Swim Class Etiquette

I wish Bridget would write here, but she is never motivated to do so. She would rather have me do it for some reason.

Anyway . . . she goes to a swim class every Monday and Wednesday morning at 6:30 am. She has gotten pretty good and is one of the faster swimmers. The class is divided up into a couple of lanes, and in order that they can all swim at the same time, they swim in loops. Basically people are going up the lane and down the lane at the same time in a clockwise rotation.

Every so often they have a timed swim of 500 yards. Of the people in her lane (1 guy and 2 other women), Bridget has been first the past several times She may have even been the fastest in the class at one time, I don't know for sure. The person who is the fastest in the 500 swim is usually the one to go first. Bridget, this past time, was not the fastest. She had an off day and wasn't feeling tip-top and had a slower time. There was one guy who was faster by a bit. No big deal. Except that the guy is a dork.

Bridget is normally faster than him, especially when they are swimming long distances. It is a rule that if someone catches you during swim practice that you let them pass you when you touch the wall. This guy in Bridget's lane never does let anyone pass unless the coach makes him. I guess this morning Bridget was whacking on his feet and legs with her arms as she was swimming. She even went to pass him and touched the wall at the same time as him and he still cut her off and wouldn't let her by. Passing is a hard thing because there are people coming from the opposite direction. At most Bridget said that she would have about a half a lap to pass someone. Attempting to pass takes a bunch of energy. On a long distance swim this robs you of a lot of energy for no reason--thus if someone taps you on the foot when they catch you, it is proper etiquette to stop and let them go at the end of that length. This morning the Instructor eventually had to get involved. He told him to get over and let people pass. At the end another 300 yards he was around a half a minute back. She said she would have lapped him if they had to swim any longer.

Long story short, don't be a dork and don't get your speedo in a bunch just because a girl is a faster swimmer than you.