I was at a huge meet recently (more than 600 swimmers) and thus the warmup/warmdown pool (3 lanes, 25 yards) was very crowded.
There were about 5 people in the lane I was warming up in, including one guy who kept barreling into the wall when there were two of us already there, who did flip turns at full force and nearly killed me with one, and then kept swimming down the middle of the lane between the two-way circling traffic.
I felt this was dangerous. I stopped him by pulling on his suit and told him so. He said something back that wasn't "Oh, sorry!" and continued to barrel around people.
I got out.
What is the etiquette for warmup/warmdown pools at such large meets? I know people need to sprint some, but this guy really could have hurt me or any of the other swimmers in the lane.
I tried to search to see if this has been discussed before but didn't find anything. I know that most accidents/injuries at meets occur in the warmup/warmdown pool.
What is the etiquette? Should I have gotten a more official person to tell this guy to respect the other swimmers?
P.S. I swam all my events despite only 3 weeks back in the water, including the 400 IM, which I decided to consider performance art.
I don't know of any set of rules specific to warmup/warmdown, but respect and common courtesy would be two phrases to use when talking about pool etiquite in general. As applied to warmup/warmdown:
If you're resting, get in the corner of the lane, or if that spot is already occupied, hang on to the rope away from the wall;
get out of the pool to talk (stretch while yapping to maximize your time);
pick a lane with people of similar speeds;
if you're kicking, doing a slow drill or in a lane with faster people, let people go ahead of you;
sprint in sprint lanes, or save your sprints for a point where there are few people in your lane
It does bug me when people are camped out at the walls 3,4 and 5 wide. One meet this year, there were a few swimmers in a lane yapping at a wall, and all were blocking the t/cross at the end. I did a turn a few yards away from the wall, being sure to kick up a storm to propel myself in the other direction (since there was to be no wall pushoff). When they were still there a 50 later, I did a slow flipturn, and carefully placed my feet through bodies to push off, effectively straddling some poor woman. There were clear walls the rest of warmup.
Recently, an older, slower woman jumped in a lane with myself, the blue muppet and the other half of Jollie Groplinger, and then tried to pick a fight with the blue one. Apparently, she became miffed when I passed her while doing backstroke, and had tiraded about the particular lane, next to a wall, being reserved for old and slow people (there was no sign - something I have only seen at Nationals meets). A great example of a sense of entitlement some people feel about their warmup lanes. In general, as a faster person, I do try to stay in the middle of the pool, but when those lanes are crowded (and in this case, they had people of vastly varying speeds), I moved outward to a lane with the two young ladies mentioned above (I mean, who can blame me!). There was no mention of particular lanes for particular speeds, so all four of us were not in the wrong about where we were - just the older lady could have showed less attitude and been a little more respectful of her lanemates.
I don't know of any set of rules specific to warmup/warmdown, but respect and common courtesy would be two phrases to use when talking about pool etiquite in general. As applied to warmup/warmdown:
If you're resting, get in the corner of the lane, or if that spot is already occupied, hang on to the rope away from the wall;
get out of the pool to talk (stretch while yapping to maximize your time);
pick a lane with people of similar speeds;
if you're kicking, doing a slow drill or in a lane with faster people, let people go ahead of you;
sprint in sprint lanes, or save your sprints for a point where there are few people in your lane
It does bug me when people are camped out at the walls 3,4 and 5 wide. One meet this year, there were a few swimmers in a lane yapping at a wall, and all were blocking the t/cross at the end. I did a turn a few yards away from the wall, being sure to kick up a storm to propel myself in the other direction (since there was to be no wall pushoff). When they were still there a 50 later, I did a slow flipturn, and carefully placed my feet through bodies to push off, effectively straddling some poor woman. There were clear walls the rest of warmup.
Recently, an older, slower woman jumped in a lane with myself, the blue muppet and the other half of Jollie Groplinger, and then tried to pick a fight with the blue one. Apparently, she became miffed when I passed her while doing backstroke, and had tiraded about the particular lane, next to a wall, being reserved for old and slow people (there was no sign - something I have only seen at Nationals meets). A great example of a sense of entitlement some people feel about their warmup lanes. In general, as a faster person, I do try to stay in the middle of the pool, but when those lanes are crowded (and in this case, they had people of vastly varying speeds), I moved outward to a lane with the two young ladies mentioned above (I mean, who can blame me!). There was no mention of particular lanes for particular speeds, so all four of us were not in the wrong about where we were - just the older lady could have showed less attitude and been a little more respectful of her lanemates.
