This is the second installment in a series of articles to research and unravel the mysteries of swimming.  These mysteries range from serious to silly, but always in good fun, and will hopefully help to satisfy your inner swim-nerd. If you have any good mysteries (or bad ones, we’re not picky!) please send them our way via the “submit content” page, and we’ll see if we can figure them out!

The Case

One of the biggest sins you can commit at your local health club is the sin of misdirection. That is, the sin of swimming on the wrong side of the lane. If you want to see a 50-something year old man in a Speedo really angry, swim on the wrong side of the lane.

In the United States, we drive on the right side of the road, and we swim on the right side of the lane. But, if you are traveling to the UK, for business, pleasure, or competition, you might be wondering what side of the lane to swim on so as to avoid the wrath of a British counterpart.

As most of our readership comes from the United States, and as most of our readership does not regularly attend major international meets, I’ll assume that this mystery is, in fact, a mystery to most of us.

The Source

Who better to go to about this issue than Ms. Gemma Spofforth, who recently completed her final season of NCAA eligibility by leading the Florida Gators to the National Championship? She was born in Shoreham-by-Sea, England (any wonder she became a swimmer?) and is a member of the British National Team. She swam her college years in the United States, and as a major international star, she has had the opportunity to swim in many countries. All of this combines to make her an expert on lane-sharing practices around the world.

The Verdict

So I asked Gemma which way they swim in the  UK. Her response threw me for a loop: “We swim anti-clockwise in the odd lanes and clockwise in the even lanes.” Nice of her to write it in terms of a clock, because as a backstroker her “lefts” and “rights” would be backwards. For those of us how swim predominantly on our stomaches, this means right side in odd lanes and left side in even lanes.

I thought she was messing with me, because I couldn’t think of a good reason to swim in different directions in different lanes, so I asked her if she was being real or if she was yanking my chain.

“No they do it so that when you swim next to someone you are swimming in the same direction as them so you dont break arms!!” she told me.

Now there’s a novel idea that would go over big, especially in neighborhood summer-leage pools that are often not Olympic-sized. Basically, whenever you are swimming next to a swimmer in the lane next to you, you are swimming in the same direction as them. That way, when you take a big butterfly stroke, you’re not going to sword fight with your arms. More of a visual person? here’s a diagram.

Circle Swimming in the UK: Counter-Clockwise in Odd lanes, Clockwise in even lanes

I spoke with a friend of mine who has swam at international meets, and she confirmed that this is how they circle-swim during warmups for those meets.

I think it’s an awesome system, and I wonder why it hasn’t caught on more here in the States. It’s definitely something I’m going to implement at my practices, as an added bonus is that it prevents swimmers from getting into really bad habits of circle swimming during races. As an example, I had my kids swim an “Empire Practice” the other day, where they swim on the left side of the lane, and circle swimming was so drilled into their brains that most of them struggled with it.