Women men and lane swimming

[Slimeblimeclimb]

I was talking with a colleague who also does pool lane swimming. We both noticed that when men come to a pool where all the lanes have someone in them and we need to stay doubling up they will typically choose a lane with a woman rather than a male. We both started independently choosing the lane with a man in them to give the women some more opportunity to swim alone. I was surprised that it was not just something I did or noticed and I was wondering if others did the same.

I tried to start swimming in our local pool recently, in the ’open’ half of the pool. Got kicked and scratched by a man blasting his way through everyone. It was very intimidating.

I have had mixed experience in lane swimming, long story short, I just cannot deal with it!

I swim on my own in the sea most days May-November and don't swim at all in the other months.

Yes... of course because when men go swimming even all they are thinking about is getting off with women!

give your heads a shake, usually when anyone goes swimming, its because they want to SWIM.

I'm a swimmer, i will pick the lane that fits my speed, or the lane with the least amount of people in it.

Jesus... men can't do anything now can they.

Did you even read the thread? No one is talking about men 'wanting to get off with women'

then what thes issue? i'm very confused... are pools now expected to provide, mens, ladies and others swimming lanes?

what would you say if a man posted that women always pick the lane that they are in!

the world has gone mad it really has... where does it end.. men only places, women only places...

as a swimmer i thought this was a genuine swimming post... but its just another man bashing one

The question stands. Did you read the thread? It explains the issue.

Although this interjection does rather support the point.

I know it's not exactly the same thing, as I suspect this is more "oblivious person", but I was swimming recently in the fast lane at my pool. Fairly empty pool, but people in each of the lanes.
Man comes in with his baby, gets in to the fast lane (that I am swimming lengths in), and proceeds to bob about with his baby in the middle of the fast lane. Facing the big sign saying its a fast lane and with "no children allowed in the lane" clearly on it. Looked most put out when he had to move out of my way... (but stayed in the lane).
I stopped and pointed out to him that he was in a swimming lane and he said "I didn't know where else to go". To be fair, he did then move when I pointed out the main area of the pool that he could take his baby in to.
But the whole thing just baffled me. Had I been doing anything other than breast stroke I might not have immediately spotted them bobbing about in the middle of the lane and crashed in to them.

aw bless him, he just got completely lost! At least he had the good manners to take words of advice...

Sadly there are some men who swim who are hoping to get off with women. It's often the dobbers who do very splashy performative butterfly who then 'coincidentally' follow you straight into the sauna and try to strike up a conversation. I've taken to wearing waterproof headphones.

if it wasn't so creepy and inappropriate, it'd be kind of cute.

He's just pulled his best swimming wheelies in front of you and now wants to see if you thought he did a good wheelie.

It's like maaaate, it's not the park, we're not 10, do jog on, there's a good chap.

Patriarchy mackerel??

Bit of a digression here, but teenage DS gave up competitive cross country running because of all the covert shoving and jostling 🙄

Yes, I do not go to the pool to get into conversation when I'm having a rest at the end of the lane, random man 🙄

I lane swim four times a week and only do breaststroke. I fall between a faster slow lane swimmer to a medium lane swimmer. However I always book the slow lane now as the older folk in slow (men/woman) are more polite and we all work around each other, whereas if I’m in the medium lane, a fast Mr Shark comes along and huffs/puffs/spits and knocks everyone out the way. Also the slow lane specifically says for backstroke/breaststroke, not crawl, so that helps keep out the shark idiots.

@SkylarkDay I don't care what lane I swim (breaststroke only) in but I can keep up with some doing front crawl, and will adjust my lane if too slow/fast. The people I don't understand or know what to do about are the ones that do one very aggressive(feet touching/grabbing) fast length of crawl and then 4 of slow breast/other stroke or stop for a length and then seem to get right in your face again when they are doing their 'fast length'. What do others do in this situation? I hate people grabbing my feet, so unnecessary for people that are not going to make a living from swimming or be a champion of anything significant...and even then it's still rude.

@SuperBored ooh I wouldn’t like that!! Not had that experience luckily. When we book the pool here, I have to book my lane online and specify slow/medium/fast. It limits it to 12 per lane each hour. I joke with my husband that I’m off to see all my old timers as I’m usually the youngest by far in the slow lane and I’m 50, but saying that a lot of the older folk are definitely as quick as me. Maybe because they’re generally a bit older and usually only joined by occasional middle age ladies like myself, there’s no aggression. However in the medium lanes you see all the shark men splashing around so I steer clear of that now. I’m happier with my polite pensioners! 😀

I had a dad teaching his kids to swim in the medium lane recently, right in the middle not at either end and they seemed to be set off each time I tried to swim past them when the slow lane was empty. I moved in to the 'fast' lane as there was no one in there and they followed me. The lifeguard spoke to him several times but he just carried on doing whatever he wanted. I ended up getting out with a horrible headache when actually swimming is my relaxation time.

Some people do seem to struggle with spacial awareness!! There’s one lady in our slow lane who is a lot slower than everyone else. Not a problem as the slow lane is 3 people wide. But when you reach the end at the same time as her, rather than let you go, she goes and bobs around in the middle. Not sure if she struggles with spacial awareness or is a bit resentful others are quicker. She always looks peeved when you have to get past her so it makes no sense!

OMG. I feel your pain. I am a medium/fast front crawl swimmer and first thing I always do in pool is guage the other swimmers to see where I am best suited. I will move throughout my session if things change. I can see people don't understand why I hop about but if I am doing backstroke I am slower so better suited to med lane.

The OP description intrigued me and I will watch out for that. I have most days observed what others describe - sole people on the fast lane, fast people in the slow lane and so on. I find it very very frustrating. If ever I am lapped that's a signal for me to switch lanes or ensure I let the faster swimmers always go before me.

Question for you regular swimmers. Is tumble turn hard to learn in my middle age. I never learnt it but wonder if it's worth it.

Sounds like they are doing interval straining which involves bursts of faster, intense lengths interspersed by more plodding ones.

Me too😂

Grabbing isn't great and anything aggressive is obviously inappropriate, but a tap on the foot is a standard overtaking method for lane discipline.

It's absolutely not rude in terms of swimming training, where it's bog standard. I appreciate that that's not what you're doing there, but you're wrong about it being 'still rude even then'.

Whether it should be being done at the time you go to the pool - perhaps depends on the pool. One of the ones I've been to has a sign as you go in towards the changing rooms and it advocates for this as lane discipline. That pool is, however, completely against lane splitting, which is such a pain - if there's only two of you, it's the best way to avoid getting in each other's way; it's the complete norm in my normal pool. Not a lot of foot tapping in my most used pool (it's a university pool).

Then they can switch to the approriate lane for each interval.

Generally don't find it to be the men to be a problem. It's the women who don't want to get their hair wet and swim side by side chatting that are the problem in my local pool!