Try and do seomene a bloody favour and it just gets thrown back in your face!!

Bloke down my pool is training for a 5k… he’s a pretty good swimmer. There evrty morning up and down, up and down, kick drills, arm drills, breathing drills… he’s getting better but every time he puts his left arm in the water he does the shittest thing with his hand and it’s far from efficient… FAR FROM!

So I’m sitting in the jacuzzi this morning, deconstructing a few peoples strokes getting more and more frustrated with his incompetent splashing hand. Then he get’s out and and joins me…

Should I tell him, I reckoned I should, I’d want to know if it was me, so I tells him… ‘mate, you could improve your stroke considerably by focusing on how your left hand enters the water’… he didn’t want to know it would seem, even after seeing my demonstration… ******* prick, at least my hair was dry after enduring his rage.

Maybe his right hand is stronger and has greater co-ordination due to the extra exercise given to it.

I probably wouldn’t want my congenital deformities ridiculed either.

You had to be ‘that guy’ huh? 😐

I have learned not to care what anyone else does/wears/says/eats/drinks unless it’s likely to negatively affect me or my kids, or they pay me for my opinion.

Apart from on STW obviously…

I chatted to a lady in a jacuzzi once. The result was gooood 😉

I’d be grateful for tips – after all, it’s hard enough to see where you’re going when you swim, never mind look at all your flailing arms and legs to make sure they’re doing the right thing.

film him next time and then find a forum where someone’s posted a;

“Some bloke in a jacuzzi just tried to teach me to swim!”

thread and post the video there?

Exactly molly…

I’ll be honest… I didn’t really tell him, but I really wanted to… infact there’re loads of people that I can see are just doing plain daft things with there strokes that I want to tell.

I’m just not sure how many people would appreciate it.

Just tell them. Most people will either be a) receptive or b) not receptive, but polite enough not to tell you to **** off.

…..there might be a few who are openly hostile at being told they are less than awesome, but bollocks to them…….and assuming you address the issue with a degree of tact, you can go about you day knowing at least you made an effort.

How would you react Jamie?

I chatted to a lady in a jacuzzi once. The result was gooood

So did I. We ended up married!

How would you react Jamie?

I would honestly be receptive. I know I may come across as a bit misanthropic on here, and in real life…..well, just plain everywhere really, but I am not arrogant enough to believe I know everything and am willing to take on pointers from those more experience and skilled than myself.

If you want to tell somebody something it’s quite easy to get them to ask. Make it their idea etc.

Start off by asking “How’s it coming along?” and go from there.

See… I’m not saying I’m more skilled or experienced… but I can spot something that is wrong…

Obviously this is not appropriate in all circumstances, I was out for a ride with someone once and we passed a casual cyclist (he was wearing deck shoes etc) and this guy started advising him on technique and positioning… but if they’re serious about there training??

talking of deck shoes…i had a sports massage last night and he was wearing them *shakes head*

I’ll be honest… I didn’t really tell him, but I really wanted to… infact there’re loads of people that I can see are just doing plain daft things with there strokes that I want to tell.

If you had a chat with everyone who does the 500 strokes per minute splash-a-thon whilst still doing 60 second lengths, you’d spend all your time teaching people how to swim. Not to mention the breaststroke with legs hanging down pretty much vertical crowd too.

Oh and if only there was some way to tell the super slow guys (always blokes for some reason) to get out of the fast lane and go into the medium lane, that would be nice. At one pool I swam at, the lifeguards actually had a chat with a guy, who used to come in every day, and swim at doggy paddle speed in the fast lane, and get angry at anyone who overtook him.

I swum for a bit in the university pool here, that was nice, there was an unwritten rule that if you tapped the person in front’s foot, they’d make way at the next turn. After people had been lapped 3 or 4 times, they seemed to notice that maybe it was time to swim in the slower lane. Only downside of that pool, was that I was a medium lane swimmer there, cos actual proper good at swimming people swam there.

joe… that’s kind of my point… advice is not appropriate for all… but the girl who is training for triathlons and is making some very basic mistakes that’d be corrected if she just tried to mimic any other reasonable swimmer… I’d be happy to take time out to help her.

i cannot believe that in the real world your genius does not shine through like it does on here TSY
Seriously some people just dont want help. Perhaps it is arrogance, perhaps stupidity who knows. Better to give advice only when it is asked for – see STW sometime folk get upset when they ask for advice on here and the majority view is they are wrong. People generally want a pat on the back not a kick up the arse.

oh sorry most importantly get out the pool before them and wee in his shoes

You should have just got in the pool and done the stroke properly. Then maybe the way he was doing it. Then change back. This is assuming you can swim of course, unless that’s why you were just sitting in the jacuzzi. However I do understand the issue.
I was at a [insert manly sport which avoids ridicule here] and I saw one of the players making the same error over and over again. A few days later I saw him getting into his customised, personalised, special edition Mercedes and try to give him some advice. Cheeky bugger looked at me like I was some kind of nobbler! Well, his loss I say.

i would be really happy if someone were to offer swimming advice. less so on the bike though.

Oh and if only there was some way to tell the super slow guys (always blokes for some reason) to get out of the fast lane and go into the medium lane, that would be nice

+1.

JUnky I think it does… I exude awesome. I think this may be part of the problem that when I offer advice it can be seen as arrogance.

Maybe I will start to try and help others in a humble way.

If someone offered me advice in the pool, i’d only be receptive if they were a faster swimmer than me. I know there are plenty of good coaches who are by no means stellar athletes so it’s a silly prejudice, but it’s true.

Now were on the torpic I carnt help butt notis that you or ways use elipses and don’t very much use capitel letus. If you want to communicate effishuntly you shud try to get you’re grandma and punchuation rite. Hope that helps

I exude awesome

Sounds messy.

Every so often you get a jigsaw piece to add to the puzzle that is a person’s character.

Which piece did you get Darcy?

Oops. Double post.

I’d always ask for someones permission to offer advice about any sport – unless you are their coach/trainer.