Male behaviour in swimming pools

[Greyandrare123]

I go to a private gym that has a pool. I swim about 3x a week.
The people swimming are diverse. Women, men, all ages (adults only after 5pm).
The same behaviour I see on the streets operates in the pool. Males ploughing down the informal lanes, splashing and not giving a toss who is in their way. Ive had 2 men directly collide into me because I didnt see them behind me and move.

And then there is the wrestling. Groups of younger men wrestling with each other, throwing each other in the air, headlocking, pushing each others heads under water, shadow boxing etc. Splashing wildly in the middle of the pool so everyone else has to move.

Ive yet to see women do the same.

Then manspreading in the steam room. Legs wide apart.

Is this familiar? The lifeguards seem oblivious.

Wrestling? Report them. Pretty sure you can’t push other people under the water. Sound like absolute cunts

I stopped going swimming in covid, but it was very much like that. I complained to the staff when two men openly leered at me and then followed me into the sauna, but they couldn't do anything because 'nothing happened.'
They need to learn how to share. I go to yoga now and whilst there are fewer men, many amongst them hog communal space and make an annoying butch performance of themselves.

Why don’t you say something to the gym staff?

I've been a regular at public and private pools and never encountered anything like that.

Fast swimmers of any age or gender tend to dominate but I never took it personally unless they were doing it in the slow lane.

The sauna is for people to relax. I like to lie down. If some men like to spread their legs let them. It's a sauna.

Or steamroom.

Oh yes. Make swimmers always have to make such a splashy performance of it.

Splashing is poor technique. They sound like bad swimmers.

I dislike people who swim breaststroke with a big wide kick regardless of someone in the next lane. People are the worst, basically.

Yes OP, could write a whole essay about this.

I've been assaulted in the pool and harassed numerous times.

Now Ive noticed that men who can't keep up with the fastest in the fast lane move to the medium or slow lanes where a lot of women are, splashing and getting in the way. Women do it too but not to the same extent.

School kids are the worst culprits of taking up space in the middle of the pool. It's up to lifeguards to oversee but often they can't be bothered.

I left my last pool largely because so many men would jump straight into the pool from the steam/sauna despite the several signs saying to shower first. Literally never saw any woman do it (because its revolting!)

and the ones who lurk under water with goggles on
😡😡😡

Totally agree with the behaviour! I go swimming with my partner (male) and he now makes sure that he is the person swimming behind me in the lanes due to the aggressiveness (as in the way they behave in the pool not violence) of other men. I only go with him or my dad which is ridiculous but I’m disabled so couldn’t stand it if anything happened. I have been kicked twice by men going round me (fine to go round but be careful fgs). Today, a man almost swam into me, I was literally by the edge of the pool and he changed directions and nearly hit me! We also had another week with masses of guys in the slow lane, insisting on going the same speed as the fast lane and I saw them hit and nearly hit multiple women by accident. The free swim lane was taken up by a group of younger boys throwing each other around, then slow lane had the aggressive male swimmers, medium lane was full of the women trying to escape the men and fast lane had some guy wearing flippers (?!)

In better news, I did 50 lengths which is my most since starting in the summer.

I'm a very good swimmer, without fail a man will try to race me every time I swim; public pools, the gym, on holiday, you name it. I've yet to have a woman try. I had one man recently try to block me from getting in the fast lane and when he realised I was still going to get in, he actually told me to go into a different lane as this one was for "faster men" . I spend a good 20 years of my life perfecting my stroke, so there's very little splash and I religiously avoid busy pool times.

If I see a man in the pool and I think I can beat him I will always race him, they don't like it, I fucking love it 🤣

I won't swim in the pool lanes anymore because the men, of all ages, would always bash me - a leg kicking me as they passed, a hand whacking me, let alone all the fucking splashing in my face as they thundered past. I won't even go in the open part of the pool if there are young men/teens in there for exactly the reasons you gave.

Hell, even in the bloody teaching pool the stupid dads lobbing a ball around, whacking people, to their young kid (who can't aim for shit, bless them).

😂 Reminds me of when I would drive up and the down the motorway each weekend, would weekly start to overtake a man going 50 in the middle lane /driving in the slow lane, and he sees someone passing him and his precious ego can't take it and he immediately had to race 😂

Oh god, yes. One older guy with grey hair did this once except he had also completely doused himself with Old Spice and the absolute STINK of him and his aftershave actually almost visibly wafted over the top of the water like a cloying fog.

✊🤩
I don't have the cojones for THAT kind of racing🏎️
😬

I used to work in a public leisure centre and before it’s refurb the sauna area used to be very heavily watched by staff otherwise we would be wiping spunk off the walls on an hourly basis. Was thrilled when that awful room was demolished 🤮

Yep. Round here the male swimmers are either trying to feel manly by doing splashy butterfly stroke that takes up half the pool, mowing down anyone in their way, or teenage yobbos being noisy. And don’t get me started on the communal showes where teenage boys stare at women while trying to hide their erections and the men can rinse off properly but women are condemned to get thrush unless they can get home in ten min to wash the pool yuck out of their vulva.

I don’t go swimming unless DC insist and then go at times when it’s mostly mothers and DC.

I wish the UK would do more female-only sessions.

I've never used saunas or hot tubs in public leisure facilities... just a kind of instinctive thing, thank you for validating my instincts
🤮🤮🤮
🤢🤢🤢
🤮🤮🤮

If I'm honest I can't even use swimming pools anymore.... I feel as if I'm sharing a bath with a load of rancid fetid strangers

I’m quite a fast front crawler, and during the week our pool just has two double width lanes (due to school swimming lessons in the other lanes) - slow and medium. It can be an absolute nightmare, usually with pretty slow men refusing to move to the slow lane. Today one slow man was trying to overtake another slow man, and I got stuck behind them. It reminded me of being on a motorway when one speed-limited lorry is attempting to overtake another speed-limited lorry and a line of traffic is stuck behind! They really hate me overtaking them. I much prefer going to the women’s only sessions.

I stopped swimming after a man tried to go around me and kicked me hard in the process.

He did apologise. But I was going through a rough time with my MH and I was too intimidated to go back.

I go to my local pool in what's considered a bad area and have not once witnessed such behaviour.

With money can come entitlement.

try the local baths. It's very civilised where I am, everyone is considerate of one another and we all respect the space as it's part of our community.

The splashing drives me absolutely batshit. I’ve got perforated eardrums and getting the slightest bit of swimming pool water in them leaves me with nasty infections. I’ve had days where I’ve been trapped between two male splashers and I’ve had to stop and cover my ears literally twice every single length as they’ve sent a tidal wave towards the sides of my head 😡