Renaissance strategies for navigating public swimming sessions
I received an email from a swimmer asking for advice on dealing with “the vagaries of lane swimming”. He described himself as “one of the quicker swimmers in the medium lane and one of the slower ones in the fast lane”. He works with a coach who writes structured training sessions for him but struggles to follow those sessions in a shared lane.
Sharing lane space is a common problem, wherever you are on the speed spectrum. Despite the calming benefits of swimming, there’s nothing like lane incompatibility to get swimmers riled. Navigating lane dynamics is both science and art. There isn’t a perfect solution, but if we look at it through the lens of Renaissance ideals, we can develop some strategies to navigate the occasional chaos of a public lane.
Humanism and respect for others
The Renaissance celebrated the dignity and potential of everyone. Your first step then would be to empathise with your fellow swimmers, and recognise that they are there for their own good reasons – whether to improve their swimming, ease the stress of the day, or stretch out and enjoy the water. While communication can be tricky in a pool, try to interact kindly with the swimmers you’re sharing space with. Even a nod of recognition or a smile can set a positive tone.
Excellence through mastery
Renaissance thinkers believed in cultivating excellence across disciplines. In a crowded pool environment, this might mean intelligently adapting your training to suit the conditions – switching strokes, using (or not using) kit, doing drills. See the constraints not as obstacles but as opportunities to work on swimming with more control and precision, and to practice patience and spatial awareness while in the water.
Curiosity and adaptability
What can you learn? Observe the lane dynamics like a scientist. Who is doing what? Is anyone else following a training plan that you could join? Who can you comfortably swim with and who should you avoid? How can you manage your swim to minimise disturbance in the lane?
Versatility
A Renaissance Swimmer wouldn’t be rigid. They wouldn’t say, this is my training plan and I’m sticking to it, come what may! Instead, they would embrace variety if it were forced upon them by the conditions. They’d find ways to adapt and improvise to ensure their time in the water is meaningful and enjoyable.
Focus on what you can control
You might also think like a Stoic and separate what you can control from what you can’t. Specifically, you cannot control who else comes to the pool or what they do when they get there, but you can control how you respond. Will you embrace and enjoy that challenge or allow yourself to get frustrated? As the Stoic philosopher Epictetus said, “It’s not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.”
Other practical steps you might take include:
- Speak with your coach if you have one
Your coach may be able to design training sessions with more flexibility. For example, saying you’re doing a set of 4 x 400m. It won’t change the training benefit if you drop 50m from a couple of them (if someone is in your way, for example) and add 100m to another. You could also have a range of rest times, say between 20s and 40s, to give you more scope to work around other swimmers. If frequent stopping is a problem in your lane, could you substitute rest intervals for active recovery? For example, instead of taking 20s after each 100m, do 25m of easy backstroke.
Getting your session roughly right and completing it will be better for you than trying to get it exactly right and giving up in frustration.
- Give yourself options
Take two or three sessions to the pool with you. You might choose one that would work if you can get in the fast lane, and another more suitable for the medium lane. Or maybe one that you might still be able to get done if the pool is crowded and another if you’re lucky enough to get a lane to yourself. Choose your session according to conditions.
- Print out and display your training session
Put your training session in a prominent place at the end of the pool. This has several benefits. One, it communicates your intentions, which is always a good thing. Two, it may prompt other swimmers to talk to you and ask if they can join you. Three, even if they don’t join you, if they see what you are doing, they may be more inclined to work around you.
- Find similarly paced friends to swim with
If several of you are swimming in a lane and doing the same thing, it makes it more likely that other swimmers will either avoid the lane or ask to join you.
- Start slowly
Do your warm up and any drills extra slowly. Make a point of giving lots of space to the other swimmers and letting them overtake. They may then be more likely to be helpful when you speed up for your main set.
- Swim at consistent times
If you turn up at the same time and place each week, you will likely see the same swimmers. As you get to know them, you may find more effective ways to share the lane space.
While it might be easier to follow your training session in an empty lane, swimming with other people around you is more sociable. There is more to swimming than grinding through your sets and logging your splits on Strava. In the spirit of the Renaissance, let your swim be a work of art, not just a workout. Observe, adapt and swim with grace.
If you have any other tactics that help you share space in a public lane – especially tactics that align with Renaissance ideals – please let me know.
