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.
Parents
Former Member
I was at the meet and have some idea about the "incident" described. In a meet where hundreds are competing, often we don't compete until early afternoon and the official warm up time is in the morning. So, to get a warm up (rather than down) swimmers will get in the only pool available and try to get the heart rate up and get loose. There will always be space problems and we simply need to be as respectful as we can. My own pet peeve is when people do not leave space on the wall to do a flip turn or when someone swimming very slowly does not pay attention to a faster swimmmer coming up. Typically when I feel someone on my toes I move way over or even sink to let them pass. I feel the slower swimmer ought to defer to the faster. I don't work out with a group so the only time I have this experience is at meets.
On the other hand sometimes people resent someone blowing past them, esp. if their body brushes them, but with that many people it seems virtually unavoidable. Sometimes a swimmer will get a little aggressive and pushy (I have been guilty) but not usually. That even happens in the morning when there is much more room and I think it helps to remember that everyone has a different sense of respectful space and that they are not intentionally trying to piss me off (they don't even know me). This is one of those unavoidable irritations and we really ought not to take it personally.
The problem really is space. Ideally we would have warm down lanes separated from warm up but that is not always possible.
I was at the meet and have some idea about the "incident" described. In a meet where hundreds are competing, often we don't compete until early afternoon and the official warm up time is in the morning. So, to get a warm up (rather than down) swimmers will get in the only pool available and try to get the heart rate up and get loose. There will always be space problems and we simply need to be as respectful as we can. My own pet peeve is when people do not leave space on the wall to do a flip turn or when someone swimming very slowly does not pay attention to a faster swimmmer coming up. Typically when I feel someone on my toes I move way over or even sink to let them pass. I feel the slower swimmer ought to defer to the faster. I don't work out with a group so the only time I have this experience is at meets.
On the other hand sometimes people resent someone blowing past them, esp. if their body brushes them, but with that many people it seems virtually unavoidable. Sometimes a swimmer will get a little aggressive and pushy (I have been guilty) but not usually. That even happens in the morning when there is much more room and I think it helps to remember that everyone has a different sense of respectful space and that they are not intentionally trying to piss me off (they don't even know me). This is one of those unavoidable irritations and we really ought not to take it personally.
The problem really is space. Ideally we would have warm down lanes separated from warm up but that is not always possible.
