What is it about men ? ( in swimming pools)

[Ramblingnamechanger]

Another argument in the pool today. Several lanes available to share…one with 2 guys , ours with 2 women and one mixed. The man who arrived later chose ours. Nearly headed into me at 50 mph. I challenged him and suggested he moved into the lane next door with faster male swimmers. He said that he did not want to swim in the lane with the side of the pool. I said my preference was to swim in peace with other women and why was it that my preference was seen as not as important as his . He insisted that he would stay . I told him it was a macho view and we women should have our views and wishes given the same weight. So fed up that again an entitled male pushed it even when challenged.

If it had been a super fast woman swimmer, would you have had the same level of annoyance? Would you have insisted that she join the men or would you have accepted her into your lane?

I am sorry but I fail to see the male entitlement element. He picked a lane🤷‍♀️

"I said my preference was to swim in peace with other women and why was it that my preference was seen as not as important as his . He insisted that he would stay . I told him it was a macho view and we women should have our views and wishes given the same weight."

You abitrarily decided to express your preference that the lane be women only and told him off for being a man.
That's what he would have got from that. No wonder he ignored you.

I don’t see how gender is relevant here?

You "told him it was a macho view".
👍
Right on!

Felt kind of bad til I remembered I am legally blind without my glasses and I don’t have this problem. This sound to me like a technique issue so might be helpful if someone with experience casts an eye over your form. Or it’s breast stroke which tbf can be difficult in a lane of you are passing someone.

Quite
OP feels entitled to dictate who can swim where because she is a woman

His refusal to move was not a macho view.
He was ignoring the self-appointed lane director.

It wasn’t male entitlement and you are being sexist with that comment. You wouldn’t have brought sex into it if another woman wanted to swim in the same lane as you at double your speed.

He was no more entitled than you were. Why do you think your preference is more important than his because you’re a woman? It isn’t.

This sounds like a problem that is entirely of your own making. You appointed yourself boss of the swimming pool when really you should let other people who are doing nothing wrong get on with their lives without your interference.

I am old and fat and swim like a fish thanks to once being a very good swimmer. I am often in a lane with the men and some get so competitive and stupid. Trying to race me for a single length while I am going a longer distance although they can’t keep it up at all so I have to then overtake. Not infrequently catching me with their limbs in a manner that I think is often deliberate. Going slower than me then waiting at the end to push off seconds before I turn. All manner of twattery. I have been known to exercise with a lot more vigour just so I can keep pissing some off. Occasionally my breaststroke kick has just happened to catch someone who seems unable to stop banging me. Sometimes I have my adult son with me. He is a big tattooed bloke and with him it’s all ‘nah mate you go…’ despite him being pretty average in the speed dept. I really get the rage.

You're acting like I'm not also that poorly sighted.
I have a way to swim which works for me.

This is great, I'm always at war with other swimmers in the lanes, usually men.

There is a pool near me I never go to as its booked solid, most popular pool I've even come across. They have one session only that is never full, men only! Isn't that funny.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

Gangsta sloth!😂

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.

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

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.

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 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

That's fair enough and would annoy me too.

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