There is a swimmer in our pool whose appearance is "dreaded" by many of us. As soon as she enters your lane and starts her laps, the whole lane gets slowed down for a at least an hour, because, #1, she never stops and never give a chance to others when she's at the end of the pool and is going for another lap while another swimmer had been waiting to start; #2, whenever she encounters someone during the laps (whether in the same or opposite direction), she would continue as if others don't exist, as if it's her own lane and as if she's thinking "get out of my way please"; #3, and that's the most important point: she's slower than all the others in the lane. So everyone else has to slow down because the lane is not so wide, and from time to time you see people try everything they could to get around her, or backstrokers hitting her from behind (and she would still go on like you were just a fly).
She usually continues like this for at least one hour, could be 90 minutes. She probably has her rule in mind, to never stop during the lap. That's fine as many of people here do that, but that works only if your speed is comparable to the others sharing the lane.
What's the best way to deal with such a fellow swimmer?
I realize this is actually off-topic, because it wasn't a problem, but I like happy stories.
Last Monday, I was in a lane with one of our slowest swimmers. This 55 year old had trouble completing a single lap when she started last summer, but tries to tackle whatever the coaches ask her to do. She even had the guts to race at Nationals and did a 40.8 in the 50 Free and 1:30 in the 100.
It wasn't crowded, so people were picking lanes based on space, not speed. Another guy who is around the same speed as this 55 year old joined us, so we circled. It worked out fine, mainly because both are very nice people and 3 people in a LCM lane is still plenty of room even with a big range in workout pace. I told them not to stop when I come up on them, it's my job to go around and not interfere with their workout. They could do a 600 while I did an 800. At one point, Coach was working with both of them on technique & I was able to pitch in some help due to my underwater view of their strokes. As for my wake, the 55 year old thought it was helpful because she's talking about trying to tackle an OW.
I realize this is actually off-topic, because it wasn't a problem, but I like happy stories.
Last Monday, I was in a lane with one of our slowest swimmers. This 55 year old had trouble completing a single lap when she started last summer, but tries to tackle whatever the coaches ask her to do. She even had the guts to race at Nationals and did a 40.8 in the 50 Free and 1:30 in the 100.
It wasn't crowded, so people were picking lanes based on space, not speed. Another guy who is around the same speed as this 55 year old joined us, so we circled. It worked out fine, mainly because both are very nice people and 3 people in a LCM lane is still plenty of room even with a big range in workout pace. I told them not to stop when I come up on them, it's my job to go around and not interfere with their workout. They could do a 600 while I did an 800. At one point, Coach was working with both of them on technique & I was able to pitch in some help due to my underwater view of their strokes. As for my wake, the 55 year old thought it was helpful because she's talking about trying to tackle an OW.
