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.

My gym pool only has a slow lane and a fast lane, with the rest used for aqua classes.

The other day some families with kids came, an aqua class was on, I was swimming up the slow lane (I'm rubbish) and the kids all jumped in right in front of me and proceeded to splash around and totally blocked the lane. The father who was with them just stood there in the pool watching.

There was one man in the fast lane, he saw I was looking annoyed and said "do you want to come in here", I said "I'm really slow" and he said "honestly don't worry". So I got in the fast lane, he was really nice about it but I tried to swim really fast so as not to get in his way 🤣🤣 my legs were like jelly after a few lengths.

Why ask him? It's not his lane.

Lane splitting when there are two to a lane is a good solution. It keeps people from getting in each other's way if one is swimming faster/a faster stroke. It's all very well to say that people should try to match the lane to their speed, but it's not necessarily possible due to lane availability. Even if they're swimming the same speed of the same stroke, it's easier to just split the lane, as you can essentially get on with it without taking any account of what the other swimmer is doing.

Lane splitting isn't possible when there's more than two in a lane. He doesn't get to say he'll do anything else. His lane splitting with the other woman was a temporary arrangement only possible because there were two of them; after you came, it was no longer possible.

Please don't do this unless you sustain the high pace.

I find I go in the fast lane then men do this to me then slow down once past.
They feel like they 'should' be faster so put a rush on then get knackered then I need to stop frequently to let them move on a bit so I don't catch them.

Patriarchy mackerel??

BRAVA @crackofdoom

Precipice problem is there were no boards indicating direction, there was him swimming at one side and a woman swimming at the other, and he was just the one who got to the end first as I was getting in, it wasn't so much asking him as just acknowledging needing to do something different which he refused. The woman just ignored the argument we were having and carried on swimming up and down too. I have a trauma response when men are aggressive to me and it was just easier to get out and swim in the indoor pool. It's easy to say that I should've done something different but challenging aggressive men with no support isn't easy when you've experienced physical violence as a result throughout your life. I'd hoped the staff might recognise it was an issue and do something afterwards about lane etiquette, but they didn't. I don't normally go at that time of day when it's really busy anyway, so it's not a big ongoing issue it's just fucking annoying.

I get what you are saying about tapping to overtake...but I don't want anyone touching my feet and it was a full on grab each stroke and if someone wants to overtake ..just do it, don't touch my feet!! My point was these people who grab your feet are not olympic swimmers so they should just chill out rather than being arses.

The slow men who insist on sticking to the fast lane annoy me. I am very much a medium speed swimmer when I do swim. Our pool lanes are generally not crazy busy at the times I used to go so it wasn't unusual for at least one lane to be free at any time. But if a man comes along he always goes STRAIGHT for the fast lane. I find it bizarre. I've lost count of th enumber of times I've been swimming faster in the medium lane. Fine when it's just two of us in 2 lanes, but gets very confusing when more people do join.

When I take DD swimming I notice it is still a thing - men straight into fast llane, no matter what.

The weird thing at our gym which I've never noticed elsewhere is that even when there are three lanes, clearly marked, and not busy, there's often older ladies who insist on doing their laps OUTSIDE of the lanes. And then give all the families and children death glares as they get in the way. I wish I could understand whhy the refuse to use the actual lanes.

@IdLikeToBeAFraser I'm not old...well not pensionable anyway...and I quite often go in the non lane area and swim round people because of how awful some of the lane swimmers can be.

1 do you do that when the lanes are empty? Which is what happens at our pool (especially the outdoor pool)

2 Do you expect the families and children to get out of your way?

If the answer is yes to those questions, then I would love more info. But I'm guessing the answer is not yes!

No and No 😁
Actually to be truthful, you are supposed to book lanes or general area and if I haven't booked lanes I don't go in them as I've heard complaints about people doing that too, so now I book lanes and if the lanes are making me uncomfortable, I go back to the general area.

I actually hadn't realised how much I'd modified my swimming until I read this thread, but having encountered a lot of incidents like the ones on this thread, I am now aware that I have! It's pretty sad.

Over winter, I swim at the pool that's right next to my work (we have to take a long lunch or if we don't take it, we still can't leave earlier, so I usually try to take it!). But I take the latest possible lunchbreak, so there's fewer people, I usually stick to the slow lane and just slot in behind a slow swimmer, I take lots of breaks to let people (well, it's usually men) because I'm afraid of getting kicked hard, as I have been in the past, and in the summer I swim in the lake just to avoid the pool altogether. And I can actually swim the times that are up for the fast lane.

I've also stopped doing triathlons unless they're time trials (so staggered starts) or the few that have separate women's only starts, because I'm actually pretty scared of swimming around people (men) in open water having been swam over and knocked around pretty badly in a few races (one I couldn't start the bike having been kicked hard in the head).

Our pool has far more female swimmers. I'd say about 1 in 8 seems to have no awareness of how they might be interacting with others. This includes both men and women. Interestingly, a few come as couples and though they don't always share a lane, there are considerate couples and inconsiderate couples. It's certainly not confined to men.

I get annoyed when you are sat behind a pair of feet (yeah male everytime) just so they know you are there and to pull over and let you past to find they push off like they think they are in the Olympics. You realise they thought it was a race and they are winning.

I like to miss the end and do an early U turn although I did once swim under one guy while he did his very shit very noisy freestyle and eventually surfaced well ahead😂

😉Yep, i called out a bloke who crashed into me once and he said, 'sorry, didn't see you...'
Edit -- don't know how the GIF appeared an can't seem to get rid of it.

Why is it that men have to splash so much?! Even if they're not doing the 'look at me I'm doing butterfly', they still seem to manage to do that.

The pool at my gym only has two lanes - fast and slow - and the other half of the pool is for anyone to swim/play/whatever. I always take the slow lane (as I know I'm a slow swimmer), unless there's already someone in the slow lane and no-one in the fast lane. In which case, I take the fast lane until someone else comes along. Then I'm more than happy to do the 'swim in a circle' thing - and there are boards at the end of each lane showing that that's what you're supposed to do.

But I have noticed that if there's someone in the fast lane, and a bloke comes along, they will always get in the slow lane with me, and never the fast lane.

What really fucks me off though, is the women who have been in the lanes when I've got there before now - two of them, one in the fast lane and one in the slow lane - walking! Why not do that in the other half of the pool?!

but I don't want anyone touching my feet

The reason for foot tapping is safety. It's more to forewarn you they are there and about to overtake.

Otherwise, especially if you are both nearing the end of the lane, they could get alongside you and you start to turn, causing you to crash into each other.

I always do a quick check behind me before I turn just in case but many people where I swim are completely oblivious and cut across on the diagonal to push back off the wall and there's often someone else trying to pass.

If I ever won the lottery (as if!!) my one luxury item would be my own indoor pool due to all the reasons on this thread! 😂

Quite happy with my smelly old dog wagon of a car, don’t need fancy clothes, or a mansion and I’m not even that keen on holidays but my own private pool would be lovely! Sadly I’ve only ever won £2.30 on the Euromillions so far.

@kitsuneghost Yes, I am faster and do sustain it. I'm not doing it to be a dick; I'm doing so I can get my workout in and not have to put up with men who somehow never know they should move down a lane

Oh yes, performative fathering in the pool is a whole other headfuck. "LOOK AT ME! I'M BEING AN INVOLVED DAD!! YES, JUMP RIGHT IN JOLYON, RIGHT IN FRONT OF THAT WOMAN DOING HER LAPS!" 😡

Why is it only ever men who have touched my feet? I'm such a shit swimmer, I'm not even good enough to go in lanes, so stick to the side where the shit swimmers go. Yet they still 'need' to be right near me and touch me.

That's not 'safety' or 'etiquette, that's 'getting close to largely unclothed women and getting to touch their feet' territory.

Hmm that does sound a bit dodgy!

(I came here to echo that foot tapping us for safety - our pool has it in the rules. But this doesn't sound like what you're describing).

#NAMALT but It does seem to be men doing the taking up more space thing that are often a problem. Not sure they even know they're doing it, society just encourages them to think it's normal 🙄

Although having said that, my rudest interaction with another swimmer was with another woman. It was in Texas, dunno if that's relevant! I chose the appropriate speed lane with fewest other swimmers in, her and one other, and she repeatedly swam into me from the opposite end, then told me off for getting in 'their lane' as it was 'maximum 2 swimmers per lane'. I asked the lifeguard who said that's not a thing! Dunno what her problem was.

My son has issues with lane swimming. He's 32 and autistic but a very good swimmer albeit he's not the fastest. So we always book the slow lane for him, but he finds that men, well one man in particular, swims slower than him but won't let him overtake even though it's something everyone else does. He finds it very frustrating. Luckily the man is usually halfway through his swim by time we get there.