Just wondering how many swimmers most of you share a lane with during masters workouts. People around here are starting to get indignant when they have to share a lane with someone else during a masters workout. I don't understand it. I was wondering if this is a national phenomenon.
6 per lane SCY - that's crowded, impossible to do anything over 100. LCM I've seen 12 and it wasn't bad at all even for 300s. Everyone was close in speed, and the first person would come around on the first 100 in about 1:15 and not even sniff lapping person #12.
I swim at a community pool sometimes and I can't believe that people will sit on deck and wait to get their own lane. Isn't sharing one of the 1st things you learn in pre-K? I asked a guy waiting the other day and he said "no I'll wait til you're done" little did he know I still had about 2,000 to go. And the lifeguards are half the problem because they should be telling folks to circle swim and labeling the lanes as slow, medium, fast, etc.
If you occasionally have to split a lane and think that's an inconvenience, get over yourself. You have no idea how lucky you are to have that kind of space.
I swim at a private club, which typically has members who only like 2 people in a lane (split lane vs. circle swim). However, I swim with usually 3-4 other people for our morning workout (LC meters) and we will swim together even if there is another empty lane.
We tend to push each other harder by staying in the same lane - no slacking off with a person on your feet!!
As a lifeguard and swimmer I disagree but not from an etiquette POV--a safety view. I watched one guy zig-zagging between 2 others it was acollision waiting to happen. I'd rarther not have to perform a deep water rescue and/or first aid if I can tell them to circle swim.
Lane speed is tricky to enforce, b/c people still prefer to split than circle in appropriate speed but if there is 3 folks cirling and it's dangeous I'll step in. It's a tough call b/c not all folks are as happy about swimming and circling. Then you get the "I was here first" type of folks and such.
What irks me most are the s---l---o---w swimmers in the fast lanes (public lanes swims) who, if asked to move to a slower lane, complain that the slower lanes are too crowded (completely ignoring the fact that they are causing crowding in the fast lanes and disrupting the tempos.) Whenever I hear one of those (usually -let's call them- ladies), I'll overtake them as often as I can and cut in right in front of them, almost flutter-kicking them in the face. Most of them eventually get the message.
The one or two who complained to me, were told that, "Sorry, you're swimming too slowly for this lane and it was either cut in front of you SAFELY - I know what I am doing - or collide with slow swimmers coming in the opposite direction overtaking other even slower swimmers, thus creating havoc. This is the "fast" lane."
P.S. I do however have to add a P.S.
I confess that if the slow swimmer in my lane happens to be a very attractive (keyword) woman (18-60), I'll "suffer" her presence in silence.
As far as passing goes, it is the responsibility of the passer. The slower person should not have to stop or slow -- indeed, s/he should not do anything differently...except perhaps be aware that s/he is being passed, swim in the proper part of the lane (esp not too far to the center) and don't do anything radical like speed up or move over suddenly.
Except that in a lot of cases (public lane swims, I mean, as opposed to club swims) the person being passed will try to put on some speed and avoid being shown off. I, knowing, most of the swimmers quirks and their idiosyncrasies, will when overtaking them, put on a spurt of speed so as not to give them time to react and I'll stop kicking as my feet come up to their head level so that they think that I have overtaken them (so fast) using only arm pull.
Every group I've swam with has this issue. While visiting Tucson last week, I swam with the team there, and was elected to lead the lane, even though I didn't know or understand their system for intervals. I just went with the next lane, figuring if they didn't like it someone else could lead.
I don't mind leading, but what I do mind is when someone doesn't want to lead, yet catches me fairly quickly. It screws up my set to have to stop to let them pass.
I hear that. I really hate it when somebody refuses to lead but then gets right up my tailpipe and coasts. I presume it can't actually be slowing me down, but in my mind it feels like I'm literally dragging the person along. I try to maintain that 5 second distance when going second (or later) in my lane. That's usually not too hard. I swim with some very fast people!
On a related note, our coach is usually fantastic with maintaining equal distribution of swimmers throughout the lanes, and moving people around based on speed.
As someone else mentioned, on some days the fastest lane could have 6-7 swimmers, while a lane 2 down only has 2. There's days when I get in my, "usual," lane (3rd fastest), and the coach will ask me to move to one of the faster or slower lanes to even things out. I'll usually assess the number of swimmers in the lanes on either side, and move over on my own, depending on the set and the speed of the swimmers in those lanes.
When we've done some FAST sets (such as 100s on 6:00), he does 2 (or 3) swimmers per heat (10 sec apart), with heats 2 minutes apart. Even our slowest swimmers can do a 100 SCY in 2:00, so it works out very well.
As far as passing goes, it is the responsibility of the passer. The slower person should not have to stop or slow -- indeed, s/he should not do anything differently...except perhaps be aware that s/he is being passed, swim in the proper part of the lane (esp not too far to the center) and don't do anything radical like speed up or move over suddenly.
That's interesting to hear you say that, because I have the opposite view. I think the person getting passed should stop at the next wall and get out of the passing person's way. This is also the way it works in my lane (the person getting passed will stop to let the faster person by) so that might also influence my view of what is "right". But in any event it seems reasonably fair to me. It's the slower person holding the faster person up, so it should be the slower person to defer...
EDIT: I made a new thread for this tangent topic: forums.usms.org/showthread.php Hopefully it's not duplicative of either this thread or any existing threads!
it all varies
LCM 5, 6, 7, or 8
SCY 2, 3, 4, or 5
5 is about the limit SCY if we train on 35 / 100 pace
swimmers will turn around 30
lead swimmer leaves on 0, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25
6 swimmers in 1 SCY lane fills it up
slower lanes can fit more but the funny thing is usually
slower lanes aren't as full as a faster lanes
Just wondering how many swimmers most of you share a lane with during masters workouts. People around here are starting to get indignant when they have to share a lane with someone else during a masters workout. I don't understand it. I was wondering if this is a national phenomenon.
it all varies
LCM 5, 6, 7, or 8
SCY 2, 3, 4, or 5
5 is about the limit SCY if we train on 35 / 100 pace
swimmers will turn around 30
lead swimmer leaves on 0, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25
6 swimmers in 1 SCY lane fills it up
slower lanes can fit more but the funny thing is usually
slower lanes aren't as full as a faster lanes
Although 3-5 is more typical, every once in a while we have 7 swimmers per lane in SCY, then we have to leave 3 sec apart. Even so, it is still harder to do longer swims b/c of the disparity in speed between the first and the last person and the difficulty in passing in a crowded lane.
I've noticed that the age groupers can often crowd more than masters swimmers because, within each lane, they are closer to the same speed. The problem isn't just crowding, it is the variability in speed.
As far as passing goes, it is the responsibility of the passer. The slower person should not have to stop or slow -- indeed, s/he should not do anything differently...except perhaps be aware that s/he is being passed, swim in the proper part of the lane (esp not too far to the center) and don't do anything radical like speed up or move over suddenly.
