Swim Etiquette

3 watchers

Krissie Mar 2012 10:27pm, 22 Mar 2012 69 posts	0 Krissie Honest opinions needed please, if I am in the wrong I will take it on board I went for a swim at a different time than usual this evening and due to swimming lessons in 3 lanes, only two were available, one appeared to be dedicated to lane style swimming (had 'swim clockwise' arrow signs but didn't specify fast slow etc), and then a wider space was left for more general swimming and people in this one were swimming slower lengths than in the other lane. So anyway, I was really up for a hard session but found myself the fastest in the faster lane which was full of 4-5 others doing breaststoke and 1 doing a front crawl at a moderate speed. So to swim at any kind of pace I had to constantly overtake, which I was doing when it was clear down the middle to so. One the first occasion that I overtook Mr moderate speed front crawler, he appeared to 'accidently' give me a whack when we passed I gave him the benefit of the doubt that this was accidental but after 3000 metres worth of accidental kicks in the stomach, legs and face everytime I overtook him or he swam adjecent to me on the other side of the lane I began to believe that her may be doing it on purpose, especially as I had not recieved a single knock from any of the other swimmers in the lane. Whilst I was resting between one of my intervals after about an hour, he stopped to tell me that he believed me to be swimming dangerously and risking head injuries to oncoming swimmers, which I replied that I didn't believe to be the case as each time I overtook I had always checked that there we no oncoming swimmers and that whilst we were taking of injuries he may wish to reflect on his own swimming style given that on each occassion that we had passed each other on the opposite sides of a lane he had managed to clout me with an arm or foot. He wasn't having any of it even when pointed out that it hadn't happerned with anyone else and said that this was again my fault for swimming to close to him (even when we were on completely opposite sides of the lane, and I was so close to the lne marker that I was hitting my fingers on it ffs). So anyway, I saw him complaining to the lifeguards afterwards who didn't say anything to me during or after so I'm still not really sure how much in the wrong I was. Should I just have abandoned my idea of a fast session and gone with the speed of the majority in the lane and not swum at all if I wasn't willing to do this, or was it ok to swim at my own pace and overtake, given that there was the option of a slower lane for people who didn't want to be overtaken, but I didn't have the option of moving up to a faster lane?
Da Big Guy Mar 2012 10:33pm, 22 Mar 2012 389 posts	0 Da Big Guy Don't lane swim so can't comment. Could have been one of theoe guys who does not like being overtaken in his car too!
Ted Mar 2012 10:37pm, 22 Mar 2012 11,121 posts	0 Ted Id you notice if he was rather small in the Speedo's department? It sounds like he was being a knobhead to me.
Velociraptor Mar 2012 10:38pm, 22 Mar 2012 19,835 posts	0 Velociraptor You were perfectly right to swim fast in the fast lane and your aggressor was a pea-brained lout. I'll bet he'd have behaved better if you'd been a big bloke and looked capable of lumping him one back.
JenL Mar 2012 10:41pm, 22 Mar 2012 21,279 posts	0 JenL I don't think it's ever acceptable to physically confront anoither swimmer. If he had a real problem with how you swam, he should have stopped and either stopped you too so that the two of you could work it out or got the lifeguard to sort out both of you. If the lane is busy, it's selfish to insist on your pace no matter what everyone else is doing and it could be dangerous but I wasn't there so I don't know what happened. Again though if the man thought you were doing something dangerous it wasn't his business to shove or kick you, which is equally dangerous.
Hourglass Mar 2012 10:44pm, 22 Mar 2012 7,451 posts	0 Hourglass You should have wee'd on the way past him
JenL Mar 2012 10:45pm, 22 Mar 2012 21,280 posts	0 JenL
Hourglass Mar 2012 10:45pm, 22 Mar 2012 7,452 posts	0 Hourglass ...and then obviously got out and reported him for piddling to a life guard
Red Squirrel Mar 2012 10:46pm, 22 Mar 2012 345 posts	0 Red Squirrel I would've complained about him. It sounds like he was clobbering you on purpose and therefore being the dangerous one. You would've been much more likely to come into contact with the breast-strokers when overtaking and as you didn't, I suspect he was being an insecure twat who didn't like being overtaken. Report the f**ker if you see him there again!
hairlikeeddy Mar 2012 7:38pm, 25 Mar 2012 688 posts	0 hairlikeeddy You should have swam over him. Sod that going round lark.