Average experience — good sport, mediocre gym

I want to separate the sport from my specific experience. Swimming as a discipline is genuinely compelling — the bilateral breathing, the depth of pull buoy drills, open water swimming freedom. All of that is real and valuable.

My gym, however, has been mediocre. Coaching quality varies session to session and lane etiquette with unwritten rules has been handled poorly. I've seen people get hurt because progression was rushed. If I were starting over I'd research gym culture more carefully before committing. The sport gets four stars; my current gym gets two. This review averages to three.