What is it about men ? ( in swimming pools)

I, too, encounter entitled 'splashy thrashers' as I call them, all the time. Recently one barked at me 'YOUR HEAD IS TOO HIGH', without introducing himself, asking if he could give me some advice etc. Just shouted at me in the lane. I am a self taught swimmer and pretty flippin proud of how well I can swim now (usually in the fast lane and can swim 40 length in under 40 minutes, front crawl, I have filmed myself in an empty pool and know I have a fairly decent technique by now!). I doubt he'd have barked criticism at a man.

Victim blaming is not nice either.

I know lots of nice older men. I don't mind polite older men.

However the old men that get in the jacuzzi when I'm in it are always, always perverts and nasty.

I've stopped going in the jacuzzi altogether for fear I'll get stuck with another pervert.

Other women in my gym have said the same thing. That they don't feel comfortable with the men that go in the jacuzzi

There should be more female only spalces

Because they are bloody expensive.... and they only slightly help because they don't suit my prescription. It's not really any of your business

I wear them to the pool side, leave glasses with towel, don't have "equipment" with me and have to try and judge other people around me as best as I can.

This is why I swim in the sea! Lots of space and no annoying show-off men taking up as much space as they possibly can and kicking you in the face as they zoom past. It's almost 100% women swimming in the sea (going with a group is safest).

Obviously not an option for everyone but recommended if you can - in winter just wear lots of neoprene.

tbf women have also annoyed me in pool lanes - the ones who swim slowly two or three abreast having a chat. But generally women are much more careful to notice and make space for each other and take care.

Absolutely my experience too. Lane swimming at my local pool. Am lucky to go at a time when it's relatively empty and only three of us swim - two men and I - a lane to ourselves. I always use the slow lane as I like to do backstroke and a leisurely breast stroke. The two men always do an energetic crawl. Occasionally another man joins and every single time, he gets in my lane and starts swimming at speed, nearly always swimming into me. However when a woman appears, she's a fast swimmer and get into the correct lane.

Thankfully, one of the life guards always tells the man in my lane to move, even so, am so tired of this shit. Am tired of this shit.

Well it's a public place

And there's no need to be rude

And maybe he feels that he has to talk to you so you feel more comfortable. I know other women on here would feel less comfortable with a man getting in and saying nothing...

Ageism & body-shaming aren’t things I like in my jacuzzi either.

Why aren’t you wearing prescription goggles? I cannot imagine swimming without mine. How else do you see the clock / swap your equipment around / faff with your fins / see who else is in lane and what pace they are and adjust your pace or wait at the ends of the lane etc? 🤷‍♀️

Nothing worse than getting in the public jacuzzi by yourself and an old fat man gets in. Every time.

It's like sharing a bath with an old fat man.

I wouldn't mind but they always, always start talking to me about something.

If I'm in the jacuzzi and another woman gets in, we usually respect each other just wanting to be in the gym/swimming pool and we dont talk at each other

I swim at my gym which is only a small 15 metre pool. Realistically, the most you can have swimming comfortably is 4 then is starts to get snug. If a female comes into the pool area, you can guarantee she will weigh it up, hang around to see if any one looks finished or go in the sauna etc.

If a male comes in, he tends to not give a shit. Will get in, start swimming butterfly or just generally like a whale and nearly drown everyone 🙄

Is it not worth pissing them off by going slow and blocking them? Thats likely what I would do.

I swim a lot and there are some incredibly irritating male swimmers but I can't see that the guy in your situation did anything wrong. I think your comments to him were a bit OTT

In my pool males and females often swim in lanes with the same sex in but it's an informal arrangement.

The worst thing is in my local swimming pool there is a jacuzzi and a sauna.

If I ever go into either of them, it's all men and me. The men go in first and I think the women get too intimidated to go in.

Nothing worse than walking into a sauna in your swimming suit, and sitting down with 8 half naked men. It's very awkward!

I agree they should have a few more female only swimming pools

That's fair enough and would annoy me too.

I cannot abide people (usually men) charging up and down lanes like a fucking maniac whilst everyone else in the lane is pootling along slowly. It is so dangerous.

Ask management what the reason is for not assigning lanes by speed

i stoped going swimming because I got fed up with alphas - they seemed to forget it is a small pool to be shared with many and that if they want to splash around like they are in the olympics they should swim in a lake or something.

I’ve had this, men going hell for leather in the medium speed lane and losing it at me for going at medium speed, when you ask why they can’t go in the fast lane ‘it’s too busy’ (one other person) or the wrong part of the pool. No. F-off.

Yes, however on the basis Michael Phelps swims at less than 9mph, that was clearly an exaggeration.

I hate mixed-lane swimming for these reasons, OP. I was sad to discover that some of the ladies-only sessions at my local pool have been changed to regular lane swimming now, too.

Gangsta sloth!😂

Unless there are specific rules in your pool saying so, you can't insist on a lane being gender specific.

However pools usually have fast and slow lanes . So get the faster swimmers to go there.

Thing is though lane discipline isn’t that hard but so many adults are shit at it. In swimming lessons you can see the 6/7 year olds often really struggle and swim into each other but by 8/9 children seem to have cracked it (albeit not perfectly) can often leave a good gap, have a good idea who is fast/slow and swim in a straight line. If children can crack on and do it why can’t adults?

I said my preference was to swim in peace with other women

You can’t dictate who swims where just because you got in the pool first.

If this man was causing problems you should have informed the lifeguard ASAP to sort out.

I’m a regular lane swimmer (female) and if you had approached me to tell me your preference was to swim in peace I’d have told you to go and build a pool in your back garden.

I get it OP. The simple fact is that men are usually significantly bigger and stronger so in any collision with a woman regardless of who is to blame the women are at higher risk of injury. Also men are much faster, so a medium speed man is actually much faster than a woman again increasing the injury risk and stress for women.

Men of course don’t realise this so feel they are being harassed for no reason, because the lanes are only split up
according to speed. Women only sessions would be useful here.

We had a classic dad turn up during the fitness, lanes, swim during half term with two boys.

It happened to be all women, the surf lifesaving club in the fast lane, moderate speed great style in the two centre, heads above breast stroke in slow.
Dad immediately jumps in the fast, the two lads join the slow, the stringy 14 year old was flailing, no rhythm to his ever changing style, the younger one, 8?, was more buoyant but still erratic.
So in the slow, suddenly we're all on 'keep an eye' on nonparented kids, the dad can't keep up with the fast lane, he moves to the centre and brings one of the kids.
Absolute chaos. In 20 minutes, the dad covered nearly every lane, the boys would randomly go off and splash around the shallow, not in use area. And the adult male modelled entitlement to the next gen.