Is there any sort of DIY tether system that you can set up to “swim” in place at home? We have an outdoor pool, but it’s too small to effectively swim in. (Good for casual pool volleyball though!)

I wouldn’t call myself “immunocompromised,” but I’m closer to that than “healthy,” so I’ll only exercise in gyms with a mask and swimming is kinda hard for that. Plus I’m 1000% more likely to do an exercise if I can do it from home - I have so much trouble getting out of the house.

(I could just aquajog instead since it’s just cross-training for running, but I like swimming better so I’m trying to see if I make even the slightest sense here lol)

other people in my club that is my age is a good 5-7 seconds faster than me in 100 free. to put it in perspective my 100 back is faster and my fly just a few seconds slower. i need some tips urgently because it's actually embarrassing coming last and i really want to drop time like everyone else

I had reactive arthritis which killed my muscles, and now my patellas twisted outwards because of weak thigh muscles. Doc told me to build thigh muscles so the patellas go back to their places. I do freestyle only but it is not building any thigh muscles. Any ideas?

I've been attending group coaching on and off (2-5 people per lesson) since spring and I've come to realize the only thing we are taught is front crawl. I can't help but notice the kids classes are doing all kinds of 'miscellaneous' stuff like diving, butterfly, heads-up swimming, sprinting etc.

I also started attended my university swim fitness club and of course everyone seems to be able to do all that stuff I just mentioned.

Is it normal that adult lessons have a mono focus on just front crawl? Should I just resort to teaching myself all the other stuff?

Even stuff like people doing underwater dolphin kicks on their back for a whole length... where on earth is that taught because it's not at the lessons I pay for 😮

Hello all, I started coaching a masters training group a few months back, and we’ve made some awesome progress on swimming technique. One thing that I haven’t taken the time to teach yet is swimming soft skills. Things like how to properly push off the wall to start a set, starts, etc.

Can anyone think of some swimming soft skills that are best taught in the water? I’ll be getting in the water with them for our next practice, and want to be able to demonstrate and teach some of these things. Things that someone who grew up swimming competitively does instinctually, but someone who learned later in life would never know. Thanks!

I (21M) had been swimming freestyle, breast stroke and backstroke since I was 6 (mostly not competetively), but leaninig the right butterfly technic had been quite a long (mostly pleasant) journy for me since I was 12. There was a golden point in my butterfly progress and that was finding this piece of material on youtube. It's a 30 minute video by Michael Phelps and his coach (I think so) in which they explain many points in Michael's technique and in continuation they provide some great drills.

Just wanted to share it with people who struggle in finding the best butterfly technique for their body.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7gNPwRjgNQ&t=18s

I had a swim meet the other day for my High School team and I frequently swim the 500 or the 200 yard freestyle. We were up against a very good school. I stayed consistent with my time for the 200, but I completely bombed the 500 and gained 5 seconds and landed in last place. My coach told me that she knew I could’ve done better and that maybe it was time for me to do some other events. I’m not sure if I was burnt out (doing the 500 event for around 4 meets/weeks in a row) but I feel pretty bad about my performance and maybe think I need to find a new strategy for my 500.

Bought swimming trunks (briefs style) online, and was wondering how small is too small.

From the front, standing straight, everything's all nicely kept in. But when my legs are slightly wider apart (somewhat like breaststroke kicks), a bit of my balls sack / scrotum would be slightly visible from the bottom by about half inch each side. Is this okay, say from modesty point of view...?

I'm ~26.8 inch waist, and I had already sized up my TYR Dexton Racer with size M/30 for 27-31 inch waist.

Hi, I am coming to the US in a month and I need a new swimsuit for my practice sessions (women, one piece). Which brands have good quality swimsuits? But not overpriced.
In Europe we have Speedo and Arena, which I believe are good (at least I see good swimmers using their products). But I can see that US stores have more brands, are any of them good?
My current swimsuit is from a cheap brand and the elastic part of the fabric started to wear off after only a few months. I would like have something of better quality now.
All recommendations are appreciated!

I just switched coaches to someone who is focused on improving my stroke. She does that job well and I can see the improvements with every session.

But yesterday while we are at the pool she touched my belly and said “You have a swimmer’s body. A retired swimmer. I only got a big tummy after I gave birth.”

All I said was “I’m working on it” then kicked off to cut the topic short.

I’m a liiiiiitle overweight but my stomach doesn’t protrude. The suit is tight and body hugging in the water so my “imperfections” are obvious. But I genuinely don’t care because I’m there to swim… until now.

I’ve never shamed my coach for her weight/body so I don’t understand why she’d do this. I know I am a little overweight, but I’m working on it. I just don’t need it to be pointed out to me because I already know.

I still want to swim, she’s still a good coach, but I don’t want to hear any of this from her. I don’t know what to do.

I want to start using base time for my training sessions to push myself more and have more consistent swimming. However, I don't have a smart watch and my pool only has a wall clock (the one with four differently colored arrows, showing only seconds). Technically I could use the wall clock but I think my brain will just melt from all the calculations, having to remember the number of laps etc.
How do you keep track of time? Do you use wrist watches or wall clocks or maybe chronometers?

Just wondering if anybody else suffers allergies from chemicals in pools? I started swimming in November but I have recently started sneezing and with a runny nose each time I go swimming with is X 3 weekly. It isn't for a few hours but can go on for a few days. I started taking antihistamines when I was learning to swim 4yrs ago which use to work and so I'm not sure why they don't this time around.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Hey everyone I have to do a 25M underwater swim twice for the AF. I really struggled with it. If you were in my shoes how would you train and prep for it? TIA

For those that would like some variation and/or a more structured workout, I provide for you our groups workout from today. Our workouts are split into 5 different skill levels. Choose the column that most closely aligns with your skills and abilities and ignore the other 4. For those that are newer to swimming, columns 1-4 are time based and any rest you get is built into the predetermined interval. Column 5 is rest based and though your overall interval may vary you’ll take a predetermined amount of rest before continuing or moving on. Because this is Masters, feel free to add, subtract, or modify in anyway you see fit. As our group likes to say, you have to do everything in the workout, unless you don’t want to.

Here is a link to my google drive with previous workouts- https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1tHrMzBZWcVHQcs03vZX8rNQ73mdyR1j7?usp=sharing (Tuesday workouts are in the Monday folder; Thursday's are in Wednesday)

If you live in the US and are interested in joining a masters swim club here is a link to help you find a local club near you - https://www.usms.org/clubs

Notes for this set:

-Parenthesis ( ) are optional modifiers to the number in the set. For example, column 5 will do the main set only 1 time instead of 2.

-Variable Sprint = #1 1/2 Fast-1/2 Easy, #2 1/2 Easy-1/2 Fast, #3 All Fast, #4 All Easy

-Sprint the Black = Sprint in the 5m lead into the wall, then smooth/moderate in the middle of the pool between the sets of backstroke flags. Our pools lane lines end with black being the 5m lead in color to the wall, hence sprint the black.

-Descend = Maintain a given pace within the distance, but get faster as you work through the set (descend in time/pace)

-Build = Start slow then get faster within the given distance.

https://preview.redd.it/8xcnxh26248e1.jpg?width=792&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=bcbf500b0be6e1ddbe89b0bc591bba4bddeddcc5

Right now I’m on a swim team and there’s a part of me that is telling me to not join the swim team next year. Although the feeling of finishing practice is really nice, I feel like it isn’t enough of a push factor for me to keep on going to practice. I was wondering what motivated you guys to go to the horrendous practices besides being with friends.

Hi! Masters club currently on break due to the holidays. In the meantime, I'm swimming by myself, trying to get faster in my time cycles, but I'm not sure how exactly to do this.

Current cycles:

• 50 F/S swim on 1:00
• 100 F/S swim on 2:15 (/2:00 with my squad)
• 50 F/S kick on 1:25
• 100 F/S kick on 3:00

I didn't add my pull cycle times because it's pretty on par with my swim. Evidencing that my kick is REALLY BAD even though, yes, I've been working on it for over a year, and I've only managed to drop my cycle from 1:30 to 1:25.

I'm not that fast, but this is a huge difference from when I first started masters squad swimming 1 & 1/2 years ago (I've never done squad swimming before and have chronic fatigue and nose blockage problems, which impacts my swimming but I'm trying to swim and improve despite this).

I've improved my technique SIGNIFICANTLY with the help of my coaches. I dropped 40 seconds in my 50 F/S PB, getting to 44 seconds. Same with the other strokes, getting under a minute in all of them with B/S being my fastest form time of 54 seconds. Not that fast, I know, but a HUGE improvement from where I began.

I'm also working on other aspects of my swim, such as breath control and underwaters. E.g. I have managed to change to bilateral breathing and do 3 underwaters after every flip turn.

My question is: how do I reduce my time cycles / get faster? I structure my workouts personally as I have experience as a swim teacher and a couple months stunt as a development coach, varying goals each swim.

However, to reduce the time cycle, I'm not sure whether to push my time cycles and force myself to go hard and fast on a quicker cycle but less lengths, vary the lengths (do 25s one workout, 50s another, 100s another?), do more drills focused workouts, or something else?

I am improving! But my masters squad is mostly fitness focused so we don't go super hard a lot of the time, depending on the coach and the session, and I like to set goals for myself so I can keep myself entertained and motivated!

Any advice would be appreciated.

I achieved a personal milestone today of continuously swimming that I wouldn’t have been able to achieve without a recent post on this sub reddit. Specifically, stating that in order to swim continuously you have to keep going.

I’ve been swimming for about 3 months, one to two times a week, only being able to swim 25 to 50 meter intervals, averaging a total of 1500m per session. I’d stop and rest because I was short of breathe. I thought I was making no progress. Then I saw this post a week or two ago that recommended that you push yourself to keep going. Since then, I’ve progressed to 100m intervals, 400m, and today I did 1300 with enough gas in the tank to do much more. What this effectively did for me was force me to slow down. I’ve been told to slow down before but could never do so out of fear of sinking. Well, if you keep going, you really don’t have an option.

Really, what I’m trying to say is thanks random redditor for posting what worked for them :)

I’m swimming the 100 free long course tomorrow, what tips do you have? What pace do I carry?

For at least 80% of my life I could always swim and go underwater just fine without having to hold my nose but out of nowhere, during this latest 20%, I can’t even go under the shower head without it bothering me. It always feels like there’s water going up my nose even though I know it’s clearly not. Even blowing air out while underwater I still feel it. Any insight?

hey all I’m an ex club swimmer that just joined a masters team and was wondering if the watches track splits properly (Apple, Garmin, and etc…)

for example if im doing 8x50s will the watch have my 25m splits? also do watches track times for just 25m workouts?

And a side question: why don’t more club / college / elite swimmers use watches? I feel like I don’t see them wearing one often

How do i get started with freestyle swimming? I want to train to get fitter again and my end goal (in distant future) is to finish a 70.3 iron man. Sadly all my local pools don‘t have sport swimming classes. I‘m a good regular swimmer and i‘m very comfortable in the water. But i don‘t know how to learn/train the proper technique for freestyle swimming. What videos and/or excercises do you recommend?

i have a huge meet tomorrow for juniors and im swimming 100 of all strokes including IM. my best bet of winning a title is my 100 fly and 100 back and i need tips on how i can secure my win and hopefully pb! for 100 fly my strategy is basically trying to finish it because fly is painful and my strategy for 100 back is try hold on a sprint but usually also end up dying. any tips would be really appreciated!! edit: i won both events

It’s been 4 days into my taper and I’ve been feeling awful and slow during the last couple did days. I have today and 1 more day until my meet where I’m swimming the 50 and 100 free. Any advice for my situation?