Passing Etiquette

I did a search and didn't see a dedicated thread for this topic, which was inspired by a post by Chris Stevenson in the "How Many Swimmers Per Lane" Thread. I'll reproduce Chris's quote below (I hope you don't mind!) and my response (edited for context). What do others think? (Hopefully I didn't just miss the thread on this. Sorry if I did--I did run a search!) 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. It was interesting to read Chris say that, because I have the opposite view. I think, once alerted by a tap on the feet, the person getting passed should stop at the next wall and get out of the passing person's way. Maybe I feel that way because I swim in a pool with very narrow lanes and it's just not feasible to swim around somebody. 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 seems fair that the slower person defer... I wonder if people's views are influenced by whether they are usually the "passer" or the "passee"...
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  • I remember one day at my college team, I was in the lane with this guy(he usually trained with Curl Burke Swim Club but trained with us that day) who got 9th at the 1996 Olympics in the 400 IM. Well, I was obviously in over my head in that lane and my college coach should have done it. But, he was passing me several times(more like alot of times). He later told other people that I should have stopped at the wall so he could pass me. Well, that wasn't going to happen. I came from the school if you want to pass someone swim around them if there is no one coming down the other side. Just because he was one of Spain's best swimmers, I was to make expectations to him. From the famous words of Whitney Houston, "Aww, hell to the naw!" Of course, he didn't have the guts to make this request to my face! In addition, if I stopped at the wall, that would mess up my training for that day.
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  • I remember one day at my college team, I was in the lane with this guy(he usually trained with Curl Burke Swim Club but trained with us that day) who got 9th at the 1996 Olympics in the 400 IM. Well, I was obviously in over my head in that lane and my college coach should have done it. But, he was passing me several times(more like alot of times). He later told other people that I should have stopped at the wall so he could pass me. Well, that wasn't going to happen. I came from the school if you want to pass someone swim around them if there is no one coming down the other side. Just because he was one of Spain's best swimmers, I was to make expectations to him. From the famous words of Whitney Houston, "Aww, hell to the naw!" Of course, he didn't have the guts to make this request to my face! In addition, if I stopped at the wall, that would mess up my training for that day.
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