Swim Rant

Although people with a wide breaststroke kick are a menace under any system I can see your point wrt breaststroke. For freestyle however I have never had a problem with an adjacent swimmer going in the same direction. On the other hand I have some actual scars to remind me of watch-wearing freestyle swimmers swimming the opposite way. Speaking of only putting in every second lane line, as someone who likes swimming butterfly I actually prefer the double lanes to individual lanes as it reduces arm collisions drastically. It also lets you move away a bit if you end up next to a breaststroker. The downside of course is the extra waves. In any case, it nice to know there is some rationale for the every lane in the same direction approach. ;)

Swimmers who come to practice, are perfectly capable of doing the entire practice, and choose to slack off, making it impossible for those of us who actually want to work hard to do so.

You would hate me in a practice globugie when I swim I stop quite often, but make sure I am out of the way.

I don't mind the people who stop more often and try to stay out of the way as much as possible. What bugs me is the swimmers who stop in the middle of the pool during a 50 to fix their hair or goggles, getting in the way of everyone behind them, or the ones who swim slowly during a sprint set (like 25's on the 1:00) because they can still make the interval, or many other things of that nature. Fortunately, these swimmers are less common in Master's than in other swimming groups

Dennis those go without saying, I agree with all. Order of 3 and 4 should be 1. & 2. - #1 is a givin when swimming circles. the rest fit in well

Lazy ass coaches that sit on deck and don't help the swimmers. Couldn't agree more....particularly coaches of kids squads...what's the point if they write a set and walk up and down?

Lindsay, I disagree. The main reason we swim on the right all the time (and the Aussies swim on the left) is that is what people are used to doing without thinking about it. The last thing I want to have to do in the middle of a hard aerobic set is remember if I'm in a left or right lane today (and when I'm leading, at what point the trailer has past and it's safe to cheat over to the...was it right or left side again? to avoid the drafting swimming right on my kiester). Just like driving, do it the same way every time and there is less chance of an accident. Matt

I've come to the conclusion that training all the time in one direction is short sighted and mindless.We all know the benefits of working each side of our bodies equally and yet we spend years doing flip turns and twisting on the same side.Going in one direction over and over builds the hips and back up more on one side and places excess stress on one foot more than the other.

Originally posted by Trinubntraining a pool with no lane ropes or lane lines a pool where you're the only one swimming laps and everyone stares at you getting overtaken by someone who first hits you in head around the ear and then kicks you just below the lip on your chin, and then that same person subsequently acting as if nothing happened!! :eek: Sounds like a person with serious issues... My addition: a long while back, I swam in a pool divided for lap and open/rec swimming. That wouldn't have been a big deal, except that often people didn't respect the boundaries. For instance, I once had to work my way around two women who were just standing in a lap lane chitchatting and not moving aside so people could .... um... swim? I seem to remember too that they weren't even all that apologetic when reminded that it was a lap swimming lane. But since it was a long time ago, I could be remembering that part wrong.

I thought of one that happened yesterday: when the lane lines are not tight enough and the swimmers in the next lane cause your lane to shrink to about half its normal size.