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.

Casapenguin my da is a para swimmer who swims with para Olympians who are visually impaired or blind (blacked out Google's).

They regularly catch themselves on lane ropes. No one thinks it poor technique - more a lack of vision!

Swimming lanes could definitely be better organised.

I've definitely seen people having a few arguments in the swimming lanes

Sometimes I think they try to intimidate you in the hope that you will get out so they can have the lane to themselves.

I've seen as many irritating females at the pool too tbh. We're only hearing one side here. Many humans just seem to struggle with lanes.
I regularly end up in the sauna for this reason (I’m very slow😅)

My wife comes back from swimming with similar lane rage stories - and 99% of the time it's men who cause the problems. In the wrong lanes, swimming the wrong way etc etc.

And then there's speedos!

I got ordered out of a lane by a man the last time I was swimming.

It was the fast lane.

I'm a fast swimmer, but he said I wasn't fast enough.

But how could a woman possibly be as fast as a man? So it is kind of gender discrimination when women get kicked out of the fast lanes.

They should have women only lanes amd men only lanes

Is it really about gender? Had it been a sporty woman, I'm thinking a Sharron Davies type, headed into you at 50 mph would you have taken the same offence?

This reminds me of several years ago when a woman from the Women's Equality Party was at the Bus Stop arguing that men and women should have separate buses in London...

Oh god, don't get me started on lane rage!!

My pool has three lanes - slow, medium, fast. Of course there's a range of speeds in each lane, so everyone needs to pay attention to what's happening around them and show some basic courtesy. There are many women (and a few men) I see regularly who are very good at this: for instance, one woman is at the borderline of slow/medium. She always looks around her at the end of each length, and if someone is gaining on her, she waits and lets them past. I always try to do that too, whichever lane I'm in.

Some people, mostly but not always men, are useless at it, and have no awareness of what's happening around them. A few days ago there was a man in the middle lane who was just a bit slower than me. He was doing very wide kick breastroke which took a lot of space - OK, I suppose it's hard to moderate that, but it's not ideal. Anyway, after quite a few lengths, maybe about 10 or 11, I caught him up. I expected him to stop at the end of the length and let me past but he didn't. OK, maybe he hadn't seen me. I did the next length behind him at his speed because there were too many people to overtake safely midway. I thought he'd stop at the next length, but no. By now I'm getting cross. At the next length I pulled into the side next to him, a partial overtake, so that I could push off from the side first. Instead of letting me, he berated me for not being in the fast lane, and then set off ahead of me again. At that point I went into the fast lane, because I didn't want the unpleasantness of swimming behind him and trying to overtake again. I was too slow for the fast lane, where I had to let a queue of people past me at the end of every length.

It's so unnecessary. Just a bit of awareness of what and who's around you, and some basic courtesy, would make for a much better experience for everyone.

Assuming that the pool doesn't have male and female lanes - why did you mess up your very sensible argument that he should be in a lane with people going roughly his speed, with some irrelevant stuff about men and women? You have no right or need to swim "in peace" or "with other women", you did have a right not to be whizzed into by someone who should have been in a faster lane.

What is the obsession with lanes in the UK anyway. I don't find them fun to swim in when doing laps.

I remember living in Spain and the public pools had a lot more space to swim in, nd less strict lanes

@Superworm24 is right though, your original post said nothing like what you are now saying. Your first post was just vicious body shaming, you are definitely back peddling!

In the pool I used to go to there was a chap who went for 2 hrs most days,first hour was lane swimming,2nd hour was mainly ‘public’ swimming but with 2 lanes remaining. Without fail for the 2nd hour he would move to the public swimming part of the pool even though the lanes were often empty or had just a couple of people in and wearing goggles so he could have a good look swim underneath the ladies that were swimming,Because the public swimming part was mostly ladies. He would only swim under ladies. Criss crossing the pool,swimming under us.He would then get out and while showering poolside stick his hands down his budgie smugglers and give himself a wash. I won’t go when he’s there any more

I have only ever had men crash into me in the pool like this - never another woman. It is machismo and its bullshit.

No…she would have checked first and we all would have adjusted accordingly. And yes, I think there should be separate public transport facilities so that women can travel safely if they wish. Indian metro trains are fantastic!

Ah will you ever grow up.

Does anyone on mumsnet - say every single thing about a scenario , in their first post. No they don't.

Then if they add a single detail later, in a further post, they're shouted at, amd some posters say

"You didn't say that in your first post!".

I've seen it happen to so many posters on here.

Or someone says s poster is "dripfeeding or backpeddling"

No one says every single thing in their first post!

I don't know what the obsession is with posters having to say every single thing in their first post.

When you have a conversation in real life, do you say every single thing, in your first comment?

I thought you were going to say men trying to chat you up at the pool. That’s why I stopped swimming, got fed up with them trying to chat to me when I was just there to swim (no I don’t want to go for a drink after)… but yes, men who overtake, speed into you and spend too long in the shower were the reason why I stopped going. YANBU.

I agree. I've been in female only spaces abroad, and they were amazing.

I don't know why they don't have more of them here. Especially considering all of the crime against women

Our health club has one swim lane and the rest of the pool. I was in the swim lane today and this guy comes in, eyes me before setting himself up on a lounger right opposite the steps with that look as if to say the big man has come, quit the lane… He could have gone in the rest of the pool but that wasn’t good enough. He got in. Stood for a minute. Got back out and retook his position opposite the swim lane on his lounger. So, I just added 10 lengths to my swim. He then kept disappearing into the jacuzzi, steam room etc before appearing again 4 mins later each time before standing looking pissed. Added 40 lengths to my swim with his swaggering nonsense in the end. I left just as the old ladies were doing their class taking up the whole of the shallow end. Oh dear.

Honestly, this really annoys me about entitled people who go to the leisure centre or swimming and don't realise they're going somewhere where people work and train hard for a sport. We have no idea why he chose that lane, it could be for many reasons, but it's not YOUR lane.

If you want something more comfortable where you can be within your own space take up yoga instead of demanding the swimming pool be some kind of private members only club for you.

The OP is complaining about men who swim in the same lane as women, and the man is in the wrong. Now we have a man waiting for a woman to finish using a lane and he's still in the wrong!

AFAIK there are no staff supervising at my DL, except at times when children are allowed, i.e. 4-7 pm, when there is a lifeguard. At least that’s what I’ve seen so far. Except for once when I took the Gdcs, I go at adult-only times.

Just for clarity the swim lane really only has room for one. It’s a little gym. We don’t have sporty training people. Pool isn’t big enough for that.

Yea he is wrong if he is constantly coming out and glaring at her and intimidating her while she's swimming.

@KrisAkabusi he wasn’t waiting for me to finish. There was literally no one else in the rest of the pool so if he actually wanted to swim there were no restrictions and as it goes the non swim lane length is longer. He was doing it to be a twat.

Men just need to fuck off completely imo.