Tips for Lane Swimming
Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been swimming 2000-3000m a day, most days. I haven’t been a serious swimmer since about 1998, but for the 15 years or so before that, I was a fairly serious competitive swimmer. I had assumed that the basic procedures for swimming in a laned pool would be rather intuitive, but apparently not because it is a rare day in the Cambridge Parkside Pool that anyone shows the slightest swimming etiquette at all. So, here are some tips for having a nice swim and not making it miserable for me to be in a lane with you:
- Circle Swim: Swim just like you drive. The pool has signs that show which direction to go. You will go down the pool on one side of the lane and return on the other side. This keeps us all from hitting each other.
- Turn on the Departure Side: I realize that I am the only one in the pool doing flip-turns, but that’s irrelevant. Right before you get to the wall, you need to go to the other side of the lane and then turn. So if we’re swimming clockwise, move over to the right just before you turn.
- Wait Off to the Side: If you are between sets or are resting or something, move to one side of the lane or the other. When I come into the wall to turn, I don’t want to have to worry about you being in my way. You might get kicked, so this is for your well-being and mine.
- Don’t, Don’t, Don’t Jump Off the Wall Right Before Me If You’re Slow: I have absolutely no idea what people are thinking with this one. I’ll pass somebody three times in 200m, which implies an extremely large speed differential between us. This person will be waiting on the wall when I come in to turn and they will jump off and start swimming right before me! Then I immediately have to go around them. Look at the empirical evidence here: you’re probably not going to stay ahead of me this time either. Just wait another 5 seconds and then push off the wall after I turn.
- These Are Not Checkout Lanes: I know at the grocery store that you like to choose the lane that has the fewest people in it. This does not work in swimming. Pick your lane based on the speed of the occupiers. The lifeguards have cleverly labeled the lanes with signs that say things like “slow”, “medium” and “fast” to facilitate this. Dogpaddling old man, I have nothing against you and I think it’s great that you’re getting out and getting fit, but get out of my lane and back in the “slow” lane.
- Leave Your Ego at Home: Hey, there’s always a bigger fish and believe me, I’m not particularly fast by normal standards. When I swim with my water polo buddies, I get trounced. Frankly, I don’t really care whether or not I’m being passed: I just want to get my workout done. In fact, I think that being passed is much better than being the passer, because you can just keep doing what you’re doing and maintain your pace. What really, really drives me nuts (and this happened today, partly prompting me to write this) was this guy who was reasonably fast, and probably thinks of himself as such. I get into the lane about and start swimming backstroke about a quarter-pool-length behind him. I catch him about halfway and start to pass. He speeds up. So I have to turn over and start swimming freestyle so I can just get around him and back onto my backstroke set. He starts full out sprinting, trying to beat me to the end of the pool! What is going on here? I can just see the thought process: “Hey, wait, I’m supposed to be the fast swimmer around here!” Anyway, this happened over and over again. If he would just keep the pace, that would be no problem, but when he wasn’t swimming right next to me, he’d go slow as Hell. I’d try to give him plenty of room, but catch him inevitably. With me right behind him, he’d never wait on the wall and let me by. Rather, he’d just keep his slow pace up right until I started to go around him, and then he’d start sprinting. Bizarre…
- Don’t Do Butterfly: Seriously, just don’t. You can’t. It takes years of real, coached training to get it right. The exceptions to this are if you are or were a competitive swimmer and are capable of swimming fly in a meet, or are being coached by someone who knows what they’re talking about. Otherwise, you look dumb and you are seriously asking for a shoulder injury. Also, you’re getting in my way with your flailing arms.
- Use All the Lanes: This is really for the lifeguards/administrators at Parkside. You guys set the pool up so that the slow/medium lanes take up two of the normal lanes, by removing the lanelines. This results in two fewer lanes with no discernible improvement. What I’m saying is that just by putting those lines back in, you could increase the capacity of the pool by 33%. Also, when people are trying to circle-swim (see above), they have to go twice as far along the wall to depart on the other side of the lane. Everyone winds up swimming in this strange football-shaped (that would be American football) pattern.
February 11th, 2005 at 1:40 pm
I swim at Parkside three times a week, and I have been thinking exactly the same things. Some of this stuff is written on the back of the boards at the head of the lanes, not that anybody reads it. Having narrower lanes might be a problem for overtaking when they are busy.