It must be admitted by the most hopelessly
prejudiced observer of what is correct and appropriate that every up-and-down
swimmer has rights. They, OK I, swim
from one end of the swimming pool to the other taking up but a small proportion
of the total pool area and that small proportion is taken in an easily
predictable way.
Nevertheless this small imposition remains
something that mere paddlers, especially those of stunted years, find
impossible to take on board as they frivolously splash their way around the
pool.
Children are, therefore “fair game” and,
over the years, once I have ploughed out my furrow in the pool, I take no
prisoners.
When the “swimmers’ lane” is a narrow
length of water clearly delineated by float lines children enter it at their peril. One particularly pernicious inadequately
parentally supervised little boy thought it a good wheeze to swim against one
of the restraining lines of floats thereby reducing the narrow width even
further and causing a potentially serious accident as a strong swimmer
producing a semi-professional crawl, OK me.
It wasn’t serious but it was irritating and I used the traditional
aggressive technique of choice in these situations and adopted a space-filling breaststroke.
The most effective aspect of this anti-invader
stroke is the leg kick, with the emphasis on the “kick” part. I have recently cut my nails so the “slicing”
part of the arm action was unfortunately lessened. He got the message.
A small girl who I bumped into at the other
end (entirely her parents’ fault) was more frightened by my apology
(instinctive rather than heartfelt) rather than the collision.
Otherwise I have had a lane to swim in each
time that I have gone to the pool which is in itself remarkable. Long may it continue!
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