Lane wars

This may not be obvious to most people but when swimming in a pool separated by lane markers there is a certain unwritten (sometimes written) etiquette to follow.   If you need to share a lane with another swimmer you must let the other swimmer aware of your intention before entering the lane.  Most swimmers who do flip turns cannot see the ends of the lane and are genuinely unaware of swimmers waiting at the end of the lane.  If you are brave you can jump into the lane and hope the other swimmer sees your legs before they flip right on top of your belly.  This will work about 50% of the time.  The better thing to do is to take a kick board and hold it under water at the end of the lane.  Most swimmers will see this just before they flip and if not they will flip onto the board (not you!) and stop.  If you are really timid or shy you can ask the lifeguard to alert the other swimmer.

When swimming with one other swimmer in the lane you will normally take one side of the lane.  The original swimmer gets to choose.  If you are swimming with two or more other swimmers then you have to do what is called "circle swimming".  This means swimming counterclockwise in the lane.  You swim always on the right side of the lane no matter which direction you are going.  This method of swimming can be very annoying for swimmers who swim at different speeds.  The faster swimmer will need to pass the slower swimmers every so often.  This is accomplished by the faster swimmer lightly touching the toes of the swimmer in front who at the end of the lap should stop and let the faster swimmer pass.

Also when swimming with others you should be considerate when doing butterfly and breaststroke as these strokes take up the whole lane and you will invariably kick someone if you are't careful. Back stroke can be a suicide mission if you can't swim straight and keep your arms close to your body.  Most considerate swimmers will pause or change strokes when passing other swimmers in the lane.

In an ideal world all these rules of etiquette would make for happier swimming but many swimming accidents and confrontations occur.   Over the years I have had a fair number of close encounters... once I was swimming alone in a lane doing backstroke when another swimmer jumped in without notifying me.  I happily swam down the middle of the lane until my head smashed into the head of the other swimmer.  I was quite shaken and had a terrible head ache for the rest of the day.  The other swimmer looked confused so I tried at length to explain the "rules" to her.  At the end of my careful instructions she looked up and said to me, "Je ne parle pas Englais.... je suis francais..." before calmly swimming away.  I found another lane.