If you're a woman who is good at sport

[spleencoffin]

My goodness some men cannot handle it

I'm in my 40s now so hardly elite level but I've started my own fitness business which is doing well.

Numerous instances of men messaging me. Stalking my social media and telling me what not to say, questioning why I was recommended for something, treating me differently etc. I hope this doesn't go on in elite sport.

Like a previous poster I’ve had issues with cycling and rock climbing. I cycle commute pretty regularly and a lot of men really don’t like it if you overtake them on the road. I’ve been spat at several times and one guy called me a “cheeky bitch” for overtaking him before pedalling off to the max. So of course I had to do it again.

Also in this vein, we do a lot of fell walking and some mountaineering - Peaks, Lakes, Scotland. So many men up hills in jeans and trainers, struggling to work out where they are on an iPhone with a flat battery, but don’t want you to give them a hand with their nav. They’d rather be fetched by mountain rescue than have a women tell them where they are on a map. I no longer go on a specific climbing forum (UKC) because it’s just one big dick swinging bear pit. Shame really.

Surely there are some things that pretty much all men know. On average they are taller, stronger, faster, better spatial awareness and better hand / eye co-ordination, and, I think, more likely to be interested in sports and less likely to have been coerced out of sports as a result of bullying or bodily discomfort.

It is entirely normal and natural for a man to jump to the immediate assumption that compared to a random woman he will outperform.

What is not normal and natural is the ability to, seconds later, step back and say "but actually I'm not that good, and some women are amazing, and maybe this woman who is much younger and looks in good shape and is passionate about the sport... just maybe she'll wipe the floor with me". That requires the man remembering that assumption is mother of all fuckups and that men being faster on average says nothing about a 1 vs 1 scenario. I suppose what I am saying is that I don;t blame men for making the assumption that they will have the edge... but I have a massive issue with them failing to take an immediate step back and realize that (1) they could well be wrong on this occasion, and (2) boasting before being proven wrong makes you look like a complete arsehole and (3) boasting before being proven right is barely any better.

@Dontbeme

I had this with archery, I shoot a recurve bow and one of the new guys was beside me on the same target. I got a higher score (ahem double his score) and he insisted that something was wrong with his bow. He changed bows to a compound bow and came back the following week, unfortunately we had a compound shooter from another club join us for the day and she wiped the floor with him. He insisted that something was wrong with his new bow, so changed to traditional style bow. I just don't get it.

Until recently I was an archer. I never really saw this that much - there are always people at different stages - beginners, very experienced archers, etc. Due to one exceptional retired archer, the female records were mostly higher than the men's. One of the best recurve archers in the club was a woman, and I was dismayed to hear her say to one of the men "how does it feel to be beaten by a girl" after she outscored him. She was a woman in her 40s, not a girl, and yet she was still perpetuating this idea.