Swimming with a group of swimmers is something that I recommend to many of my athletes. You get a coached workout and the coach can help you with your technique. This type of training is called masters swimming. There are pluses and minuses to masters swimming and I will write about that later. For now I want to talk about what you should learn regarding swimming etiquette during any workout.

Get to the workout on time. Do not jump in a lane and disturb people in the middle of a set because you were chatting in the locker room.

Pick a lane where you can complete the workout successfully without hanging on the wall because you were unable to stay with the pace. This will teach you success rather than failure.

If you want to lead the lane make sure you are capable. Do not blast the first few repetitions only to slow the lane down later and mess up everyone else’s interval. Learn to pace yourself.

When not leading the lane give the swimmer ahead of you 5 seconds. In racing it is fine to hang on someone’s feet and draft but in training this is the most annoying thing to do. If you do give the swimmer ahead of you 5 seconds and you are constantly catching them then politely ask to go ahead of them between repeats.

Do not stop 3 feet before the wall. If the coach said to swim 100 yards, it should be 100 yards and not 97. Ask your lane mates to clear the wall so you can complete your swim just like everyone else. If you don’t the only one losing is yourself.

If the coach says to do other strokes like backstroke, butterfly or breastsroke. Try it, go in the back of the lane and do it. Do not just do freestyle. Swimming other strokes will strengthen other muscles that will help you with injury prevention.

Triathletes with no swimming background are notorious for not following or perhaps not knowing any of these. I have been swimming since I was 11 and get very annoyed by all of these things when I swim masters. I am not the only one since at the club where I swim triathletes usually swim certain workouts and swimmers swim others. I am one of the few that go to both.

Yesterday I lifted which was good since I skipped one session last week and also rode my Lifecycle for 45 minutes. It was not a great day for training. But today I swam “triathlete” masters and had a good swim actually. That is where I got the impetus to write this story. Then later I ran 5 miles. I have to get to bed early as tomorrow I am riding with one of the guys I coach and another friend. Both of these guys have been top age group performers in Kona recently. They promise to go aerobic and easy on the old man. We will see. Did I say both of these guys are young?