Hi! New guy to the forums here, and pretty new to lap swimming too -- I've been doing it since May sometime.
More than once when I've wanted to join someone in a lane I've found it difficult to get their attention. At first I thought people just didn't want to share, but then I paid attention while I was swimming and realized that when you're looking at the bottom of the pool it is indeed easy to miss someone standing on the edge.
So what do you do? I've taken to dangling my feet deep enough that they're hard to miss, but is this obnoxious? Does anybody have pointers for getting someone's attention without annoying them when you need to share a lane?
Parents
Former Member
For those who hate sharing or not, we ought to love the pools in places like Wisconsin and Northern Virginia. In my experience, for whatever reason, those pools are pretty nice, but very empty of swimmers. I often see about three lanes per person in those places. Wisconsin has its fair share of OAFs but that excuse doesn't work for Northern Virginia.
If there's somebody who's really slow and is a real jerk in a lane, I'm very tempted to go back into water polo mode. Inviting a few more good swimmers into the lane always works. Start doing some sets and the one who doesn't belong soon gets run over, washed out of the lane, or both.
I've slammed into people before that were cutting across my lane - and they look at me like it's my fault! Yes, I'm swimming backstroke - and I cannot see you... my bad.
Related to this are folks who stand around at the ends with their crotches on the crosshairs. Out of courtesy, I remind them what the crosshairs are for. If they're men, I tell them that if their voices are raised up a few notches afterwards, they'll know why. That usually does the trick and gets them out of the way.
For those who hate sharing or not, we ought to love the pools in places like Wisconsin and Northern Virginia. In my experience, for whatever reason, those pools are pretty nice, but very empty of swimmers. I often see about three lanes per person in those places. Wisconsin has its fair share of OAFs but that excuse doesn't work for Northern Virginia.
If there's somebody who's really slow and is a real jerk in a lane, I'm very tempted to go back into water polo mode. Inviting a few more good swimmers into the lane always works. Start doing some sets and the one who doesn't belong soon gets run over, washed out of the lane, or both.
I've slammed into people before that were cutting across my lane - and they look at me like it's my fault! Yes, I'm swimming backstroke - and I cannot see you... my bad.
Related to this are folks who stand around at the ends with their crotches on the crosshairs. Out of courtesy, I remind them what the crosshairs are for. If they're men, I tell them that if their voices are raised up a few notches afterwards, they'll know why. That usually does the trick and gets them out of the way.
