Why do rec swimmers split the lane?

In the "making lemonade from lemons" category: Lap swimming with slower swimmers can actually be a great long-distance fartlek workout if the slower swimmers will go along with it. Occasionally, when this happens and I am in with people who know me, I will ask that they not stop at the walls to let me by, but to let me pass in the middle of the pool. It forces me to pay attention to who is where and sprint pretty hard to get by. Since I hate speedwork, it is a pretty painless way to do it. I think it's a great workout for open water race prep. -LBJ

If you've been a swimmer any portion of your life circling is ingrained. I always circle unless there is some set that where my lane mate and I are not doing the same thing (stroke versus free). To me, splitting a lane is a complete hassle. I think splitting is the last resort. It's also not very welcoming. If you are a swimmer, you circle, period. If you are a noodler, you can split or do some other form of lane sharing. I've been a competitive swimmer 80% of my life. I guess we all have different life experiences. For me, SPLIT has always been the norm until a third person joins. I'll grant you this: In most team workout situations, there are generally more than two per lane. The question in the thread here as I understand it pertains to things like YMCAs when there is just general open lap swim, not in a team workout context.

In the "making lemonade from lemons" category: Lap swimming with slower swimmers can actually be a great long-distance fartlek workout if the slower swimmers will go along with it. Occasionally, when this happens and I am in with people who know me, I will ask that they not stop at the walls to let me by, but to let me pass in the middle of the pool. It forces me to pay attention to who is where and sprint pretty hard to get by. Since I hate speedwork, it is a pretty painless way to do it. I think it's a great workout for open water race prep. -LBJ That was absolutely confirmed by the experience I made when I prepared for the 24 hour swim in Radkersburg/Austria last month. I was tempted to quit my training sessions in the pool because at times it was so annoying not te be able to keep my pace and my rhythm. I tried to continue to swim without murmuring and grumbling and was greatly rewarded. Every time I had to bypass a slow swimmer (especially a breaststroke swimmer) I was forced to speed up to prevent a head-on collision with somebody coming from the opposite direction, which I thought was very annoying! Anyway, I didn't enjoy the workout as I should have, not knowing that this situation provided the perfect training-conditions for the race. As a matter of fact, I improved my personal best (distance covered within 24 hours) by 150%! By the way, the conditions during the race were not "better" compared to my training: 90 solo swimmers and 78 relay swimmers divided among 8 lanes can sometimes cause quite a jostle. The neccessity to change my pace frequently in order to overtake slower swimmers helped me to overcome the monotony that I was confronted with while swimming more than 600 laps. BTW: "fartlek" not to be mixed up with "fart let" :) @LBJ: I am greatly motivated by your comment, because it helps me to change my attitude towards long training sessions in the pool that I didn't handle quite well until now: if I couldn't find "enough" room, I chose the easy way out, ie not to train at all. cheers Gerald

Every time I had to bypass a slow swimmer (especially a breaststroke swimmer) I was forced to speed up to prevent a head-on collision BTW, proper etiquette when passing a breaststoke (a.k.a. evilstroke) swimmer is to do a very wide arm recovery and give them a solid smack to the side of the head in hopes that this will reset their brain and make them swim properly (i.e. freestyle). By the way, the conditions during the race were not "better" compared to my training: 90 solo swimmers and 78 relay swimmers divided among 8 lanes can sometimes cause quite a jostle. Dear God... I hope that it was a 50 meter pool. Still hard to fathom even then. @LBJ: I am greatly motivated by your comment, because it helps me to change my attitude towards long training sessions in the pool that I didn't handle quite well until now: if I couldn't find "enough" room, I chose the easy way out, ie not to train at all. Great! Your description of the 24 hr race has greatly motivated me to set up a campaign of whining and begging so that my wife will let me go to the one next year. If she doesn't stab me to death in my sleep in the meantime, we can meet up then. -LBJ

BTW, proper etiquette when passing a breaststoke (a.k.a. evilstroke) swimmer is to do a very wide arm recovery and give them a solid smack to the side of the head in hopes that this will reset their brain and make them swim properly (i.e. freestyle). -LBJ Unfortunately among lapswimmers free-stylers are not separated from strokers here in Austria. It will take a paradigm shift to change that. Dear God... I hope that it was a 50 meter pool. Still hard to fathom even then. -LBJ It was a 50 meter pool. In the comp I did 626 (50 meter) laps and only once I bumped into another swimmer. BTW: The laps were counted by a chip that I had to wear on my wrist, so I didn't need to bother counting my laps. :). Overall the atmosphere was relaxed and peaceful, and I was kind of praying that everybody in my lane would reach the goal that he/she pursued, or would make it even beyond. That kind of attitude gave me a peace of mind and helped me to focus my strenght on the swim. Great! Your description of the 24 hr race has greatly motivated me to set up a campaign of whining and begging so that my wife will let me go to the one next year. If she doesn't stab me to death in my sleep in the meantime, we can meet up then. -LBJ I would greatly encourage you to come. Don't be worried about the packed pool, the atmosphere is great and the number of participants is limited, so make sure to register early enough. The swimmers, the staff of the swimming pool, the visitors .. all were friendly and helpful and contributed to make the race an enjoyable one. cheers Gerald

It's interesting that in the US the norm seems to be to split the lane. In the UK, the norm is to always circle, with each lane having a sign showing the direction to swim, alternating each lane. I always circle even when I am the only person in the lane, unless there is another completely empty lane in which case I will swim straight up and down. My logic is that if there is an empty lane, anybody entering the pool will go into that lane rather than coming into the lane I'm in. If every other lane has someone in, I circle because there is a danger that someone will get in behind me and start frantically sprinting one length, then I'll turn and push off straight into a head on collision. Same with two people in the lane - splitting it is far too risky because a third person can enter the lane behind you after you've pushed off and again you have a head on collision when you turn. There are far too many people at my health club who like to get in the pool after having been in the gym, just to swim one or two frantic lengths then get out again. Even with these precautions, I've still had occasions where someone has got into the same lane as me despite me being the only person in the whole pool.

At one local recreational watering hole, it was discovered that when I and my blue muppeted training partner would circle swim, if all other lanes also had two people, our lane was always the first to inherit a 3rd swimmer, despite the fact that our lane was by FAR the quickest in the pool. We figured they saw circlers, and figured that either no one else was smart enough to know how to circle swim, or that when they looked at the lane and saw both of us travelling on the same side, they thought "Hey, lots of open space!" So we started splitting our lane, but still going 5-10 sec apart, and we were almost never approached unless the place got packed. I found it fairly selfish to do that, but given the alternative (running over people, confrontations - which happened), it was the probably the best for all involved. The facility labeled their lanes slow, medium and fast, and we would always jump in the fast lane, but would often arrive to find Ms Manatee (as described in posts above) in said lane. The one time we confronted the lifeguards about it, they refused to enforce the rule, even going one step further and refused to admit that they had put the "fast" cone outside the lane.

Some people get over-obsessed with splitting if there are just 2 swimmers. We had a very light turnout this morning, and was just me and other guy in the lane. But it was an IM set (when I do non-free I'm all over the lane). He asked about splitting, and I said yes--as long as we're not going together. He reluctantly agreed. Turned out he either did some freestyle, or his arms were very high on his breaststroke. Eventually, I was able to get my own lane, which was great. Although we were staggered, I still stayed close to a lane line and hit it a few times on both fly and back.

At one local recreational watering hole, it was discovered that when I and my blue muppeted training partner would circle swim, if all other lanes also had two people, our lane was always the first to inherit a 3rd swimmer, despite the fact that our lane was by FAR the quickest in the pool. We figured they saw circlers, and figured that either no one else was smart enough to know how to circle swim, or that when they looked at the lane and saw both of us travelling on the same side, they thought "Hey, lots of open space!" So we started splitting our lane, but still going 5-10 sec apart, and we were almost never approached unless the place got packed. I found it fairly selfish to do that, but given the alternative (running over people, confrontations - which happened), it was the probably the best for all involved. Good point ... people who circle swim are probably more approachable and welcoming for people trying to enter a lane, if you split ... you have to stop someone's routine to invite them to circle with you, can be intimidating I suppose.

As to the collisions: why would anyone just jump in, assume the other person knows there in and start swimming?! If I'm joining a lane, whether there's one other person or two other people, I sit and stick my feet in a corner of the lane and leave them there until everyone's cycled by and seen my feet. If that means we're splitting, the swimmer knows the side I intend to take. If that means we must now circle, the splitting swimmers figure that out, too. I'm not the only one. It's the common practice at my pool.