Death to all Noodlers!

And on other days, join them in their water aerobics class and splash away to get all their hair wet :) :D See my reply to Geek.

Elaine, so sorry to hear of your crazy story. I agree with Bobinator - to these people, they're past the point of caring about the pool... it's about winning the fight. Just as an FYI, I DO teach aqua aerobics classes (the dreaded 'noodler' classes) and I can't think of any "moves" that I would have a class do that would require use of more than 3 lanes. I've taught classes up to 30 people in 3 lanes pretty easily. Plus, if these idiots are just working from a DVD, odds are that all their moves are stationary, which uses up even less space. Sigh. None of these facts will help you in the slightest probably, but thought I'd throw them out there. I hope you can find a decent place to swim with a decent pool temp.

Elaine- Perhaps as a win you should get a group together and start a Masters team in your area. You obviously have a pool, and then you can work out noodler-free time for an entire group of swimmers such as yourself. As far as a coach goes - you can ad-lib coaching for at least a little while while you look for another coach. What do you say?

Yeah, I agree with Michael! You sound like a very social type person who would love a group workout! Perhaps you could organize a low-key swim team with practices 3X per week to get it going. You could post a simple workout in each lane (easier ones in lane 1/6). This would still give you some days to do more challenging workouts on your own. My master's team doesn't have a coach on deck. We do exactly what I described above. Usually one guy calls the set intervals or what the focus point of the set should be. Lanes 1 and 8 in our pool are a watered down version of the main practice; the swimmers start/finish when the main group but do an easier variation. Maybe if you show the USMS website to your association manager they would understand this is a strong, health driven organization that adults all over the world participate in. Who knows you might even start a club that would attract people to want to live in your neighborhood so they could be a part of the team. I highly expect I will some day retire down here in the St. Pete area so I can swim with the super cool master's team down here!! I love to dream and plan!

Elaine, so sorry to hear of your crazy story. I agree with Bobinator - to these people, they're past the point of caring about the pool... it's about winning the fight. Just as an FYI, I DO teach aqua aerobics classes (the dreaded 'noodler' classes) and I can't think of any "moves" that I would have a class do that would require use of more than 3 lanes. I've taught classes up to 30 people in 3 lanes pretty easily. Plus, if these idiots are just working from a DVD, odds are that all their moves are stationary, which uses up even less space. Sigh. None of these facts will help you in the slightest probably, but thought I'd throw them out there. I hope you can find a decent place to swim with a decent pool temp. My husband and I measured the width of the space they would need if I continued swimming in one lane. The length is 75 feet. We figured the first and last person of each row would be 3 feet from the wall, and we gave them a generous distance of 8 feet between each person. Since most are no taller than 5'5", this gives them plenty of clearance if both arms are outstretched. I mistakenly said in earlier posts that our pool was a 6 lane pool. It's not; it's five lanes. (My high school pool was stuck in my head when I wrote that...) So, they would get 4 lanes and I would get one. We calculated a capacity of 36 people for those four lanes; even more generous than you have suggested. Mind you, there have only been 6-8 people in the indoor class each morning (the outdoor later class is larger). Combined, in the winter, I have never seen more than 15 or 16 people- not 36. And, they work from a cd or dvd. And, it's stationary. When Bruce and I tried to present this information, we were met with groans, backlash, and hurled insults. I would have laughed hysterically if it wasn't so pathetic. Thanks, Aqua, for your support and info. I appreciate it!!

I say keep up the fight. There is absolutely no way that you swimming laps on the (presumably) opposite side of the pool could possible affect their workout that much. Just be sure to stay level headed. I know it's difficult to not let them get under your skin, but to win this fight you've got to come across as the rational one, and it doesn't seem like that should be real difficult based on what you've posted here!

Elaine- Perhaps as a win you should get a group together and start a Masters team in your area. You obviously have a pool, and then you can work out noodler-free time for an entire group of swimmers such as yourself. As far as a coach goes - you can ad-lib coaching for at least a little while while you look for another coach. What do you say? The pool in question is our community pool within our gated community. And, guests are limited. That leaves members of this community as my only recruits. I have been trying for one full year to get something organized, but nobody has taken the bait. The lap swimmers all have different schedules and want to swim alone; a good thing in a way, because we all always get our own lane! :applaud: Thanks for the suggestion bzaks!

So, you actually have an option to avoid all this self-made nonsense by setting an alarm for 7 am? I think I'd opt for the earlier morning and a pool to myself versus the hordes of maruading noodlers and all the anxiety this is seeming to cause you.

But then the noodlers have won, geek!

But then the noodler have won, geek! They always win. Think of all the fights over the years, the results is always the same. Even if you think you've won, you still end up swimming in the wall lane in 87 degree water.