This is all very complicated. I think I’ll just stick to doing cannonballs.
So then, that.
Swim in a circle, stay to the right. In the fast lane, I wouldn’t expect for someone to be resting at the “wrong” end. But that happens in the slow lane and isn’t unheard of in the medium. But then, the resters should be toward the side of the lane, not in the center.
I’m not sure how to answer your poll, though.
Where do you live? I don’t think I’ve ever seen any public pool that did not have some kind of system in place for lane swimming, except for splash pools for kids to play in. Eg/ This community pool vs. a splash pool.
Safety first. If someone needs to stop or slow down to catch their breath then you must respect that. Sure they can stop, get out, or switch to a slower lane once they get to the end. If they’ve stopped mid-lane, you check that they’re okay. If they’re just going slower than you and there’s only one lane available, you go at their speed until the end of the lane and pass them there.
I always swam at motel pools. The one near my parents home let non-guests swim for a fee. I earned my mile swim badge at a lake in boy scout camp. Thankfully, never had to swim in a lane.
Oooooh, that explains it. I have seen hotel pools that have lanes painted or tiled on the bottom, but they don’t usually have lanes roped off or anything. They’re more like splash pools for grown ups.
Maybe I should have been clearer about what kinds of etiquette I was asking about… it was mostly about pacing and whether it’s okay to stop or not, not where to swim because that’s laid out by the pool rules.
Anyway, now that I’ve had a few answers, what happened yesterday was that I started out in the moderate lane, found that while I could keep up with everyone’s pace, I was running out of breath. Rather than stop and catch my breath and confuse everyone coming up behind me (ie. Is she going now? Now? Now? NOW? Oh, she’s taking off, guess I have to swim behind her and wait again…) I switched over to the slow lane. Because there was less pressure to keep up the pace in the slow lane, I could pace myself so that I didn’t need to catch my breath every few laps.
I ended up behind one guy who stopped at the end, and I gave him about five seconds to get started. When he didn’t, I started my lap but then he took off a millisecond after me and pushed me “out of the way”. Personal contact is definitely a no-no for me, and this wasn’t an accidental-oops-I-didn’t-see-you-there push, so I was throw a little off guard. He was swimming at snail’s pace anyway, so I passed him on the left, and on my return, he started yelling at me about how I was “budging in line”. I ignored him and continued swimming, but after that lap, he was gone. Either I ruined his swimming experience and he left, or he was ejected by a lifeguard for being an a-hole.
I have two thoughts about it. Since there IS an open area where swimmers can practice whatever they like, however they like, he should have been there. He was swimming with one of those water dumbbells between his legs, if that makes a difference. Obviously he was not a very strong swimmer to be in the lanes to begin with. The second is that the lanes aren’t “lines”. I was a slightly faster swimmer than he was, so he should just accept that the general rule that if you’re slow, even in the slow lane, people passing you is not a big deal.
Basically, you came across one of those little old men who drives with his turn signal on all the time at a speed of about 10 mph when the speed limit is 45, and when you pull out to pass him, he floors it in a huff.
He’s got to learn to stand to the side to let faster swimmers pass, there’s no “swimming order”, so it’s not like you’re butting in line at the movie theater.
Pull-buoys (the water dumbbells) make no difference. You politely let the faster person go ahead of you, and you politely do not run right over the slower person who is ahead of you. If you’re pulling with a pull-buoy, or kicking with a kick-board, you adjust the order based on your speed at those tasks.
If the slower person won’t be polite, you simply pass them. With many competitive swimmers, it’s simply expected that the faster person pass them. I usually do so with the Masters swimmers when they’re doing their crazy February workout schedules; they know I’m fast, I know they don’t want to interrupt their pace. Not a good assumption to make without checking with lanemates first, though.
Which is what the signs tell you to do.
ETA: If you see him in the future and he gives you any lip, point out the signs.
I voted “can stop at ends” but that’s influenced by my being a slowpoke - I’m always in the slowest lane, where people are stopping at the ends all the time.
I would say it’s pretty much accepted round here in the slow lane that you can stop at the ends whenever you like, and it’s not only allowed but encouraged that if a faster person comes up behind you you let them go first.
If you made an error at all, I’d say it was in waiting any time for him in the first place. Just go straight away if he stops at all, you’d soon be out of his way.
I’ve seen pools that have lanes, but I’ve rarely if ever seen them used except for special occasions. And, in those occasions, it is one person per lane at a time. I never realized there was a variety that works more like a track.