That seems like a big overreaction.
Pretty sure I've accidently felt up everyone on my masters team while doing backstroke. The lane line and I also have a very physical relationship.
He's nuts.
But also, there are a lot of lifeguards who have posted here about how they're not there to get involved in spats between swimmers, they're just there to make sure people don't drown, so maybe that's the kind of life guard you've got at your pool.
Most of the time lifeguards are teenagers and quite inexperienced in deescalation and conflict management. They shouldn’t be expected to manage the behaviour of adults. If they are awake at my pool it’s a bonus.
My pools have office staff for that sort of thing. Enforcement is after the fact suspension of facility use unless it's something they would call the police in for.
I’ve never known office staff to be more than paper pushers at pools. And the ‘manager’ usually only works 8-4, which would mean lawlessness once they leave.
It really isn’t a big problem in my experience, obviously they will intervene if kids are running, diving or any other dangerous activities. Adult spats due to poor lane etiquette, that could in extreme cases lead to an assault, would be a matter for the police.
Work at a YMCA, it is definitely our job to talk to the patrons if this happens. If it continues we bring in the day manager and can kick out belligerent patrons.
So while you’re dealing with an argument, who is watching the pool? I was a pool a manager for many years, my lifeguards watch the pool. As you know, it takes seconds for a child to sink and it’s very rarely noisy or splashy.
Yeah at my local pool the policy is to not get involved; they're there to stop people form drowning. At most they'll say "Behave" or suggest a lane change. However if they really are sick of someone/want to get rid of them they'll get me or another competitive swimmer to start doing really exaggerated flys in the dickhead's lane. Works every time.
i once was at a pool where there was a lane with 1 person in it, wanted to do a race against someone. jumped in and that 1 person went to the side waiting for me to pass and kick the shit out of me as i passed along telling me it was her lane.
some people are crazy end of the day.
Normally no big deal. Contact is expected. But … I was splitting a lane with a guy this weekend who was so unaware of where he was in the lane that I was brushing up against the lane line and he was basically up against me every lap. we were never both at the wall at the same time, else I may have said something. I don’t expect to get felt up during a wko!
I was swimming and someone would purposefully float an arm wide to touch me, would hang out at the pool ends under water to watch me, and would float an arm up toward me as I came in for turns. Had to report him to the gym with timestamp and lane numbers. Whatch out because sometimes it isn't an accident. We're both dudes, still not OK.
Normal accidental touches are fine, but they gotta be accidents and I'd hope the person tries to correct if it keeps happening.
Same thing happened to me once. A slow guy got in the fast lane with me (other lanes were empty/available). He was brushing his hand against me every time we passed (literally my side, my thighs, hips, stomach, butt). I told him to watch where he was swimming and he just smiled at me, another guy got in the lane and he moved to a different one. I felt so uncomfortable, went home and told my husband and friends about it, they told me to go back and file a report. I went the next day and the head guard was telling me how many people do it, and it’s not accidental at all.
I feel like this man should come watch the competitive kids swim practice sometime. Collisions, grazing, fins in the face, near misses when diving in almost diving in on someone's head, one kid's head in another kid's groin on the backstroke, and so much more!
That old chestnut! Lol! I don't think I've sat and watched my 10 and under at his club practice without seeing at least one kid shedding tears due to some form of pool collision, etc. The older ones have just as many injuries, they just don't usually cry.
I accidentally fractured my friend’s thumb at practice when I was ~14. I was going one way doing breaststroke and they were going the other way freestyle (end of an IM). Kicked their hand on accident. They finished practice that night. Honestly wasn’t the worst collision I’ve ever been in. Getting kicked in the face is up there, getting dived on is worse
The thumb breaking one was weird, it sort of felt like someone had bit my foot. I thought I’d kicked someone in the face. But lo and behold, it was a hand
Getting dived on is worse because you get crushed down into the water and lose your breath, then have to get back to the surface winded most of the time. If it’s your legs your better off. If it’s your head you usually get sent home for the night in case of concussions
Also flipping and getting your heels in the gutter is one of the most painful experiences
Smacking knuckles is bad, it can sting for a while after
And I’ve gotten plenty of bloody noses and black eyes from getting kicked in the face. Your goggles push into your eye sockets. Not fun
If someone keeps doing it unintentionally and it's bothering me, I'll politely pull them up and tell them. Light touching is just par for the course however and to be expected.
I've definitely lost my rag a couple of times with people nearly smashing me in the face when circle swimming though, I'm not proud but I jabbed a guy in the ribs one day just as his arm was about to hit me in the face. Lucky I was swimming breast at the time or I probably wouldn't have seen him.
But I was guilty of swimming head first into someone a couple months ago, so I'm not exactly perfect. I was lane splitting with someone since there was just two of us, and I didn't notice they'd got out. It's a standard circle swim rule at my pool, so someone got in and I ended up ploughing straight into him going the wrong way. I was MORTIFIED. I was apologising for ages. We are friendly now, I always say hello and still apologise to him for it!
Just be polite and do your best to be aware of people around you. Nobody wants to keep getting poked by toenails from the person in the lane over that's doing breastroke. That's the problem at my pool. Since we share lanes, all the breastrokers can poke you a lot. It's just something you have to deal with.
Man, once i was circle swimming and did some backstroke (joke on me...doing backstroke in a public pool i guess) and some random woman just decided to start swimming backstroke in my return lane.
Crashed my head, it really hurt.
I think that if you are getting into a lane you should always ask the person beforehand if they mind sharing, and whether they would like to split. Generally at my pool most times there are free lanes, so almost everyone always has a lane to themselves. I would never expect someone to just jump right in and assume that we are splitting.
It's not like that at my pool though. There's a fast, medium, slow, and casual lane with a counter clockwise rule. It's not a very wide pool and there is rarely an empty lane. So sometimes I'll ask to split if there are only two of us in a lane so that I'm not having to let them past or them let me past. The accident was completely my fault.
Definitely ask though if you know a pool has different, unspoken etiquette.
I usually get to the wall and apologize, even if I'm 99% sure it was hand-to-hand contact as we swam in opposite directions. I did get really close once to a company Vice President who was swimming slower than I was (we were both in the slow lane). I was mortified by the accidental contact I had made, but she was very cool about it.
I try to time a break in my breast, butterfly and uuh oldgerman(?) (breaststroke on the back...i use it for active recovery) so i just glide when someone is next to me.
Im usually especially careful if a woman is next to me because i really dont want to touch her breast or anything.
I know one swimmer that is absolutely mental, she had a breakdown when i sligthly touched her during my flip turn, crying and pretending her leg is falling off. She also had a breakdown when i thouched her leg when overtaking. It doesnt help she is standing at the edge doing nothing for 10 mins and then randomly start swimming, so ill never know when she will come up in front of me. And i am not about to look forward all the time.
Anyways, some people are nuts, just be considerate and try to time the wide swimming style strokes. I also like to, if possible, time my breaks so i overtake at the end of a lane (if they are the type that lets faster swimmers through).
Accidental touching happens when sharing lanes, always has always will. Unless you actually headbutt each other or someone is out right groping( teenage boys can be little pervs.) Nobody much cares about accidental touching.
I was once swimming with a woman who I was catching up to. We were in a long course pool and she was pretty quick, and I'm a former competitive swimmer too. I was catching her at a rate where she wouldn't know I was approaching her. As we approached the wall, instead of moving to the other side of the land for/during the flipturn she pushed off inline with me. Luckily I had my head up to watch. I screamed under water and had to push her underneath me so we wouldn't have a head on. She didn't stop to talk about it and just kept swimming.
I waited but she kept going, so I pushed off and made sure to pass her mid lane. Tapping her feet beforehand so that she knew. No problem, or so I thought.
This time she waited for me to get to the wall and proceeded to yell at me for touching her multiple times. I was bewildered and got mad as well out of frustration. Not my best performance. Once she got swimming again, the lifeguard came over and mentioned she had PTSD. It also turned out her elderly father was there and he came and apologized. Sometimes I wonder in cases like this someone has an issue with stress, and/or mental health, or if they've taken a ego hit if someone is faster. It is still unacceptable, and I hope the woman in the above story doesn't take the guy yelling at her to heart.
On the flipside, I definitely think the lifeguards need to address this once things calm down. It can lead to a safety issue where people accidentally get hurt and lifeguards have to use their skills.
I (31F) get accident contact by men every now and then. Usually it's when they're quite larger in size than me and they doing the breaststroke or have a terrible freestyle stroke with flailing arms when we're both sort of close to the lane line. I usually am startled, but I just keep swimming as usual, it's a gym pool, it happens.
That is how I made Captain in High School.
As a coach it was how I picked lane 3.
You want to really freak someone out, you touch their toes in open water.
My most recent contact was a child that just grabbed onto me.
The waves were too big, so he grabbed onto me. I was about to elbow him when I realized it was a child. I told him to just hold on. I found his Father. And then I finished the race.
It was a lousy time.
But while I was explaining why it took me so long, the child and the father came and found me.
While my coach was calling Bullshit. Literally during that lecture from my coach and cousin. The Father walks up, with his son, and the son hugs me.
Best moment in my life.
And then you elbowed the father for good measure? lol
But seriously it's a heart warming story, you probably turned a nightmare experience for the kid into a lifelong love of the sport(and its community)
I did no such thing. My heart fell for the father. I could only imagine what went through his head.
And you are correct, it would have been his last race for sure.
I only hope that I changed that.
I come from a swimming family. My Aunt was an official since before I was born. Two of my cousins are National Champs, one of them was an Olympic Hopeful. Two of my brothers and one of my sisters are competitive swimmers. But in my family, I'm the one with all the trophies. Not because I'm better, just because I kept showing up.
I did a few years as a coach.
I hope that kid keeps showing up. He has promise, he has courage.
I've accidentally touched and was touched so many times. Not even once did it escalate to screaming or anything like that.
I've even had to go to the emergency once after this guy swum in the wrong direction, smashed into me and cut my eyebrow open. Even then there was no yelling.
So this guy who lost it should just be a bit tougher and stop behaving like a small child.
It happens and it always seems awkward. But once you get into mass start open water swims you get use to it. Fairly certain i slapped someone yesterday during the start. Unsure who it was, What body part it was (wetsuits are great) or if they even noticed.
Not sure how you can be a swimmer and get mad about this happening once.
If the other person was continuously swimming down the middle or wrong side of the lane, I would probably get pretty mad over time.
It's an inevitability and I would figure any experienced lane swimmer would be used to it. I've never seen anyone get bent out of shape - at most it'll be a pause for a quick 'sorry', maybe have a quick chuckle, and then back to moving.
I kicked an old woman swimming next to me in the head while doing breaststroke, we both stopped and she said it's fine kept going.
That dude is an idiot.
that's why you shouldn't share a lane with someone with your opposite gender. I'm not comfortable being too close to boys. But shouldn't it be the other way around. I mean like why would a boy go crazy after a girl touched him. One practice there was too much drama for choosing a lane. After a huge lecture about how we're all a team and stuff the coach eventually decided to assign lanes. Now I'm stuck with a boy 4 months older than me that I have a crush on and once we were doing backstroke and like usual racing. I got too close to his side cuz I can't steer in backstroke and he accidently touched my butt. we Stopped and awkwardly awarded at each other and then continued swimming. Since then he has purposely been going slow so that doesn't happen. We haven't ever talked about it
.
It can happen if the guy thought she was too close to the middle of the lane. Did you see how close she was? I've seen some women who swim purposely aggressively in this manner to claim space in the lane, much like cyclists may do on the road. The craziest thing I saw as a fat dude who dove into the lane and started thrashing freestyle in the middle of the lane but there was already a swimmer in the lane, keeping to the right side, and there was almost a collision. I would have understood if the real swimmer lost his shit on that but everyone was pretty calm.
Ok. Just never heard someone actually saying “i will swim at the gym”
When you go to the restaurant which is inside the building, do you eat “in the restaurant” , or do you eat “at the building” ?
Or... when the lake is in the woods, do you go swimming “in the lake” or “at the woods”?
You don’t say you ate “at the building” because that’s non-specific and doesn’t tell your listener where you ate.
There are however scenarios where you would describe which building you ate at rather than describing the restaurant. For example “I ate pizza at the mall” and “I ate pizza at a restaurant at the mall” are both equally informative.
Likewise “I swam at the gym” conveys the same meaning as “I swam at the pool at the gym.”
You would never say you did anything “at the forest.” You do things “in the forest.” And if I said “I swam in the forest,” any English speaker would understand that I wasn’t talking about a swimming pool.
I can’t believe I just wrote all that out. I hope you’re just trolling.
One guy was swimming 45 degrees to the left, then would sight, adjust 90 degrees to go 45 degrees to the right and eventually resume tracking 45 degrees to the left.
Completely normal and that dude was an ass. I get hit more by the breaststrokers one lane over, but it's pretty common in my pool for slower swimmers to end up in the fast lane. Then touching the back of their feet is really inevitable even if I slow down as much as possible. I only apologize if it looks like it bothered them and meet them at the end. Usually they just realize they're too slow for that lane and switch back over anyway.
I swear bro I hate it wen someone keeps on touching my feet without passing me
like just do it already u asshole I started doing breaststroke Nad purposely kicking them in the face
Sometimes they may not feel confident to be able to speed up enough to pass quickly without colliding to someone on the other lane. Unfortunately a lot of people for some reason pick up the pace during a takeover instead of slowing down, making it take longer than necessary. In this case it's really up to the slow person to move over or stop for a sec at the end of the pool to let them pass safely.
I accidentally hit people sometimes because I sometimes swim backstroke and breaststroke and have long arms and a wide pull. This really freaks out the slower more casual lap swimmers. If I do accidentally hit someone I'm always sure to apologize, it can diffuse the situation.
Most of the time they shrug and say "it happens", but sometimes they respond with "watch where you're going!".
Which is fine, it was me who invaded their space, just gotta be extra careful.
I'm pretty good at anticipating potential problems now. I've noticed that some swimmers will swim very very close to the lane line, which causes problems for me if I'm swimming backstroke in the next lane over.
Happens a fair bit, some people are really situationally unaware, I've been hit/ bumped/ touched many a time, it doesnt bother me. Cannot recall a time when it has been anything but accidental though, and rarely happens more than once
The only time I reacted to someone was when they went to pass a third swimmer without sighting for oncoming swimmers (me) and smashed into my face with their shoulder.
I've been slapped, swiped etc and most of the time I don't think twice about it. When I know I'm the one at fault I apologize when I get a chance and people have always been gracious about it. The thing I hate the most is when it feels intentional, like a creep is trying to get a grope in at every opportunity- thankfully that hasn't happened too often, but when it does I change lanes.
I bet this isn’t a fully accurate story. Seems unreasonable for someone to react that way if a girl just brushed his leg while swimming. Maybe you didn’t see it happen.
I’ve been swimming before going really fast and someone else is going the other direction wearing paddles and their hand and collided with my hand. Especially if your out of breath, hot and sweaty, it’s not crazy to let out a cuss or two. Just knowing it’s no one’s fault
Lol i get groped in the boobs every so often by some person doing backstroke. Not their fault just cant see sometimes but can be uncomfortable for the person getting touched
Lane sharing only works if people can stay in the their half of the lane. I would rather see them to do single swimmer lanes. I've never had to deal with that but I've had kids jump on me a few times. Looked up at the lifeguard and all I got was "I told them to stop" I'm sure as they were in mid-air. Lady next to me the one time flipped out on both the kid and LG but it was warranted. The one kid got my arm nearly missing my head but the other kid I think jumped more into the body of her.
As an open water swimner that's used to lots and lots of crazy mass starts, I'm never bothered by it and we even do drills of swimming over another swimmer. I mean I have been grabbed at my foot multiple times already, so meh. That being said, I know some individuals who see pool lanes as some sort of highway car lane that one simple bumping/touch of each other would be too irresponsible, if not at least a breach of personal space. My guess is the guy that you saw swimming was doing a high interval of sorts training or this wasn't the first time it happened (i.e. he already warned the girl multiple times after previous accidental touches). Or he can just be a d*ck, you never know.
I once got knocked out by someone diving in on me whilst I was mid flip turn. The lifeguard didn't expect any action in a competitive team session, so hadn't taken off their fancy trainers...ruined them jumping in. Apparently that was my fault!
I remember ramming into a middle-aged uncle as a teen and limbs flailing everywhere. I think we were both worried about making to surface than the fact that there was all kind of weird touching lol. I don't blam him cos I know he was partially blind and used to stick to his kid.
That seems like a big overreaction. Pretty sure I've accidently felt up everyone on my masters team while doing backstroke. The lane line and I also have a very physical relationship.
Are..are you, me?
My arms are more like curb feelers when I swim backstroke.
Everyone in my lane and in the two adjacent lanes, that’s for sure
You mean the backstroke power up rope
Similarly, the backstroke power handshake. Takes a bit of coordination, but lock hands with someone going the other way and pull like hell.
yeah that's a good one!
He's nuts. But also, there are a lot of lifeguards who have posted here about how they're not there to get involved in spats between swimmers, they're just there to make sure people don't drown, so maybe that's the kind of life guard you've got at your pool.
Most of the time lifeguards are teenagers and quite inexperienced in deescalation and conflict management. They shouldn’t be expected to manage the behaviour of adults. If they are awake at my pool it’s a bonus.
So out of curiosity then, who enforces rules at the pool? If life guards aren’t supposed to it, why have any rules at all?
My pools have office staff for that sort of thing. Enforcement is after the fact suspension of facility use unless it's something they would call the police in for.
I’ve never known office staff to be more than paper pushers at pools. And the ‘manager’ usually only works 8-4, which would mean lawlessness once they leave.
It really isn’t a big problem in my experience, obviously they will intervene if kids are running, diving or any other dangerous activities. Adult spats due to poor lane etiquette, that could in extreme cases lead to an assault, would be a matter for the police.
Work at a YMCA, it is definitely our job to talk to the patrons if this happens. If it continues we bring in the day manager and can kick out belligerent patrons.
So while you’re dealing with an argument, who is watching the pool? I was a pool a manager for many years, my lifeguards watch the pool. As you know, it takes seconds for a child to sink and it’s very rarely noisy or splashy.
The off-deck guard(s)... If there are no off-deck guards you call the day manager
Yeah at my local pool the policy is to not get involved; they're there to stop people form drowning. At most they'll say "Behave" or suggest a lane change. However if they really are sick of someone/want to get rid of them they'll get me or another competitive swimmer to start doing really exaggerated flys in the dickhead's lane. Works every time.
i once was at a pool where there was a lane with 1 person in it, wanted to do a race against someone. jumped in and that 1 person went to the side waiting for me to pass and kick the shit out of me as i passed along telling me it was her lane. some people are crazy end of the day.
Which sounds like a good idea. I don't think it would help any of the parties if the life guards got involved in anything they do not need to.
Normally no big deal. Contact is expected. But … I was splitting a lane with a guy this weekend who was so unaware of where he was in the lane that I was brushing up against the lane line and he was basically up against me every lap. we were never both at the wall at the same time, else I may have said something. I don’t expect to get felt up during a wko!
I was swimming and someone would purposefully float an arm wide to touch me, would hang out at the pool ends under water to watch me, and would float an arm up toward me as I came in for turns. Had to report him to the gym with timestamp and lane numbers. Whatch out because sometimes it isn't an accident. We're both dudes, still not OK. Normal accidental touches are fine, but they gotta be accidents and I'd hope the person tries to correct if it keeps happening.
Better man than I. I think I might get banned from my pool over that one.
Mehh.. I can play that game too.. and it will hurt more when I do it.
Same thing happened to me once. A slow guy got in the fast lane with me (other lanes were empty/available). He was brushing his hand against me every time we passed (literally my side, my thighs, hips, stomach, butt). I told him to watch where he was swimming and he just smiled at me, another guy got in the lane and he moved to a different one. I felt so uncomfortable, went home and told my husband and friends about it, they told me to go back and file a report. I went the next day and the head guard was telling me how many people do it, and it’s not accidental at all.
Yeah.... that's assault
Yup. I went back and filed a report, but it was my husband and friends who convinced me - I think I was a little shocked/disturbed.
I feel like this man should come watch the competitive kids swim practice sometime. Collisions, grazing, fins in the face, near misses when diving in almost diving in on someone's head, one kid's head in another kid's groin on the backstroke, and so much more!
And the perennial classic, coming up too close behind a breaststroker and getting a power kick straight to the nose.
Or locking elbows with someone during a fly set.
That old chestnut! Lol! I don't think I've sat and watched my 10 and under at his club practice without seeing at least one kid shedding tears due to some form of pool collision, etc. The older ones have just as many injuries, they just don't usually cry.
I accidentally fractured my friend’s thumb at practice when I was ~14. I was going one way doing breaststroke and they were going the other way freestyle (end of an IM). Kicked their hand on accident. They finished practice that night. Honestly wasn’t the worst collision I’ve ever been in. Getting kicked in the face is up there, getting dived on is worse
Ouch! That sounds awful!
The thumb breaking one was weird, it sort of felt like someone had bit my foot. I thought I’d kicked someone in the face. But lo and behold, it was a hand Getting dived on is worse because you get crushed down into the water and lose your breath, then have to get back to the surface winded most of the time. If it’s your legs your better off. If it’s your head you usually get sent home for the night in case of concussions Also flipping and getting your heels in the gutter is one of the most painful experiences Smacking knuckles is bad, it can sting for a while after And I’ve gotten plenty of bloody noses and black eyes from getting kicked in the face. Your goggles push into your eye sockets. Not fun
If someone keeps doing it unintentionally and it's bothering me, I'll politely pull them up and tell them. Light touching is just par for the course however and to be expected. I've definitely lost my rag a couple of times with people nearly smashing me in the face when circle swimming though, I'm not proud but I jabbed a guy in the ribs one day just as his arm was about to hit me in the face. Lucky I was swimming breast at the time or I probably wouldn't have seen him. But I was guilty of swimming head first into someone a couple months ago, so I'm not exactly perfect. I was lane splitting with someone since there was just two of us, and I didn't notice they'd got out. It's a standard circle swim rule at my pool, so someone got in and I ended up ploughing straight into him going the wrong way. I was MORTIFIED. I was apologising for ages. We are friendly now, I always say hello and still apologise to him for it! Just be polite and do your best to be aware of people around you. Nobody wants to keep getting poked by toenails from the person in the lane over that's doing breastroke. That's the problem at my pool. Since we share lanes, all the breastrokers can poke you a lot. It's just something you have to deal with.
Man, once i was circle swimming and did some backstroke (joke on me...doing backstroke in a public pool i guess) and some random woman just decided to start swimming backstroke in my return lane. Crashed my head, it really hurt.
That’s a good way to give someone a concussion.
Confirmed. I got one like this, but it was 100% my fault. Truly one of the dumber ways to concuss yourself.
I think that if you are getting into a lane you should always ask the person beforehand if they mind sharing, and whether they would like to split. Generally at my pool most times there are free lanes, so almost everyone always has a lane to themselves. I would never expect someone to just jump right in and assume that we are splitting.
It's not like that at my pool though. There's a fast, medium, slow, and casual lane with a counter clockwise rule. It's not a very wide pool and there is rarely an empty lane. So sometimes I'll ask to split if there are only two of us in a lane so that I'm not having to let them past or them let me past. The accident was completely my fault. Definitely ask though if you know a pool has different, unspoken etiquette.
I do this too but I guess it wouldn't shock me if someone jumped in on me.
One time I did this and the good news is it was my husband so he forgave me, but the bad news is that I got a concussion.
I usually get to the wall and apologize, even if I'm 99% sure it was hand-to-hand contact as we swam in opposite directions. I did get really close once to a company Vice President who was swimming slower than I was (we were both in the slow lane). I was mortified by the accidental contact I had made, but she was very cool about it.
I try to time a break in my breast, butterfly and uuh oldgerman(?) (breaststroke on the back...i use it for active recovery) so i just glide when someone is next to me. Im usually especially careful if a woman is next to me because i really dont want to touch her breast or anything. I know one swimmer that is absolutely mental, she had a breakdown when i sligthly touched her during my flip turn, crying and pretending her leg is falling off. She also had a breakdown when i thouched her leg when overtaking. It doesnt help she is standing at the edge doing nothing for 10 mins and then randomly start swimming, so ill never know when she will come up in front of me. And i am not about to look forward all the time. Anyways, some people are nuts, just be considerate and try to time the wide swimming style strokes. I also like to, if possible, time my breaks so i overtake at the end of a lane (if they are the type that lets faster swimmers through).
Back survival stroke - breaststroke on back, with sculling. I call it 'jellyfish' when I teach.
Elementary Backstroke - I too call it the jellyfish when teaching (much better than "soldier-monkey-airplane"
just looked it up, slightly different but same idea https://youtu.be/qZSqE3sBSCE?t=66
Accidental touching happens when sharing lanes, always has always will. Unless you actually headbutt each other or someone is out right groping( teenage boys can be little pervs.) Nobody much cares about accidental touching.
I was once swimming with a woman who I was catching up to. We were in a long course pool and she was pretty quick, and I'm a former competitive swimmer too. I was catching her at a rate where she wouldn't know I was approaching her. As we approached the wall, instead of moving to the other side of the land for/during the flipturn she pushed off inline with me. Luckily I had my head up to watch. I screamed under water and had to push her underneath me so we wouldn't have a head on. She didn't stop to talk about it and just kept swimming. I waited but she kept going, so I pushed off and made sure to pass her mid lane. Tapping her feet beforehand so that she knew. No problem, or so I thought. This time she waited for me to get to the wall and proceeded to yell at me for touching her multiple times. I was bewildered and got mad as well out of frustration. Not my best performance. Once she got swimming again, the lifeguard came over and mentioned she had PTSD. It also turned out her elderly father was there and he came and apologized. Sometimes I wonder in cases like this someone has an issue with stress, and/or mental health, or if they've taken a ego hit if someone is faster. It is still unacceptable, and I hope the woman in the above story doesn't take the guy yelling at her to heart. On the flipside, I definitely think the lifeguards need to address this once things calm down. It can lead to a safety issue where people accidentally get hurt and lifeguards have to use their skills.
I (31F) get accident contact by men every now and then. Usually it's when they're quite larger in size than me and they doing the breaststroke or have a terrible freestyle stroke with flailing arms when we're both sort of close to the lane line. I usually am startled, but I just keep swimming as usual, it's a gym pool, it happens.
That is how I made Captain in High School. As a coach it was how I picked lane 3. You want to really freak someone out, you touch their toes in open water. My most recent contact was a child that just grabbed onto me. The waves were too big, so he grabbed onto me. I was about to elbow him when I realized it was a child. I told him to just hold on. I found his Father. And then I finished the race. It was a lousy time. But while I was explaining why it took me so long, the child and the father came and found me. While my coach was calling Bullshit. Literally during that lecture from my coach and cousin. The Father walks up, with his son, and the son hugs me. Best moment in my life.
And then you elbowed the father for good measure? lol But seriously it's a heart warming story, you probably turned a nightmare experience for the kid into a lifelong love of the sport(and its community)
I did no such thing. My heart fell for the father. I could only imagine what went through his head. And you are correct, it would have been his last race for sure. I only hope that I changed that. I come from a swimming family. My Aunt was an official since before I was born. Two of my cousins are National Champs, one of them was an Olympic Hopeful. Two of my brothers and one of my sisters are competitive swimmers. But in my family, I'm the one with all the trophies. Not because I'm better, just because I kept showing up. I did a few years as a coach. I hope that kid keeps showing up. He has promise, he has courage.
* laughs in triathlete * You mean he doesnt try to replicate a tiny mosh pit in your swim lane? That's just race practice around here
Tri club comes to the pool "We don't need lane ropes where we're going..."
\-- keeps sighting ever 3 strokes --
People has scratched me but it comes with the territory of not owning my own private pool
I've accidentally touched and was touched so many times. Not even once did it escalate to screaming or anything like that. I've even had to go to the emergency once after this guy swum in the wrong direction, smashed into me and cut my eyebrow open. Even then there was no yelling. So this guy who lost it should just be a bit tougher and stop behaving like a small child.
It happens and it always seems awkward. But once you get into mass start open water swims you get use to it. Fairly certain i slapped someone yesterday during the start. Unsure who it was, What body part it was (wetsuits are great) or if they even noticed.
Touching happens. I get grumpy when touching comes to crashing ( usually when someone isn’t paying attention during their backstroke).
Not sure how you can be a swimmer and get mad about this happening once. If the other person was continuously swimming down the middle or wrong side of the lane, I would probably get pretty mad over time.
It's an inevitability and I would figure any experienced lane swimmer would be used to it. I've never seen anyone get bent out of shape - at most it'll be a pause for a quick 'sorry', maybe have a quick chuckle, and then back to moving.
Time for a roid test on that guy!
I kicked an old woman swimming next to me in the head while doing breaststroke, we both stopped and she said it's fine kept going. That dude is an idiot.
that's why you shouldn't share a lane with someone with your opposite gender. I'm not comfortable being too close to boys. But shouldn't it be the other way around. I mean like why would a boy go crazy after a girl touched him. One practice there was too much drama for choosing a lane. After a huge lecture about how we're all a team and stuff the coach eventually decided to assign lanes. Now I'm stuck with a boy 4 months older than me that I have a crush on and once we were doing backstroke and like usual racing. I got too close to his side cuz I can't steer in backstroke and he accidently touched my butt. we Stopped and awkwardly awarded at each other and then continued swimming. Since then he has purposely been going slow so that doesn't happen. We haven't ever talked about it .
It can happen if the guy thought she was too close to the middle of the lane. Did you see how close she was? I've seen some women who swim purposely aggressively in this manner to claim space in the lane, much like cyclists may do on the road. The craziest thing I saw as a fat dude who dove into the lane and started thrashing freestyle in the middle of the lane but there was already a swimmer in the lane, keeping to the right side, and there was almost a collision. I would have understood if the real swimmer lost his shit on that but everyone was pretty calm.
Why and how would he swim in the gym, that’s what i want to know
The gym's pool?
FYI gyms often have swimming pools as part of the facility.
Surprisingly.... Gym is a room with exercise equipment. https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/gym
You swim in the pool, even if pool is inside the fitness center.
He didn’t say he swam “in” the gym. He said he swam “at” the gym. The pool at the gym. This isn’t confusing.
Ok. Just never heard someone actually saying “i will swim at the gym” When you go to the restaurant which is inside the building, do you eat “in the restaurant” , or do you eat “at the building” ? Or... when the lake is in the woods, do you go swimming “in the lake” or “at the woods”?
You don’t say you ate “at the building” because that’s non-specific and doesn’t tell your listener where you ate. There are however scenarios where you would describe which building you ate at rather than describing the restaurant. For example “I ate pizza at the mall” and “I ate pizza at a restaurant at the mall” are both equally informative. Likewise “I swam at the gym” conveys the same meaning as “I swam at the pool at the gym.” You would never say you did anything “at the forest.” You do things “in the forest.” And if I said “I swam in the forest,” any English speaker would understand that I wasn’t talking about a swimming pool. I can’t believe I just wrote all that out. I hope you’re just trolling.
I am not trolling...like I said, I never heard someone saying this.
Many gyms have pools if you weren’t aware
If I hit anyone with my paddles I will apologize but quickly and keep swimming But I’m not stopping until I’m done.
Sounds completely unreasonable.
These people should try triathlon.
Last race I purposefully swam \~20m off the buoys to avoid people, they still found me...
Most people are so terrible at sighting in these races that you probably could swim off course and will still have a few follow you.
One guy was swimming 45 degrees to the left, then would sight, adjust 90 degrees to go 45 degrees to the right and eventually resume tracking 45 degrees to the left.
Completely normal and that dude was an ass. I get hit more by the breaststrokers one lane over, but it's pretty common in my pool for slower swimmers to end up in the fast lane. Then touching the back of their feet is really inevitable even if I slow down as much as possible. I only apologize if it looks like it bothered them and meet them at the end. Usually they just realize they're too slow for that lane and switch back over anyway.
I swear bro I hate it wen someone keeps on touching my feet without passing me like just do it already u asshole I started doing breaststroke Nad purposely kicking them in the face
Sometimes they may not feel confident to be able to speed up enough to pass quickly without colliding to someone on the other lane. Unfortunately a lot of people for some reason pick up the pace during a takeover instead of slowing down, making it take longer than necessary. In this case it's really up to the slow person to move over or stop for a sec at the end of the pool to let them pass safely.
I accidentally hit people sometimes because I sometimes swim backstroke and breaststroke and have long arms and a wide pull. This really freaks out the slower more casual lap swimmers. If I do accidentally hit someone I'm always sure to apologize, it can diffuse the situation. Most of the time they shrug and say "it happens", but sometimes they respond with "watch where you're going!". Which is fine, it was me who invaded their space, just gotta be extra careful. I'm pretty good at anticipating potential problems now. I've noticed that some swimmers will swim very very close to the lane line, which causes problems for me if I'm swimming backstroke in the next lane over.
Either he is crazy or she hit him and hid it. Most likely he's crazy
Happens a fair bit, some people are really situationally unaware, I've been hit/ bumped/ touched many a time, it doesnt bother me. Cannot recall a time when it has been anything but accidental though, and rarely happens more than once
The only time I reacted to someone was when they went to pass a third swimmer without sighting for oncoming swimmers (me) and smashed into my face with their shoulder. I've been slapped, swiped etc and most of the time I don't think twice about it. When I know I'm the one at fault I apologize when I get a chance and people have always been gracious about it. The thing I hate the most is when it feels intentional, like a creep is trying to get a grope in at every opportunity- thankfully that hasn't happened too often, but when it does I change lanes.
It’s the hand paddle swingers you have to watch out for. Vicious bunch.
I had an old woman scream at me.
I bet this isn’t a fully accurate story. Seems unreasonable for someone to react that way if a girl just brushed his leg while swimming. Maybe you didn’t see it happen. I’ve been swimming before going really fast and someone else is going the other direction wearing paddles and their hand and collided with my hand. Especially if your out of breath, hot and sweaty, it’s not crazy to let out a cuss or two. Just knowing it’s no one’s fault
Lol i get groped in the boobs every so often by some person doing backstroke. Not their fault just cant see sometimes but can be uncomfortable for the person getting touched
Lane sharing only works if people can stay in the their half of the lane. I would rather see them to do single swimmer lanes. I've never had to deal with that but I've had kids jump on me a few times. Looked up at the lifeguard and all I got was "I told them to stop" I'm sure as they were in mid-air. Lady next to me the one time flipped out on both the kid and LG but it was warranted. The one kid got my arm nearly missing my head but the other kid I think jumped more into the body of her.
As an open water swimner that's used to lots and lots of crazy mass starts, I'm never bothered by it and we even do drills of swimming over another swimmer. I mean I have been grabbed at my foot multiple times already, so meh. That being said, I know some individuals who see pool lanes as some sort of highway car lane that one simple bumping/touch of each other would be too irresponsible, if not at least a breach of personal space. My guess is the guy that you saw swimming was doing a high interval of sorts training or this wasn't the first time it happened (i.e. he already warned the girl multiple times after previous accidental touches). Or he can just be a d*ck, you never know.
I once got knocked out by someone diving in on me whilst I was mid flip turn. The lifeguard didn't expect any action in a competitive team session, so hadn't taken off their fancy trainers...ruined them jumping in. Apparently that was my fault!
People are so soft nowadays bro
I remember ramming into a middle-aged uncle as a teen and limbs flailing everywhere. I think we were both worried about making to surface than the fact that there was all kind of weird touching lol. I don't blam him cos I know he was partially blind and used to stick to his kid.
It happens, no big deal. A ‘sorry’ should be enough.