Olivier Poirier-Leroy is a former national level swimmer based out of Victoria, BC. In feeding his passion for swimming, he has developed YourSwimBook, a powerful log book and goal setting guide made specifically for swimmers. Sign up for the YourSwimBook newsletter (free) and get weekly motivational tips by clicking here.
It happens on an almost daily occasion, to the point it’s become a part of my workout.
I’ll be cruising along during my workout when a public swimmer, baggy shorts and goggles around the neck, strolls over, walks past 4 empty lanes, does a couple arm swings, hops in and pushes off to do some head-up breaststroke up and down the black line.
Sigh.
It shouldn’t surprise me. It happens so often, so routinely that if a slow moving public swimmer doesn’t hop into my lane to swim a couple laps before moving to a speed-appropriate lane I view that training day as a special treat, and leave the pool feeling unabashedly spoiled.
Sometimes, however, a light scolding is in order.
On one such occasion I politely asked a man who was floating (key word being floating) up and down the black line to swim circles according to the posted signage, to which he looked at me blankly and said – “I don’t think I will.”
And floated off.
I’ll admit – he owned me with that comment, leaving me stupefied on the wall for a couple minutes afterwards. (There was also the lady that tackled me mid-stroke to tell me to give more space to the swimmer ahead of me. But that’s for another time.)
My swim last night was no exception. I hit up the pool late because it would be quiet. How quiet? Including myself there were 4 swimmers in 17 lanes. Yes, you read that correctly – 17 lanes.
So imagine the disappointment when baggy shorts and goggles-around-the neck dude hopped into my lane just as I was coming in to execute a mildly awesome flip turn. He pushed off, and not wanting to interrupt the rep I was totally crushing, I pushed off the wall and nearly went head first up the bottom of his shorts.
Ducking around him I sped across the pool and stopped at the wall.
It was at this point that I went into the 3-stages of lap swimmer-rage:
Stage 1: Disbelief.
“No way…he’s not going… there’s no way…Really?”
Stage 2: Indignant and Entitled
“How dare he… What could he possibly thinking… This is, like, totally my lane… Can’t he see that I am in the middle of a megaton set and that I am totally killin’ it??”
Stage 3: Hulk Smash
“That’s it! Where are my fins and paddles! Tahiti Break engage! Time to drown this fool!”
I continued with my workout, swimming essentially head up freestyle and just like Keanu in The Matrix ducking the sweeping breaststroke-sidesweep kicks, until he realized that there were open lanes elsewhere.
The only hesitation he felt in choosing a different lane was that those other lanes weren’t marked as being the “fast” lane.
The default lane choice for most lap swimmers – absolutely regardless of ability – is the fastest lane. It doesn’t matter if the moderate lane is empty, the leisure lane is empty, or that there are 5 swimmers in the fast lane and the rest of the pool is empty.
It’s understandable. Nobody wants to swim in the slow lane. Nobody wants to be known as the slow guy or gal in the pool. And so what do these lovingly ignorant public swimmers do?
They reach. They extend themselves beyond their abilities. They pick the fastest lane because, well, they ain’t got time for the slow lane.
Something the rest of us should be doing a little more often as well.
BITE OFF MORE THAN YOU CAN CHEW
All too often swimmers play it safe.
They will go the lane where they will lead, not where they will be challenged. There are heaps of reasons for this. You don’t want to step on anyone’s toes. You don’t want to appear too ambitious. The thought of getting passed by the older kids terrifies you.
We play it safe with a lot more than just our lane choices. We set the bar low with our goals because we are scared that we won’t be able to handle the disappointment of not achieving them. We undervalue our talents and abilities. We think ourselves less capable, less tough, and less flippin’ awesome that we oughta.
Next time you are walking out on deck embrace some of that ignorance that our local public swimmers hold. Reach higher than you can grasp. Challenge your comfort zone. Dream big and act bigger.
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If there’s 13 lanes open, why wouldn’t you just go to another lane? I never thought of the ” public ” swimmers as pushing themselves but I’m sure they do and it’s good lesson to remember : no matter what our ability level in activity we can always push ourselves a little more to improve.
Not a fan of muggles who deliberately move into a “fast” lane or into lanes that are occupied by competent swimmers while others are empty or with people who are their level of swimming.
At the pool where I swim muggles are people who think they can swim but really can’t (non-swimming folk)
Look. The message of this article is laudable, but from my considerable experience swimming in public pools in many parts of the US, find the stories pretty hard to believe. Usually public swimmers avoid the “fast” lane, *especially* when someone is really moving in it. In fact, I find it is far more typical that swimmers ignore the fast/medium/slow signs altogether, and simply head for the emptiest lanes.
And, echoing another comment, I (typically the fastest swimmer in the pool) will always jump to an empty lane when it’s available. There was really no reason for you to stay in the lane with 17 empty ones around you, unless you too insisted on owning the “fast” lane. Life is… Read more »
When someone who can’t get the hint won’t leave the lap lane, I like to swim butterfly, but instead, I turn my hands outward with the palms facing the end of the pool rather than fingertips, which (albeit is very slow and drag-inducing) causes a nice splash to go down the lane with each stroke. After a couple of 25s of this, the offender will generally leave the lane. If this doesn’t work, I make sure to wait until they are hanging on the wall to do a full-speed flip turn within 1/4th an inch of their life.
Great article. Public swimming pools are a nightmare. There is always some **** doing doggy-paddle in the fast lane or a tri-guy drowning somewhere. This is definitely not just an American thing. No-one I know who swims seriously would even dream of going to a public session, unless really pushed for pool time. Mind you, over here in Britain, we have so few pools, even our Olympians sometimes have to swim with Mr Baggy shorts……
In the US, most pools are high school pools. In Airzona no high school pool, lots of rec pools that the high schoolers used as well. Tucson and Phoenix have probably the most rec pools open for lap swimming and usually have a pace clock.
This is ridiculous. You could have gone in another lane yourself if the swimmer who wouldn’t move was bugging you so much. You don’t own the lanes nor does anybody else. It’s called sharing…a little lesson that most people learn back in kindergarten.
Y’all need to get a grip. lol.
Thanks for writing this, though. It was entertaining and good for a laugh. Apparently teenage boys grow up and when they get in the pool, well, they still act like teenage boys.
Sharing is certainly caring.
Hard to share with someone swimming breaststroke with 8-foot wide kicks up and down the black line, however.
Sounds like you kinda missed the theme of the post, but thanks for commenting 🙂
I once went to the little neighborhood pool just to do some loosen up lengths. One of the old ladies who was bouncing up and down at the side of the pool stared at me and said “excuse me you’re bothering us – it’s Adult swim”. I was like “really? I’m an adult (in my 40s) and swimming!” She then proceeded to walk widths while I swam lengths. I let her live this time but next time she is fair game!
I love the lap swimmers who think ” a crowded lane” is anything more than ONE. They sometimes complain that the masters or swim club session going on in our four lane pool with up to eight per lane takes up too much time and space.