Lane swimming etiquette
From our swim coach Jamie C, some tips on how to survive in the swim squad without banging into each other or blocking other’s way…
- There is a natural attraction to swim down the black line but of course this doesn’t work too well when someone else is coming straight back at you. So stay left of the line but not too left so as to cross arms with the lane next door. If you are a wide arm swimmer like me then you need to be aware of other people coming towards you and bring your stroke in a bit when crossing over.
- When you finish you set get out of the way!!!!. Don’t just hang round the “T” as other people are trying to finish or may even be doing more laps to finish their set. If you are about to go again and someone is coming try to go just before they get there if they are slower than you or just after if they are faster. But still try to keep to your rest periods.
- Passing is inherently difficult so before you pass have a look and see who’s coming, tap the front persons feet (lightly) a couple of times then make sure you pick up speed to pass. The person being passed should pull over to the left as much as they can and both people should pull their stroke in as much as possible.
- Passing near the turn. If you can, time it so that you pass on the turn itself. That way you can tap the feet, move right turn and push off. The person being passed can stay left, turn and push off a little slower and it should work OK.
- Drafting is an efficient way to swim but it doesn’t give you the best sort of training if you do it all the time. Sometimes you find you can easily draft off someone but can’t get past them. Means you are probably very much the same pace overall. Either start a little later so 10 seconds apart or swap over from set to set.
- It can get really annoying if someone is constantly touching your toes while draughting. There are some good techniques to get people to stop doing this but they aren’t very nice. I often try to break off by swimming harder out of the turn or I just think well this is going to happen in a race so just get used to it. So if you want to swim on someone toes make sure you don’t touch them too often.
- If you are having problems with someone at the pool it is probably because they just aren’t aware that they are causing a problem. If chatting to them doesn’t work then let me know and I’ll swim over them or something.