Question: Pool Etiquette

Unless classes are posted in advance or lanes marked for slow-medium-fast lap swimming I'd say the people who didn't move were just fine. I would have done the same thing.

My old pool (at Indiana U., the same pool Mark Spitz trained in!) always had signs up marking the lanes for different speeds. That solved 99% of all problems. Newbies or folks without their glasses on learned quickly and moved. 

absolutely rude in my opinoin

If I'm asked to share a lane -- no problem. I always say 'yes'.  If I were told to move by someone who thinks that his or her superior speed requires me to move; well, no thank you.  (I assume that lanes are not marked for faster/slower paces -- that's a totally different story, though even then politeness is called for.)

Apparently they respect you for asking your advice.  That's a tough situation, but I hope I would have the strength to tell them the truth.

x2

I am not sure what the exact situation was, but I assume if they asked politely if the earlier folks would mind "moving over and share a lane with another ealier folks" so that they, the fast ones" could "share this one lane and not disturb each other's workout", I would be ok. 

But I have witnessed, at my Y, someone who REFUSED to circle swim insisting that a lane should have no more than 2 people and the late comer should wait his turn just like waiting for the treadmill, as the difference in swim pace would made her not able to get a good workout in.  She even yelled at the lifeguard when told about the policy of circle swim.  And she was nothing close to fast. 

This is always hard.  If there was a sign posted to designate some lanes as being faster and others for slowers swimmers, then why didn't they have the right to confront?  If you are a slower swimmer in the fast lane and there are others who are there swim, what's wrong with asking them to move in order to enforce the rules that they are in violation of?

If there was not a sign with lane designations then it's more difficult.  If there is only one faster swimmer who wants to get in a lane with a slower swimmer, they don't have the right to expect the slower swimmer to move.  They can share the lane and if they each have their own side of the lane then there shouldn't be a problem.  Problem is if there are two fast swimmers wanting to get in that lane, the slower swimmer is going to get tampled in a circular lane pattern where the faster swimmers are always on that person's feet.  Wouldn't it make more sense at that point to organize swimmers by speed to make for a more orderly pool?

I agree with everyone else.

A-hole.  I would never ask someone to move.  Share, yes, move, no.

No one had better ever ask me to move.  There WILL be words.....

To clear up a few questions:

No signs are posted for the speed of the swimmers. No posted Masters Swim Class on Sunday. Like I said there usually aren’t many people there on a Sunday morning.

The pool employee only gives swim lessons and she had two 10 year olds in the water. She has no other function with the pool.

It was 2 woman asking the older people to move so they could swim side by side. I assume so they could be closer to the group. (But if they have a coach, that person can walk the 5 feet and repeat their instructions.)

The older people had a lane by themselves and were asked to move to a lane and to share.