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.

Womens only session are the only reason I still go swimming regularly. so civilised

I work ina public pool. We are very disabled friendly. We have equipment to help disabled swimmers in and out of the pool, which plenty of people use. I think this is fairly normal.

Complain to the management about the wrestling in the pool. The lifeguards should be stopping it.

I mean they aren't in front of me, they are beside me but coming the other way

I’m a man, and I find all of the mentioned behaviours really fucking annoying. For the record, we don’t all do it!

There are a few rude ladies at my pool too, but it comes with the territory (relatively upmarket area with a few snobby housewives).
On the whole it seems to be a man issue though.

Yes some men are rude lane hoggers. I complained to the staff but nothing was done.

I swim regularly in a 25m pool. It's adults only. There are some men who are obnoxious. They act like they own the pool and swim as though they are really angry. Even more annoyingly some use those webbed swimming gloves presumably so they be even splashier when they swim.

None of the women swim like that even the super serious swimmers.

agree 100% OP. Post-Covid, my pool has not brought back the two women only sessions it ran. So I have stopped swimming. The aggression, excessive splashing and lane hogging was the biggest factor.

But a close second was the changing ‘village’ with shared showers and so few cubicles that after being watched showering, you’d have to stand around waiting for a private space to change or do the towel shuffle in the open area.

If it doesn’t work for me, an assertive atheist in her 60s, it sure as hell doesn’t work for a lot of younger women and women of many faiths.

This is making me feel grateful for my local pool which is generally pretty quiet. The only thing is they let kids in the hot tub for a treat. Who wants bubble in kid soup?

How do you swim on your back feet first?
Or how do you swim feet first at all? I'm not familiar with that stroke and can't imagine how it works.

Yep. Plus the 'wide stance' front crawlers who nearly punch you as they pass

Lots of the men at my gym are definitely guilty of aggressive and splashy swimming in the pool. I go to the adults only sessions but wish there were also women only ones. It's always a joy nearly being punched in the face by a big meaty arm as a man doing front crawl passes, and swimming through tidal waves from the bad techniques.

(Looking forward to my swim at lunchtime).

NAMALT
Yes, we know. Do you think all women believe ALL men do this? Our brothers, our husbands. our sons? Shouting NAMALT at women is really really boring. Instead try and challenge any unpleasant behaviour amongst men you know. If all men did this it would be a much better world for women.

I used to go to a gym in Brussels with a gay friend and we always used to finish off with a sauna - until he told me about the time he went by himself and was offered a blowjob by one of the other sauna users. 🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮

Last time I went swimming, there was a man swimming really slowly in the Medium lane. Every single other user of that lane, who all happened to be women, overtook him several times, but would he fuck move to the slow lane. I was also interested to note that all we women would wait at the end of a length if a faster swimmer was catching up, to let them go first, but not this fucker. I know it's not a statistically significant sample size, but it was a very illuminating mini insight into the comparative levels of consideration shown to other swimmers.

See I go to a private gym and swim almost daily and I never get this. The men seem polite and fine

God forbid a guy has fun while swimming.......grow up xD

The best time to go swimming or gymming is 2pm. The mummies are going to school pick ups and the men there are all old. 😂

Yes, very much identify with this! There’s one guy at our pool who bellows at everyone to clear the way before he jumps in, then basically takes out anyone who hasn’t moved in time. Multiple people have complained to the lifeguards about him (I saw a small child being hit once when the pool was busy) but they’re all teenage kids and scared of him I think.

Based on years of observation, the standard ‘male swim technique’ whenever I visit seems to be to emerge from the sauna/steam room, plunge straight in and swim two lengths of splashy front crawl before emerging, panting. While the women swimming in the lanes make themselves as small as possible to avoid being hit.

Also the man-spreading thing in the spa - some of them sit in there for upwards of an hour, arms and legs spread wide, so no one else gets a turn unless they’re brave enough to ask them to move.

This is at a private pool, but according to reports from friends it’s just as bad at the local council pools, just with no spa and added grime.

you know it's uncomfortable for men to sit with their legs closed right? painful for some? i find no issue with man-spreading as it makes sense least for the legs, the arms being spread i can see being annoying but not the legs.

you know it's uncomfortable for men to sit with their legs closed right? painful for some?

Bollocks. Literally.

Reminds me of the heavy breathers, grunters and farters in my hot yoga class - all men.

It's called sculling. You float and paddle with your hands in a backward motion. You can also do it forward, by paddling your hands in the other direction. I was interested in this thread as I was about to go swimming tomorrow for the first time in about 13 years, to check out the new swimming pool in Exeter to see how it might be for visiting grandchildren. I recognise all the male behaviour from years ago so sad to see it hasn't changed. Mind you, I do remember, in my local pool how women would get in, swim a length then congregate to chat in the shallow end, often in groups of 5 or 6, so you had to navigate round them.

it depends on the person but yes it can be uncomfortable or painful, do some research.

I've done it backwards but never seen anyone doing it forwards. I imagine it would be incredibly slow.