guideline. This is the same pool and aquatics director who decided to remove all the competitive lane lines and put in ropes with float buoys as brand new lane markers-how proud they were of that (think shallow depth markers). The wire broke in one lane line and it would be too expensive:rolleyes: to replace. So all the real lane lines were taken out. It was too much of a hassle for the guards to take them in and out for the noodler classes and swim lessons and the aquatics director was worried one of the guards would get hurt with the heavy bulky lines. Forget the function of those wave breaking lines! So now It's like wake jumping in there on some mornings, esp from the water walkers and floaters of substantial mass bobbing up and down. :applaud: They actually create more wake than a streamlined swimmer ever could. The old guys in the morning who take up 2+ lanes playing water basketball (the Y has one setup in the shallow for the kids and it never gets taken down). The only amusement comes from the geezers, having finished their "workout" (of standing around and b%^*@ng, then become the geezer hotshot basketballers who "accidentally" splash one of the walrus walkers with their ball and misplaced shot and proceed to set off a screaming match :rofl: that the Youngster lifeguard has to try to diffuse (and she was the only guard desperate enough for money to be up and in at

Here is one I just remembered and it only works for people who have coaches. You come to the pool really wanting to swim. The coach has all these mats set up and begins to make you go through P.I. or Phys. Ed., or whatever it was called when you were in high school and weren't doing any other sports. So, jumping jacks, sit ups, various forms of calisthenics and other stuff are done right in front of the pool. After half an hour we went into the pool and did 250 meters of leg drills, three to each lane with one mat for the three. This only happens about twice a month. The coach wants us to be in better shape. I tell him, fat people only like to be in the water. What I really enjoy is when he says: "Give me 1,000 meters, with the fins, and keep the style fluid, alongate your arms well." Now, that is true swimming! billy fanstone