I’ve recently started going for a swim at the weekend to get some exercise back in the routine. So you can be sure that as a newish activity, it’s blog-worthy.
Truth be told, swimming isn’t new. I did it at school. Dad and I used to go on a Saturday morning and be home in time for lunch. Dad used to joke to the lifeguard that it should be called “Hunter’s half-hour” as so few other swimmers were in the pool.
I’m not at the same pool, and it’s yet to be anything close to Hunter’s half-hour. Although I do usually swim for about 30 minutes.
I’m doing lane swimming, so there’s slow, medium and fast. The problem with this is people either don’t know their lane or exercise poor lane etiquette.
It was so bad last time that I actually looked at the swimmer that was annoying me, looked at the lifeguard and did the best I could do to look disgruntled while also entertaining the breaststroke motion I was doing. Nothing was done. This issue? Pace.
We were all in the slow lane, this woman was clearly faster than us and could have kept pace with the medium lane very easily. So she should have changed lanes. But no. We’re told to swim in a clockwise direction in this lane. She decided loops weren’t for her. She was going up and down in the middle of the lane. An absolute faff.
Another issue came at the other end of the spectrum. Again, I was in the slow lane, so no real place for them to move down, and the medium lane was busy and so not one for the bulk of the slow lane to join and impact. But my issue here isn’t pace. It’s space.
Here, two friends were swimming together. Next to each other. Chatting.
This meant it was impossible to overtake if someone was coming the other way, but doable to be 3 abreast across the lane if there was space. At no point did they seem to notice that their chitter chatter pace and hogging of the space were causing frustration to all swimmers around them who were changing when they set off to reduce the chance of needing to overtake.
I don’t want anyone to feel like swimming is cut off for them as a form of exercise, but please be mindful of other swimmers and know the lane you should be in.
In another pool visit, a lady was practising her swimming – and was too nervous to go into the deep end where she couldn’t touch the bottom. She, however, was a courteous swim lane user cutting across the loop when it was clear to move – or grabbing the wall to be out of the way of other swimmers when it wasn’t.
Most people in the pool are wearing goggles, or not getting their head fully underwater so are able to see, it’s just about adding in that extra visibility for others that is needed.
Catherine's Corner 