Swimming Pool Ettiquette
Discussion
Hi,
Scenario - a typical Gym swimming pool - 25m long, 2 lanes. 8:00am, 4 people using the pool, 2 in each lane. A 5th person arrives and starts doing butterfly. After they've swum a length, the pool resembles the North Atlantic in the middle of a force 9 gale.
Interested to hear whether people think this is ok, or inconsiderate.
Scenario - a typical Gym swimming pool - 25m long, 2 lanes. 8:00am, 4 people using the pool, 2 in each lane. A 5th person arrives and starts doing butterfly. After they've swum a length, the pool resembles the North Atlantic in the middle of a force 9 gale.
Interested to hear whether people think this is ok, or inconsiderate.
Actually, it's a Woman. She's good, and she does a length of butterfly followed by a length of front crawl, and seems to be able to repeat indefinitely.
I get the open water training bit - but if I wanted that, I'd be swimming in a lake / river / the sea.
My view is that it is inconsiderate at best, and should be reserved for times when she has the pool to herself.
I get the open water training bit - but if I wanted that, I'd be swimming in a lake / river / the sea.
My view is that it is inconsiderate at best, and should be reserved for times when she has the pool to herself.
omniflow said:
Actually, it's a Woman. She's good, and she does a length of butterfly followed by a length of front crawl, and seems to be able to repeat indefinitely.
I get the open water training bit - but if I wanted that, I'd be swimming in a lake / river / the sea.
My view is that it is inconsiderate at best, and should be reserved for times when she has the pool to herself.
She owns the pool. I get the open water training bit - but if I wanted that, I'd be swimming in a lake / river / the sea.
My view is that it is inconsiderate at best, and should be reserved for times when she has the pool to herself.
If you could do what she does, you would.
You can't. Suck it up, chum. Doggy-paddle through her wake, and thank her for it.
I would say it's inconsiderate - I swim most days and am surprised by how much splash people can make when doing front crawl - have they been taught wrongly? I tend to do a hard front crawl length - then an easy back, scull type stroke to regain my breath/strength.
No one I've seen has attempted butterfly in the pool yet! There was a rather worrying type male that swam underwater for the whole length of the pool and I was checking on him all the time to make sure he wasn't drowning!
No one I've seen has attempted butterfly in the pool yet! There was a rather worrying type male that swam underwater for the whole length of the pool and I was checking on him all the time to make sure he wasn't drowning!
BenjiS said:
She's rude.
Butterfly makes it almost impossible to share a lane, can't pass in opposite directions, and in a public pool outside of a scheduled training session, that's not on. In the pool I use, words would be had by the fast people.
That said, butterfly is impressive and I envy people who can do it. My 8 year old is better than me!
+1. To both of the above. Butterfly makes it almost impossible to share a lane, can't pass in opposite directions, and in a public pool outside of a scheduled training session, that's not on. In the pool I use, words would be had by the fast people.
That said, butterfly is impressive and I envy people who can do it. My 8 year old is better than me!
2 in a lane? bliss. Come back when you have to share with 6 or 7 others. Who are all rapid. !
And its totally possible to do fly whilst chain swimming (so thats swimming clock or anit clockwise in the lane). I know because I do it regularly. She's perfectly allowed to come swim and do whatever stroke she likes, she's paid her subs just like anyone else.
I presume this gym has s
tty orange-rope lane ropes though and it doesn't sound that wide. A decent 25m, 6-8 lane pool shouldn't resemble the north sea after a length fly even it had no lane ropes. An anti-wave lane rope (steel cable, big plastic discs on it) might help, you could suggest they get one installed come the next upgrade, but they are very dear bits of kit.
Though at only 2 lanes wide I doubt it would do much, that is really quite narrow if the lanes are the regulation width and the pool has side walls (i.e. the pool deck is above the water) and you'd have similar waves rippling back and force from any decent swimmer who got in the pool, not just one doing fly. A pool where the deck is at water level shouldn't suffer with waves as there isn't anything to reflect them back. They soak away into the gutter.
Anyway, I would say its fair game.... but then again I still train and compete and if I had to get in a public session, I'd be "that guy" making the waves. Which is why I try avoid it and stick to club sessions.
And its totally possible to do fly whilst chain swimming (so thats swimming clock or anit clockwise in the lane). I know because I do it regularly. She's perfectly allowed to come swim and do whatever stroke she likes, she's paid her subs just like anyone else.
I presume this gym has s
tty orange-rope lane ropes though and it doesn't sound that wide. A decent 25m, 6-8 lane pool shouldn't resemble the north sea after a length fly even it had no lane ropes. An anti-wave lane rope (steel cable, big plastic discs on it) might help, you could suggest they get one installed come the next upgrade, but they are very dear bits of kit. Though at only 2 lanes wide I doubt it would do much, that is really quite narrow if the lanes are the regulation width and the pool has side walls (i.e. the pool deck is above the water) and you'd have similar waves rippling back and force from any decent swimmer who got in the pool, not just one doing fly. A pool where the deck is at water level shouldn't suffer with waves as there isn't anything to reflect them back. They soak away into the gutter.
Anyway, I would say its fair game.... but then again I still train and compete and if I had to get in a public session, I'd be "that guy" making the waves. Which is why I try avoid it and stick to club sessions.
Edited by Otispunkmeyer on Thursday 24th August 09:57
Having spent years learning TI I find the same thing with the average front crawler to be honest. However, the pool is for use by all, and butterfly is a legitimate stroke that he may need to train with to compete. It's annoying, but it's unfair to limit people. I tend to pick empty sessions at night to avoid this sort of thing, just as I tend to prefer doing my long bike rides early on Sunday mornings.
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