So a lady friend of mine and I were discussing Masters training yesterday, specifically the art of sharing a lane with a mixture of like-minded people not necessarily doing the same work-out (ie: public swimming). Right now all of us are in the same boat; the local indoor Olympic-standard pool has been closed for bi-annual maintenance and we are all having to share a wierd old 50-yard outdoor pool which has long-course lap swimming for only a four hour window each day. Most everyone knows everybody by now, so we are all getting along pretty well. With the exception of the triathletes.
So, without trying to poke a sleeping bear with a stick, why is it that tri-athletes cannot seem to get along with competitive swimmers in the training pool? Here are my observations of the group we have here, though they might not be typical examples:
1) Holy smoke are these guys serious about talking about serious training. Note how I worded that. They talk the talk a lot, ignore anything us competitive swimmers might have to say on the subject of training swimming, and generally clog up the end of the pool as they talk. and talk. and talk. Despite the fact they all sport the same middle-aged paunches, they just cannot conceptualize that they are not truly elite athletes and they do not get to set the rules of the pool.
2) They hog the lane. If these guys can drive, how come they cannot figure out circle swimming? It seems to me a pretty simple concept that you stay on your side of that black line on the pool bottom going one way, and then circle to the other side of the line on the way back. That darn line was not painted on the bottom of the pool just so you can swim straight.
3) Circle swimming and trying to mesh the circle swimming of several lanes is just a foreign concept to most of them. It just seems proper that if lane one is circling clockwise, lane two should circle counter-clockwise so you don't bash you freaking arms across the lane lines. The tria-athletes seem to always circle the absolutely wrong way, and with those wide-ass strokes they all seem to use, it is almost inevitable that you will clash. Thankfully most ex-competitive swimmer have developed that 6th sense that tells you to duck when you are about to be smashed (you all know that 6th sense: its called watching where you are going, another apparently foreign concept. Goggles are obviously used for finding floaters at the bottom of the pool rather than looking ahead periodically)
4) Interval training. Tri-athletes seem to believe that is a innovative, modern concept that needs far more study (usually done while they have deep discussions at the end of the pool) before they actually implement it. Serious tri-athletes just know that swimming the same 1000 meter swim with no set pace every single session is a clear formula for winning the next Iron-man. The tri-athletes seem to resent the breaking up of swim sets into reps on intervals, especially if it done by some pathetic competitive swimmer that keeps on passing them while they grind out that standard 1000.
5) Finally, my greatest irritation: X marks the spot!! When you sit at the end of the pool, discussing deeply distressing new concepts such as interval training, circle swimming, and high elbow recovery on the front crawl, why must you sit right in the center of the lane. Did it ever occur to you that the center of the lane has a big cross painted on it and generally Xs and crosses designate landing zones. Of course I know that you rarely use flip turns, but some of us poor simple-minded swimmers do and, from force of habit and in the interest of not smashing into the person behind us, we usually flip-turn on the X. We also tend to come in on one side of the line (that line on the bottom of the pool, put there presumably for some swimmers to find their way back to the discussion at the end of the pool) and leave on the other side. Its called circle swimming.
Is there some shortage of information on swim training for tri-athletes? I know that there are all sorts of magazines and books about triathalon; do they all ignore the fact that to succeed at swimming you actually have to follow some sort of structured training program? Do they even touch base on simple pool training etiquette?
I used to think that it was just my cross-eyed cussed and curmugeonly ways that found the local tri-athletes to be slightly slow and backward with regards to training-pool etiquette, but my lady-friend was far more cynical than I: she was pretty sure that the tri-athletes purposefully are difficult as part of a competitive strategy.
Love that post Bob :agree:
I do have to say that I've always been a swimmer and run to lose weight. (I'm one of those swimmers with "more than 5% body fat". )
One summer my husband and I tried to do the track workout with Forward Motion in Danville, CA. They were doing sets that I had no clue what the number even meant. I'm not a sprinter or a distance runner (that I know of), so I really had no clue what the heck I was doing. My husband did fine, he had done these workouts before. No one there was very welcoming or friendly and that made me feel even worse. But I really just figured that they were doing their workout and I was probably just in the way.
Needless to say, I never went back. I'm a friendly person anyway, but since then I always go out of my way to make swimmers of any level feel welcome at our practices.
I have swum in many different pools, with half a dozen different masters groups. But I haven't ever seen anybody circle swim in any direction other than counterclockwise. Do people actually alternate directions in adjacent lanes? It makes sense, I suppose. I have just never heard of it. (Plus it would be as confusing to me as driving on the wrong side of the road, at this point.)
My Australian friends circle clock-wise and it is quite an adjustment to go counter clock-wise when they move here.
There's a kid's team in your area that alternates the direction of circle swimming by day, which I think is a really good idea.
I'll stay mum on the main topic of this thread, but this comment in the original post caught my eye:
It just seems proper that if lane one is circling clockwise, lane two should circle counter-clockwise so you don't bash you freaking arms across the lane lines.
I have swum in many different pools, with half a dozen different masters groups. But I haven't ever seen anybody circle swim in any direction other than counterclockwise. Do people actually alternate directions in adjacent lanes? It makes sense, I suppose. I have just never heard of it. (Plus it would be as confusing to me as driving on the wrong side of the road, at this point.)
At our six-lane pool they only put out two lane lines so we swim out along the lane lines and back in the middle and hence in alternating directions. This works well for avoiding arms clashing in free and fly. The potential downside is if you have two swimmers on either side of the lane line swimming the same direction swimming breaststroke with a wide kick they may kick one another for the whole length, likewise if two swimmers are both swimming back in the middle side by side. In practice people just learn to stagger and it isn't really a problem.
When I am swimming in algae-filled lake I use many things to keep me on course. Sometimes it's just the position of the sun: something I can see with my eyes open under water. Sometimes it is a mountain or tree that I can see as I breathe. And of course there are those times you just fall in behind someone that's faster than you even though you can only see the bubbles from their feet. When all else fails look up. The less time I spend with my head up sighting the better. I never want to be swimming blind. That is why I don't find this drill helpful, although people disagree with me on this one.
Well, it's more to prevent an anxiety attack than for anything actually swimming related. Some people don't react at all well to their first few experiences of murky lake water, after years of only swimming in clear swimming pools.
Love that post Bob :agree:
I do have to say that I've always been a swimmer and run to lose weight. (I'm one of those swimmers with "more than 5% body fat". )
One summer my husband and I tried to do the track workout with Forward Motion in Danville, CA. They were doing sets that I had no clue what the number even meant. I'm not a sprinter or a distance runner (that I know of), so I really had no clue what the heck I was doing. My husband did fine, he had done these workouts before. No one there was very welcoming or friendly and that made me feel even worse. But I really just figured that they were doing their workout and I was probably just in the way.
Needless to say, I never went back. I'm a friendly person anyway, but since then I always go out of my way to make swimmers of any level feel welcome at our practices.
As someone who has done workouts with a few different running clubs, I'm sorry you didn't have a good experience in your workout. I think I've been lucky in that the groups I've worked out with have been welcoming of newcomers regardless of experience. Recently, I did a hill workout with a much faster group than I am, yet I'd get "keep it up!" "Good job!" etc. While there wasn't a lot of conversation during the workout--ha! we were all too breathless!--before and afterward, people were quite friendly. In one group I've been in for a long time, we'll cheer for one another at races regardless of pace.... The 5-6 min. milers will encourage the 10-12 minute milers.
Although some swimming groups I've been in have been friendlier than others, I generally have been lucky there too--even in the more impersonal groups, I'll find someone I can talk with.
But your thought is good and something that I will keep in mind whether in a running or swimming group--to help newcomers feel welcome.
