r/Swimming

Ok first off, I have a lot of compassion for people experiencing homelessness and this post is not about the broader issue of homelessness. That said, it was totally wild when an unhoused gentleman jumped into the outdoor pool I was swimming at last week. At least he took his shoes off, but he went in socks and hat and all. The poor 20-something lifeguards did so well dealing with it. Anyone else experience something bonkers like that during their swim?

Does anyone swim with strabismus? My young child has mild/moderate intermittent esotropia, and I'm wondering if this will affect swimming competitively in any way. We had to stop doing gymnastics because her depth perception being slightly off made her afraid of the balance beam, among other things.

I feel like swimming is good for her so far - just wondering if anyone else has this and if it's negatively affected your swimming. Thanks!

Learned how to swim in August 2025 & now, I can swim as long as I want to. At least that's the way it feels to me. Not tired at all. I couldn't have done it without this sub.

Incredibly helpful advice.

Things that helped me:

-always be breathing out when my face is in water

-be long- stretched & streamlined

-use momentum to coast in water

To do now

-flip turns

-egg beaters

-go into the ocean

Thank you to all of you. You helped me so much in my journey to be a swimmer.

I love my daily, early morning, before work meditative practice of swimming.

It’s Canadian trials again so it must be time to post about Summer breaking world records. 2:01.65 breaks the previous record of 2:01.81, and I believe this is the last of the super suit records to fall.

This is the record Summer has talked about wanting the most so I’m glad she was able to finally get it. She has the IMs and the 400 free over the next 3 days. Historically pretty good races for her :)

tl;dr: what should I expect, what kind of gear is a necessity, what common mistakes to avoid

Hello, I've recently been wanting to get into swimming as I have some physical health issue (POTS) that makes more traditional exercise challenging for me. I know how to swim, and can do whatever the basic stroke is called, but I've never swam laps before. I'm planning to find a gym when I move city that has a pool, but I'm a little intimidated and have a few questions:

firstly, gear -- what is essential? I have no idea how long I'll stick with this hobby, so I'd prefer not to ball out on a bunch of gear I may not use in a few months, lol. Secondly, what are typically the peak hours people swim? Because I don't really know all of the etiquette, I'm hoping to avoid going when it's busy just so I don't bother more experienced swimmers. Lastly, what are the mistakes you see most beginners make?

I'm pursuing this very casually, I really just want to get back to doing cardio again and its hot as hell where I live. Anyways, thanks for any advice! <3

So I am slightly confused with this concept. At what point should the hip driven rotation start? Is it to create room for the pull to move and balance on the opposite arm (not rotate too much that I am completely perpendicular to the bottom of the pool though)

What is the hip or core doing?

One analogy (correct me if I am wrong with this) I have is when someone is crawling on dry land under 🪵 like they do in military training, the core compresses and expands to reach as much as you can but I am unable to grasp when hip rotation should start and end and what’s its intended purpose is. Any intuition for this?

I’m in verge of giving up on swimming. No matter how much I practice I’m unable to float and land without any support. My body immediately panics the moment i lost the support. Landing is so difficult I’m unable to bend the knees to chest and at the same time to bring my hands down. I’m unable to push my hands down without support

I never thought i had a water phobia until I started to float.I’m trying this since a long time. At this point I have 8 more classes for this month and just wanted to learn at least basic swim.

Rest of the students in class were way more ahead. I think my coach also getting irritated because of me.

Sometimes my mind goes to freeze mode when he asks me to float. I feel like a failure and regret wanting to learn this skill.

Hi everyone!!

I’m 19M, 145Ibs 5’10 and like 17% body fat I assume. My routine is PPL 6 days a week, and I have a bulk up to 185Ibs starting the beginning of August. I really wanna add in Swimming on top of my PPL split. Both for cardio and also for muscle growth. I just want some tips.

Also I used to swim quite a lot when I was younger, so I know and am comfortable with different strokes 🙂‍↕️

Should I swim before or after my workouts?

Between swimming and weight lifting on the same day, how many hours should there be in between to rest?

How many days a week should I swim? Is 5-6 days a week realistic?

Can I swim with my contacts in, as long as I have goggles on top? Or should I just wear goggles and no contacts?

If there’s anything I’m not thinking of please let me know I’d really appreciate it 🙏

Hey guys, ive been training for over a year now, 4-5 one hr sessions a week and ive been stuck around the 62-63 second mark when it comes to 100m freestyle LC. Given that im almost in my 50s, just wanted to hear if there is anyone out there who managed to do it. Or is age catching up to me and that this is just a pipedream. Ta

Hey guys,

I’ve started taking up swimming to help with my surfing fitness on my off days. I typically follow a push pull lower split. Sunday/Saturday I surf all day. Unfortunately this routine combined with work makes it very hard to find time to go swimming. I’m open to dropping back the weightlifting or doing whatever I need to in order to have a decent fitness routine that includes at least 2 days of swimming.

Would like to see what routines other people have. I’d also like to see some anecdotal stuff on people who may have just quit the gym entirely and focused on calisthenics + swimming.

This is the thread for posting your achievements, progress, workouts, records, pools photos, pool etiquette, swimming TIFU (Today I F'ed Up) or AITAH (Am I the A-Hole), etc.

Due to the increasing number of screenshots, progress reports, pools etc. being posted, we request members to use this weekly whiteboard thread to post these, rather than as a new post.

It's intended for pretty much any swimming-related chats, rants etc, as long as they are within the r/swimming rules.

Join in and have fun, have a brag, commiserate, encourage each other, etc!

So I have a small above ground pool that I swim in using basically a bungee cord and belt which surprisingly works a LOT better than I expected, but the biggest problem I’m having is basically how to track my workout since basically I can’t count laps… right now I just have a timer set up and do a 5 minute warm up with a 20 min cycle of 1 min sprints 2 min free swim, and end with a 5+ min cool down and by the end I am usually pretty exhausted but i’d like to use some of these swim workouts from online so does anyone know any good way to convert the distances to time or stroke count or vice versa?

Hi, everybody. Thank you so much for helping me figure out etiquette and responsibility in a situation that happened today. I live in a luxury apartment building. A full gym with pool is one of the amenities. This is not a splashing around outdoor fun pool. This is an indoor pool with marked lanes and membership workout legal waivers, etc. Kids do use it, but in the two months I’ve lived here, I have only seen children use it for taking lessons. Go down there today, which yes, is 4th of July, and all three lanes are overrun with five children I think from the same family. They got out those pool noodle things, they are throwing footballs, they are having fun. They’re taking up all three lanes, so I tell the lifeguard I would like to swim and ask what we need to do, if there was certain area I should go in. The dad says oh, do you need us to consolidate, we can consolidate, then makes zero effort to do so. The lifeguard says just get in and figure it out as you go. I am vision impaired and hearing impaired. Once I put on my cap, I cannot hear ANYTHING. Once I takeoff my glasses, I cannot see ANYTHING.The way I figure out someone else is in my lane is I collide with them. I explained my vision impairment to the lifeguard and told her I need to know where I’m OK to be before I get in the water. She gives me the closest lane. But she didn’t say a word to the children or their father, so of course they kept coming in the lane. Of course they kept throwing their stupid pool noodles at me and hitting me with them. This whole time, I’m terrified that I’m going to whack the fire out of somebody’s kid. So I just quit swimming and left.

How could this situation have been improved? Thanks.

Hey all as title said i need some help im on journey to lose 200lbs. I was 600 but down to around 540 now and doctor told me swimming laps would be best exercise for someone my size and I signed up for a pool to do just that I want to get eventully going 4 or 5 days a week a hour at a time I love to swim. Now my question is how to get ready for this to be successful. Thanks all

I’m 5 weeks out from an 8 mile swim event. I’ve never been a “swimmer” so right now I’m swimming more than I’ve ever swam in my life. I thought I did a good job of the past many months slowly increasing my workouts.

Due to my schedule I swim 3 days in a row, then take 4 days off. Not ideal, but that’s what I have to work with. Waking up every morning for a couple weeks now with a tight back. I’m sure my back is hurting from over use of the muscles and I probably should take multiple weeks off of training to let my back recover. But if I take multiple weeks off of training now I won’t be able to complete the event all the training has been for. Any advice?

TL/DR: back hurts every morning from over use. But I don’t want to stop training.

Hi everyone, I am learning to freestyle lap swim and suffering from some anxiety in the water that I'm hoping others have experienced and overcome.

I notice I first have the urge to breathe about halfway through a 25yd lap. I feel calm up until that point, but once I have to start breathing, things go south. As ridiculous as it sounds, having to think about breathing on top of everything else feels like too much. It makes me feel breathless, gasp-y and panicked, even though I can get enough air. And then when I panic, I instinctively speed up, which I’m sure just makes the breathlessness worse. I think I understand and can anticipate what is happening yet have not been able to work my way around it.

I have a background in freediving and do feel more comfortable holding my breath underwater. The continuous exhale that is recommended feels completely unnatural to me — the sound of the bubbles, the forced feeling — and focusing on that just adds to my anxiety.

I'm reasonably fit and not afraid of water at all! I love being in it and want to spend even more time at the pool, but I feel like this is an obstacle I must clear first. I am going as slow as I can. Has anyone dealt with something like this and worked through it? I would love your thoughts.

I’m back in the pool doing 1on1 lessons.
Have tired a few times over the years but I need to swim 100m in any stroke a dream job, so I’m back in the water trying in my mid 30’s.

First 2 sessions I can’t get my breathing right, I would just get so gassed. So the teacher has suggest we focus on breaststroke but I just sink, h said I’m too tense. I’m not scared of the water I just just tense up and sink.

Starting to wonder if I’ll ever get it to click, anyone else in the adult learn to swim club?

I have recently returned to swimming after a decade following an injury, but I seem to be having difficulty regulating my breathing when swimming on my front or underwater. Could I please have some advice on techniques that can help improve my breathing and make it feel more natural?

I’m trying to float without support but I’m unable to stand up without the support. My legs are not coming to the standing position without holding the wall. I’m getting panic because of this. I really need advice. Is my strength not enough?

I swim 3 times per week in a swimming pool when I’m at home.
For the summer I relocated to the ocean and I swim daily (around 1km). I only swim freestyle. I started noticing painful chafing in the inner side of my arm, just nearby my armpit. It never happened to me before. I guess it’s because of the salty water being more sticky.
Is it common? Is your arm supposed to rub against your armpit enough for it to chafe? Is it a matter of technique?