r/Swimming

I get it that flip turns is the craze but a concise touch turn is very underrated which many beginners execute incorrectly or cheat on or take for granted.

I am mainly an open water swimmer and prefer the touch turn because I can execute it 100% of the time and not going in with high speed (1:45/100m).

Sprints and interval I would flip turns but even then, I can only get 1-2 dolphin kicks off.

What are your personal thoughts?

I swim average go local swimming pool 2.5 times a week. always do 2000~2300 yards (trying to do about 1 hour) and my swim level is

6ft2 big guy 280 pounds( lost 70 pounds over a year with swim bike run xD)

Css is 2:10

Maximum effort 100m 1min40sec

Average pace 2:01-2:07(last year i was doing 2:50 so i improved a lot)

My usual plane is usually

300 freestyle warm up

50x3or4 of technique drill

200×6

Cooldown + just having fun doing other technique

i been focusing on reaching goals such as hitting 200yards, focus on better technique, doing 1500 yards non stop, learning butterfly and so on.. but now i ran out of goals. And now i want to maximize on burning fat. What should my drills consist of, and how can i maximize fat burning with swimming?

Also my garmin always say i did 1000-1200 calories per session is this legit?

My pool(as I assume most would) has a rule against open wounds and sores. Makes good hygienic sense, but seems to be circumventable if people slap an adhesive bandage over it.

What good does this do except to fall off and litter the water for everyone, as evidenced by the multiple I see floating around every day? If your lesion needs to be protected from pool water, then surely the move is to not enter the water?

I'm sorry, this must be brought up often enough, but none of the staff seemed to have an answer

A small pool recently opened in our neighborhood, and it’s within walking distance from my house. The pool is clean and new; the locker room is spacious and comfortable, and I can almost always split a lane with someone or even have a lane to myself. I’m very happy about it, especially since I live in a densely populated area where pools are usually much more crowded. However, everything comes with a caveat: this pool is only 20 yards/18meter long.

I used to swim in a 50-meter pool, which I absolutely loved. I’m a fitness swimmer and usually swim around 1,500 yards per session. I thought a 20-yard pool would be fine for fitness swimming. But after swimming there for a couple of weeks, I realized how cramped it feels. I can hardly get into a real swim.

In fact, I’ve started to resist going to the pool. It seems the psychological component cannot be ignored. Does anyone regularly swim in a short pool? Do you have any strategies for making it more enjoyable? It's so close and convenient; I really want to make use of it.

Hi everyone! I’m finally getting back into training consistently after many years away (swam competitively until age 18 then basically stopped, I’m 41 now) and need some tips on how to train for the 500 yard free.

I am in the military and for our twice- yearly fitness test, we have the option of doing a timed 500 yard swim. For me to max out the points for my gender/age group, I need to get a time of 8:00 or faster (I know this is slow for many on here!) I swam it a few months ago with no training, and got a time of 8:08 and I really want to improve as much as I can.

I did a mile swim today and felt way stronger than when I went last week, and I want to keep the momentum going! I like going in with a planned workout/sets, otherwise I get bored, so any suggestions are much appreciated!

Hi all. I’m new to this sub, but I just want to share. I have a deep fear of being horizontal in water, or my feet not touching the ground while in water. Whether it’s called aquaphobia, or something else, I don’t know.

I think it stems from my almost-drowning experiences as a kid, and even though I’ve had some good experiences in water: 1) learned swimming in school as a kid but I was always the last and slowest, and quickly forgot it after, 2) tried back floating in the sea around 10 years ago and found it really fun!, and 3) tried snorkelling last year in the ocean but in very VERY shallow waters — I am still afraid of the water and cannot swim and float properly. It’s like the more I get older the more fearful I become? It’s weird.

Anyway, I’m turning 30 this year and I thought why not try to overcome my fear by taking swimming lessons. I do want to be confident in water again, and be able to swim as an exercise and enjoy it on holidays.

I found adult swimming lessons for beginners in my city (London), and so far I’ve done two classes. It’s group classes but the groups are quite small and there’s loads of teachers, so I still get one-on-one support. So far I have been able to do:
• breathing bubbles
• treading water (with noodle)
• kicking legs to swim/move (with noodle/kickboard)
• push and glide (with kickboard)
• sculling (with noodle/kickboard)
• floating on my back (with noodle/support from teacher holding my head)
• lying back with my ears fully in the water (i couldn’t do this before as my body was so tense, and i get really ticklish in my neck - weird i know, i get it with strong air/winds too)

I have tried to do some of these without support/floating devices, but I still get afraid and my body ends up ‘jerking’ the wrong way, and I fall in the water and end up with water in my nose/throat which is a horrible feeling.

One thing I observed about my fear is not really drowning (as many have explained to me I cannot ‘drown’ in a beginners swimming pool), but just the feeling that my feet won’t be in the ground / I’ll be horizontal in the water. Because right now it feels so unnatural, I can do it for a few seconds but I’ll want to stand on my feet again to feel I am in control of my body. I also haven’t gotten the habit of ‘getting down’ after floating so I think I’ll have to practice this more. I know I should relax but it’s quite hard to simply relax — I have to mentally will myself to do it haha.

I know I’m still a long way from my goals (learning how to swim, float, and just be confident in water) and I’ll have to get used to getting water in my nose & ears, and eventually let go of the floating devices (which is still a really scary thought right now). But I’m hoping I’ll get there. I’ll still show up to class, afraid and a lil bit embarrassed. But I’ll try. Any tips for an absolute beginner (with a phobia), are welcome! Thank you for reading.

(TL;DR - just a 29/yo girl with aquaphobia who started adult beginner swimming classes. Still struggle with it and still have a lot of fears but sharing my story to be accountable with myself, hopefully get some tips from people who’ve experienced the same, and celebrate what I have done so far. Baby steps!)

My pool is getting some much needed upgrades, but will be closed for 6+ months. I recently have started to do 30 minutes of some cardio (treadmill walking, stationary bike, elliptical, rowing machine) and then 10-15 min weight lifting before going to the pool to do my 30-45 min swim (as listed in a previous post of mine).

But when the pool closes in December, I'd like to have a variety of workouts I can do to keep up the strength and agility I've gained from swimming.

I will be financially able to swim maybe once a week elsewhere, but I have already paid for this membership (knowing it'll be closed) and have access to a full gym as well as some classes, pilates, yoga, etc.

Any recommendations?

Thanks in advance

I started swimming about half a year ago and I have been doing 1200 yard sessions of freestyle for a bit but then I dislocated my shoulder. I stopped all activities while it was healing and have been doing PT.

I'm approaching the point where it feels cautiously OK to very slowly start swimming again, but I expect that even a 100 yards of freestyle will be rough going at first, and I'm not crazy about going to the gym for a 2 minute swim.

Any suggestions on what I can do to bulk up my time in the water in a way that's useful?

Hello,

I have known how to swim since childhood, but I’m new to lap swimming as an adult. I’m finding that the only parts of me that is ‘tired’ are my lungs. Even when I try to swim faster and longer to work myself more, I don’t get arm or leg fatigue. Am I just at a stage where I don’t have enough stamina to work those parts super hard? I’d like to get stronger in my arms and back during my swims along with the cardio benefits.

Thank you all for your wisdom!

Hello am 18y old male

Ofc ik basic swimming and free style swimming and i swim on the Mediterranean Sea every summer since I was like 7

But i started recently swimming because of back pains and posture + to lose weight because am fat ( 32% bodyfat) for 114.8kg with 77kg lean mass and 187cm height ( still growing tho)

I swim 2 times per week

What should I learn ?

Also idk if this helps but I heared shoulders are an advantage on swimming because last time I raced a casual there and I won

I have 53cm bidlet and 19cm each clavicule ( straight line)

Hi all,

Due to the high & always increasing number of such requests, this is now the weekly (Thursdays) thread to post your requests for critique & community feedback on technique, all strokes.

Requests for feedback or critique on technique outside of these threads may be automatically deleted.

I’m in my 20’s and have not done swimming since middle school. I do remember having fun with it, and now I’m interested in swimming laps for exercise. The thing is, I am extremely rusty on all four strokes and I don’t know anything about how to structure my workout. If I just jump into the water as is, I’m not sure I’ll get the most out of it. 

Based on gyms/rec centers around my area, I’m thinking of starting with either swim lessons or Masters swim (I think the most ideal option would be if I joined the swim club when I was in university but I’m no longer a student).

With swim lessons, I’m thinking I would do enough of them until I’m comfortable lap swimming on my own. But I’m mainly curious about Masters since I don’t know much about it. Is it normal to join even if I barely remember all of the strokes? Is it very physically demanding, and do I have to attend every workout and meet? Is there a way to do a trial run if I decide it’s not for me?

As a bonus, do people make new friends often in Masters swimming?

Both lessons and Masters seem rather expensive so I would like to know beforehand what they are like. Thanks!

I have a day job and I’m trying to get swimming lessons daily. I am able to float but without anything in my hands I’m getting scared, I’m not able to breath in and float , not able to paddle my legs while floating not able to to do anything else apart from holding the railing and float.

I’m posting here to understand how people do all these things, such that I can learn these techniques properly. My coach just tells me I’ll hold your legs and move it for u while I’m floating which I’m not able to get. I’m thinking of fellow swimmers experiences, what’s the technique. Which muscle do you strain and how’s your body moving and everything when u are doing these things. If people could tell me this, it could really help me. Thanks

I enrolled to adult swim class and it's my second session. I was able to get comfortable with the water, I think. I was able to do the basic of using floaters and noodles and wave my feet and put my face under the water. My problem is, the duration of my head under the water is too short, maybe like 2 or 3 seconds and when I can't breathe I started panicking.

So I don't know what's the best way and efficient way to blow bubbles and keep it longer and not make myself panic if I'm out of breath, cuz I always go do it really fast. We got instructors so I know people will help but I guess panic hit automatically when ur out of breath.

Also how do you do the humming technique. Do I just hum or should I hold my breath while humming? Do i just hum "hmmmm" like I do normally?

So I am 29M swimming since this February, I took 20 lessons with personal coach, I swim 3x per week.

I wanna be try-athlete so I also started (and finished) couch to 5k run program two months ago, and I improved so much faster in running then in swimming! So I realized I want a program for swimming too. I found about From 0 to 1650 program.

I have started today, I ditched any effort to focus on my technique and just swam, tried to relax, and it was first time in months I had a good time in pool! No fins, no snorchel, no pull buoy, no high elbow, no one eye in water and I was barely even kicking!

I even outswim depression for 2 hours! I felt so much better then when I focused on the technique and drills!

My only negative emotion is that I will have to swim 200m next week and it took me 8 months to get from 5m to 100m Front crawl. But hey, I can swith to breaststroke or lay on my back and just kick.

Do you guys have a similiar expiriences?

I (17F) am about to swim the 500 Free this Wednesday (Today is Sunday). I've only swam one 500 F this season and I gained about 40 seconds. My time was at 8:26 and my PB was a 7:41 (from last highschool season). Can I get some tips about how to keep an even pace and about the best body positioning to maximize speed. I would like to be at or near my PB when I race.

Seems like the trend nowadays are two beat kick, bi-lateral breathing and high elbow recovery.

The kick equates to 10-15% propulsion and that is assuming it is done correctly. Otherwise, it is added drag and wasted energy.

This is why I don’t understand why beginners are so fascinated with “powerful” kicks?

I am a fan of drilling bi-lateral breathing but it is not my preferred race breathing pattern due to the oxygen demand for an Ironman swim (3.8km).

The high elbow recovery I can see to encourage a high elbow catch/early vertical forearm but the high elbow recovery isn’t for everyone due to physical limitations or not even a prerequisite for distance swimming.

It has been interesting to compare how I learned to swim in the 90s we’re a gallop stroke and s-pull wasn’t abnormal and nowadays it is shunned.