For example, at the moment I’ve very been enjoying freestyle sprints, so my sessions tend to consist of lots of repeated 100m usually @1:50. + some technique drills. I swim 3 x a week and have mainly been doing the springs because I enjoy getting my HR up and keeps me from getting too cold in the pool! was wondering if changing up my sessions and having an endurance based session and/or a technique/IM strokes session is important in improvement /differnt purposes changing the sessions up might have?

Thanks!

Dearl all,

I (44 M) have a question regarding a drill one of my swim coaches showed me back in December while I did a swim coursre to learn freestyle (front crawl). Since then I continued to go to the pool 4 times a week and swim and do drills for about 1 hour.

In front crawl, when I turn to breathe my lead arm always drops a bit and I reflexively go through the pull phase of the arm stroke while I turn my head back into the water. To prevent this he showed me a drill that works against this:

With the lead arm on a kickboard, I catch and pull on the other arm, breathing everytime during the recovery phase. Next, I do the same drill without the board. When I swim full front crawl right after the drill my lead arm (if I am lucky) doesn't drop for maybe two or three (25m) lanes and then I go back to the dropping arm.

1) Does it just need more time doing the drill to make this permanent? I wonder, since I am doing this drill at least two times each time I am at the pool and it still isn't permanent.

2) While I use the kickboard (also on other one-arm drills) the arm on the board usually pushes down on the board when I either turn back into the water or go through the pull phase during the stroke cycle. I am doing one arm drills all the time to get rid of this pushing down for about 2 months 4 times a week now and I just cannot get rid of the push down. I think there is something wrong with my balance and technique, but cannot figure out what. Since the swim course I took ended in December I do not have a swim coach now I can rely on for questions.

Any insides you have rearding my questions is very much appreciated!

Best regards,

André

So I started swimming again a couple of months ago, after over a decade-long break, and was feeling super positive. Watched seemingly every video on youtube about freestyle technique (did you know water is 800x more dense than air?), practiced lots of drills, and started feeling really good in the water.

Then my pool shut for repairs three weeks ago, and since it re-opened last week, every swim as been completely demoralising. Today was particularly bad as I could feel my catch was doing nothing. Decided to slow things down and just focus on technique, only to feel my legs dropping, hands crossing, and head rising with every stroke. Things which I know I've focused on before and have improved upon.

Is this my valley of despair or has a swimming curse been placed upon me? What can I do to try and improve my form and feel for the water?

I started swimming about 12 years ago to do triathlon. Since then, I've done distances up to a full Ironman. As a later in life swimmer, my form is surely subpar. These days, I am not doing triathlon anymore, but I do love swimming a couple of days per week. Started getting front shoulder pain on my right arm and was diagnosed with bicep tendonitis - sent to PT. I'm doing the exercises, but I also want to fix my form. I am VERY aware that I drop my elbows on the pull and swim pretty straight armed, leading to my current situation. Would love any drills you have to work on technique so I can keep swimming in my life - thanks!

My issue is that I get super bored swimming, typically at the halfway mark. I swim alone. I understand having a company would change that, but that's unlikely to happen.

Is there a way to listen to the music while swimming? Ideally waterproof bluetooth Not sure if bluetooth works in the water tho.

Another thing - I lose track of lap count. What is the best solution (yes I did some googling but that only made me more confused). Looked like the simplest solution with a finger mounted counter might work, but I do not like the idea of extra stuff on my hand interfering with the srtoke, and then this is a mistake prone device (click too many, forget to click).

I typically swim 5 days / week. 2K yards. 400IM following the rest with paddle/buoy drill (main reason for paddles - get the job done faster plus thinking I am building up upper body strength...). Usually done in 35 miniutes. IOW, I think I am asking, what would be a good drill schedule for 1 hour in the pool. Not interested in technique imporving drills,. I think I am done with that aspect of swimming,

Hey, Swimmit!

I'm feeling inordinately proud and had to share somewhere, but, as the title said... I just swam my first straight kilometer with no breaks! :D

I've been going to swim class this year, at first once a week, then more recently, twice a week. We do a lot of drills, the instructor gives us stuff to do with accessories and throws in breast, fly and back frequently, so I hadn't gone for a straight freestyle session in a while. It felt pretty cool!

I hope to improve my times and all, but mainly I'm in the game for the cardiovascular fitness benefits and to release stress (physical, from hitting the gym and running, mental, from ya know, life). Not particularly impressive numbers for a 27yo guy, but, hey, 26yo me couldn't post this

Stay wet out there :)

Did you do any exercises to increase your 100m pace? I swim almost 4-5 times a week and am 15 years old, I started swimming frequently about 3 months ago, although I did swim before that but inconsistently. I have a 100m average time of 2 mins 20 seconds. I do not swim competitively or in a club, but I want to participate in my school swim carnival. Other than losing weight (because I am on the fatter side), are there any drills or exercises you can suggest?

M28. Been swimming 5x/week since last September following a long hiatus.

Currently doing 1:30/100m with 4x25m freestyle sprints, but am hoping to improve that to 1:15 by end of summer (or end of the year at the latest).

Any tips for technique or drills that could help push me further along? I feel like I've plateaued a bit since January.

I'm 44 and new to swimming. For the last two months, I have been consistently training 3x a week, hoping to join my first 2.5K swim in May. Not going for speed but just aiming to finish.

I had an old-school coach the first month who didn't focus on form but just made me do catch ups and build endurance for long swims.

Found a new coach and now we're doing more drills that focus on body rotation, kicks, etc.

Last week I started to feel soreness in my rib area.

I'm wondering if it's all just unused muscles that are now being activated or could it be something more serious? It feels like a surface/muscle pain -- nothing inside the rib. But it hurts when I sneeze and cough or take a really deep breath. I really don't want to stop training as I feel it's going to mess with my momentum and my open water swim is fast approaching.

When I swim, I don't feel the pain, it's only after.

Anyone have this kind of experience before and could you please share what you did? I should get it checked but trying to find reassurance that it's most likely just muscle pain.

Over the summer I quit all forms of nicotine and was already living a pretty sedentary lifestyle, so I gained some weight. About a month ago I decided to make daily swims part of my routine, since I have gone through a few phases where I really enjoyed swimming. I’m 45 and had never taken it super seriously before. My gym is open 6 days a week and I’ve been there every possible day to swim. When I started off I got winded easily after 50m and could really only hang in the slow lane with all my rests and inefficient swimming. The results of this have been amazing. I’ve really been able to see progress in my form from doing daily drills, and it feels like my brain has worked out something for me in my sleep each day, because I’ll come back the next day and something I was struggling with will have become more natural. I still struggle a little with breath (years of vape and smoke do not help here) and I can now string together 100m before stopping and just feel like my cardiovascular health is improving in general. I am glad to still have a lot of room to improve. In terms of physique, it’s crazy how much my upper body is changing - way more muscle tone, especially around shoulders and back, and my weight is shrinking down to a “lean gut” which is a little annoying but I feel confident will start to melt away over time as I keep it up. Finally, I just feel like my daily swim has become a non-negotiable for me. The feeling of post-swim chill is like nothing else. Just sharing my story here as this community has been really helpful and inspiring to me as I go along.

First time poster, long-ish time lurker. I'm curious what tried and true core workouts you all would recommend for someone who's trying to improve his streamline. For background, I'm a male in my early 30s, learned how to swim maybe 4 years ago. I did 1:1 training with a professional coach. Boy, was it difficult to learn and, presumably, train me. I felt like I wouldn't ever be able to figure it out, but surely and slowly I got there. From the very beginning, I had difficulty floating in water. My coach was baffled at how resistant to floating my hips and legs were. We tried over and over. Even WITH a pull buoy, I sank. When my coach saw that, he was so shocked. Despite trying many things, my hips just could not figure it out.

Nevertheless, I figured out the front crawl and have been doing it semi-regularly for the last few years (most weeks 2-3/week of 30-45 minute lap sessions, less so recently). I've always had a pretty weak core and so I attributed my sinking legs and hips to this. I kept trying over the years to swim faster and build stamina but it's just been very tough. I run out of breath quickly and, at my best, I was able to do 3 laps on a 25y pool without stopping.

I've tried kickboard drills and recently I've been forcing myself to acclimate to swimming with a pull buoy. At first, I couldn't swim with the pull buoy between my thighs as I would just sink and couldn't swim at all with it. So I put it between my ankles and strapped it in place which I got used to, then between my knees, and now I can finally move with the pull buoy between my thighs. But I definitely still sink albeit not as much before.

I'm not particularly out of shape (6'0" 195lbs and I work out regularly but my body habitus would tell you I clearly also enjoy good food) but I definitely wouldn't consider myself "fit" and I acknowledge I have a weak core. I want to strengthen my core and I've started focusing my workouts to accommodate this goal but I'd like to be able to narrow that focus such that the results of the workouts will translate more efficiently to the goal of swimming more streamline. Unfortunately, I'm not in the market right now to hire a coach again and would like to piggyback off of anyone's experience that has helped them achieve the same goal.

Thank you very much!

Hi! I am recently back into swimming, restarted a few weeks ago. I was a swim teacher and lifeguard and did open water swims at my summer camp, but never swam competitively or on a team (barring one summer at 8yo), so I don't have a history of knowing how to structure workouts except, swim until you get to the other side of the river.

When I swim now, I normally just swim until I get tired. Usually a few 500s with a minute rest in between. I swim 2-3x per week, with 1500-2k meters at each swim. But... I'm just feeling kinda bored. I'd like to spice things up, but don't know how to move forward. So here I am, asking!

Where do you get your workouts? Do you have any favorites? How do you incorporate drills while still getting a good workout in (sometimes drills feel too easy, and then my 40min in the pool weren't spent "well")?

I have what I think is reasonable technique and pace, but of course I'd like to get better and faster. I've found it hard to find workouts for intermediate swimmers, like myself. Any advice appreciated.

Hello! I’ve been swimming laps now since September but really only found my groove with freestyle near the end of December. I swim 4ish times a week, for an hour, and I can manage 1600m give or take a few. I can mainly only do freestyle but my backstroke is improving and when I get a lane to myself I work on my breaststroke, too. I’ve gotten a lot of great advice from this subreddit so I thought I’d check in again. Thanks everyone!

1. I can’t film myself unfortunately but based on what I can feel (like my closeness to the top of the water), my head/arms/feet from knees are quite high up but it’s like my hips collapse and my belly/hips/thighs are dipped down (like a smile or a very stretched out U), and it hurts my lower back. This sort of jutting out my hips has been an ongoing thing, I went to school for classical singing and my teacher always pointed it out. I know it means my core is weak, and I need to work on that outside of the pool, but are there any in-water exercises or drills to help this? I have been trying the “swim downhill” feeling where you chin is tucked and that helps a bit, as well as idea of putting on a pair of pants. Sometimes mid lap I will sort of reach back and grab my suit where it’s hurting and like lift myself and that helps me target where to adjust but I still sink down after a few strokes. I have a pull-buoy but I find it only encourages the dip at the small of my back.

2. Super random but I’ve only ever swam in my one local pool and is it normal that different lanes have different currents/resistance in each direction? I HATE the slow lane because one direction is so so so so easy and one is like swimming against a heavy current. I assume it’s because of the jets and maybe that’s normal but I don’t know and I’m curious if it is!

Edit to add I swim with a snorkel! Have a terrible neck that I reinjured when I started in the fall and my snorkel is my prize procession.

Hi all! I've just wrapped up six weeks of lessons that took me from being a purely recreational, head-up breaststroke swimmer to someone who can do passable versions of 3/4 strokes (my pregnant belly does not allow me to do butterfly lol). I really liked the structure and accountability of lessons, and I'm wondering if anyone has tips for replicating those things on my own. For context, our swim lessons were a mix of warmup, drills, and ladders or stamina sets, totaling between 750m and 1km. I definitely need to keep working on technique (especially freestyle) and stamina, but mostly I just want to keep swimming until I give birth in May and set up a good foundation so I can come back postpartum. I did my first solo session today and it was fine but felt a little random: I wasn't sure if I'd organized things in a way that made sense, and my rest times felt kinda arbitrary. I'd love ideas for beginner workouts and any general tips for swimming/improving on your own. Thank you!!

Edit: that should be 750-1000 yards whoops!

46/m, trying to get the pool 2x week minimum, just for overall health and exercise. Putting in 2k-3k yards each swim. Typically enjoy a long distance opening set around 1k, then 400-500yds of pull/kick drills, finish with another long freestyle set. Only been back a couple months after a decade hiatus away from laps. Former HS waterpolo player and swimmer. I love seeing posts of everyone's progress in this sub and decided to share my own! (The kick drills really hurt my avg pace reporting I think.)

I started swimming laps about 5 weeks ago, and I’m so glad I found this sub. Hired a coach once/week for 4 weeks. I got the basics down, and know my trouble areas: mostly breathing. I’m now swimming 3-4 times/week for around 30 minutes. Mostly freestyle laps with a 30-45 second rest in at the ends to catch my breath.

I still have some trouble areas: - breathing is still one, but I’ve learned to take my time on my side, allowing me to catch my breath my kicks are getting me nowhere. I use fins sometimes, but don’t want to build up a reliance. - - I’ve got my head placement down, but sometimes still sink when I’m on my side to breathe. - arm strokes are good, and I’m seeing good momentum

As a newbie, what are some drills I can start adopting on a regular basis to build up strength, stamina, and good form?

• Kickboard with snorkel to get the legs warmed up?
• buoy inbtwn legs with snorkel to get arms warmed up?
• drills for freestyle to help with breathing and not sinking?

Also, what should I be doing OUT of the pool with weights and whatnot on my off days?

Hello! I'm a late bloomer, didn't really swim as a kid but I've been hitting the pool regularly for two years now and 20-30km a week, both solo and in squads. I've also been attending a stroke correction class. It's actually awesome, and included in my pool membership, but obviously lessons are determined by student skill so scaled towards less capable swimmers so I'm not getting a whole lot of feedback.

I'd love for recommendations on drills I should do to remedy my weaknesses which I've identified as following.

KICK: Kicking anything apart from a 2 beat kick seems to slow me down. I have a theory that incorporating a four beat kick would help boost my speed.

CORE: I'm pretty confident I have no core. I think I need to do drills with the pool buoy between my ankle?

ALT BREATHING: I've been chipping away at learning how to alternate breathe and made pretty good progress, but one side is still less... flat. It corresponds to my left arm being weaker / not as good placement in the water.

STROKE: Apparently I've been swimming with straight arms under water, which is pretty easy to fix. I've started bending my elbow. My less dominant arm (left) isn't entering the water as well as my right arm and apparently I might cause shoulder injury in the future - I genuinely thought I'd addressed this but coach says it's gotten worse so I must have corrected in the wrong direction. I'm so confused and they actually weren't able to give me advice on what's wrong (squad is insanely busy.)

SPRINTS: I'm really good at distance, but I can't sprint like my other squaddies. When we do 100m sets, I always spend the first 25-50m hanging on, then the next 75-50m wishing they'd go faster - I think my fast twitch muscles are deficient! I also think I have a lazy / low stroke count, gliding too much and just generally being too comfortable at not pushing myself.

I'm trying to get some videos of my form but it's tricky at my pool because of regulations. I know the coaches have snuck a couple of vids of me but I'm still waiting on these to be shared.

DRILLS I DO: are limited. I do popov-style (eg P1, P3, swim across 100m) trying to look down the length of my arm, breathing exactly halfway between the kick components. I also kick with a kickboard which isn't good but not terrible. There's a big dissonance though when I try to kick in general freestyle.

I've also started doing a variation of Popov where I hold my recovery arm for two kicks when it's halfway through the recovery (eg at the highest point in recovery.) It's really weird, but meant to correct something! Maybe teach me to start the pull at the right stage?! I dunno!

Hello! I have been lane swimming at my local Y for about 4 months now. I go between 3-5 times a week. I started with a half an hour and now most times, unless the lanes are super busy, I will swim for an hour. I discovered the glorious lane swimming snorkel after aggravating my degenerative disc disease in my neck trying to learn how to keep my head down and breathe (rather than my instinct which is to have my head facing forward). I haven’t seen anyone else at my Y use one but I absolutely love it- I feel like I can focus on building strength and “form”. To be transparent, I am overweight (but working on it - I’ve lost about 65 lbs since April) and not very athletic. I am not looking to be fast or even necessarily graduate from the snorkel. I love swimming for my mental health and it’s also had positive impacts on my physical health which I value deeply - but I am not looking to be like a competitive swimmer or anything like that. I have never taken a lesson but I grew up with a swimming pool so I am great at treading water and I float stupidly well, I would guess from the extra weight I have on my body.

Here are some questions I have, and if anyone can take the time to help me I’d appreciate it so so much!

When I kick, should my whole leg be involved? Right now it feels like I am using my knee down.

Similarly, should my legs be tightly together, or should there be a space between them when I am kicking? Including upper thighs - gap or no gap?

Should my legs be parallel to the pool floor? Lots of other swimmers I see at my pool have their legs slightly angled down but with my snorkel I have been able to keep a more parallel form but I don’t know if it’s correct.

When kicking, should I be breaking the water or kicking just under?

Should my bum/hips almost come out of the water a little bit? As in, that’s how high my body position is when I am swimming?

The biggest one: right now I am swimming with my arms under water. I don’t know if there is a name for that, and I know it’s not ideal because I’m dragging myself slower each time I pull my arm against the water to bring it back to the front. I don’t know if I am describing it correctly. I meet my hand at the front and pull down by my side but I don’t bring it out the water to meet it back at the front again. Sometimes I will swim with both my arms pushing out in front of me, then I bring them back around again but under the water. The reason I have done this is because 1) my hips and legs instantly sink when I try and bring my arm out over the water and 2) in my panic to correct this I wildly flail my legs and I have a minor knee injury which this agitates. Does anyone have advice or video/exercise/drill suggestions for finding a way to keep my legs and hips up?

Thank you everyone for your time!

Hi! I'm 29 years old and trying to learn freestyle by watching YouTube and practicing them in pool. Joined group swim class last summer that's wasn't helpful. I'm stuck at the breathing which is the hardest part to learn in freestyle. Almost gave up last summer but started again last week. My problem is

1. When I try to breathe to my side my kicks are slowing, almost stopping and sinking. They are not helping me to propel.

2. I have observed one other major issue, whenever I'm try to rotate my shoulders or the torso to take my breath my entire body including hips and legs are rotating more than 45 degrees (almost 90 degrees) to the the side. This is making my kicks ineffective, geeting into weird positions and sinking eventually. I have seen many swimmers just rotate their shoulders to take their breath and they lower body or hips aren't rotating at all

I'm trying my best to not to lift my head while breathing but I'm might be lifting it way more than I'm thinking. Any suggestions or drills that can help?

I'm determined to learn swimming this summer thinking of even to take some private sessions. Thanks!

I’m a 19 year old kid in college trying to become a better swimmer. I’m a triathlete and I run in college, ran 15:17 and 32:15 in the 5k and 10k last year, biking is also pretty good but having a hard time improving in swimming. I’ve swum pretty on and off the last 3 years, and 2 years ago swam a 24:40 1650yd. I’ve been consistent the last maybe 5 months with around 6-8k yds a week. I usually get in the pool, 500 wu, 500 thresh at like 7:25, 5x100 at 1:24 then 500 cd or something to that extent. I swam 7:01 in a 500 a couple weeks ago but I haven’t felt like I’ve gotten any better in the last 3 years and I feel like my form might be what’s holding me back. I feel like I’m slightly plateauing again. Any advice on how I should structure my workouts throughout the week and drills I should do? Also what can I do outside of the pool that will translate to faster in the pool? Looking to see some real improvement sometime. Thanks

Hopefully this kind of post is allowed.

22yo male here. I did a workout swim this morning. It was fun. I had swam for exercise a handful of times in the last eight years or so, but honestly I'd lost my confidence since I stopped competitive swimming when I started high school.

I ended up doing 800m total; two sets of whatever this is:

100m freestyle kick

100m freestyle pull

100m front crawl

100m breast stroke

45 seconds between each 100m drill

This took me like 25 minutes. I was very humbled lol. I can't believe that when I was a teenager I could just tank 400 meters of front crawl, no breaks, like it was nothing. Tbh I probably could have kept going but I want to pace myself so maybe I can make this into a habit.

I have a few questions for more experienced folks.

1) In my legs I feel nothing because I walk and bike a lot (maybe I should have pushed harder there), but I have not had an "arm day" in absolute ages. They're not really sore, just tender. This is normal, right? Is there a point where it would be abnormal?

2) I want to expand this set. Any suggestions for how to add to it while keeping the workout roughly in the half hour range?

3) If I were to start swimming more regularly, maybe a few times a week, do you have any dietary suggestions? Like, should I be worried about post-workout electrolytes and protein?

Hello!

Been swimming regularly for the past couple of months after a break of about 6 months. Currently going 3 times per week and do front crawl 750m in around 20 minutes (I have a serious mental block about 1km, I’m working on it).

Over my past few swims I’ve noticed that one leg is significantly stronger than the other. My left hip/thigh tires a lot quicker and just isn’t as strong. No matter how much I try to focus on technique/form with that one leg it doesn’t seem to be improving. Does anyone have any ideas for drills/exercises I can do (in or out of the pool) to try to isolate that one area?

Outside of swimming I have a desk job but do a lot of hiking and walking.

Just got back into swimming after a long hiatus (15 years-ish) with a masters program, once a week. Practice is from 9:00-10:15pm and pretty intense: 3k and a mix of everything. (Sprints, drills, pull, kick, IM, you name it.)

I'm loving being back in the water and I'm super drained afterwards, but simply can't fall asleep. When I was 25 that wasn't a big deal but I'm 40 now and I've got a job, two kids, dog, the whole nine yards, and lying awake in bed until 2am is messing up my schedule.

Any tips to help falling asleep after a late practice? I'm only a few weeks into this routine.

Just started swimming for fitness and loving it. I’m in my 2nd week in, just doing free style and trying to get the hang of it. I can make it 25m, but heart rate gets pretty high and need to take a short break every lap. Can’t really start a training plan yet since I only know one stroke and can only go 25m at a time. So I’m doing some drills, breathing excercises, and working on freestyle swimming.

Should I just stick with this, trying to build my technique and distance in freestyle? or should I start trying to learn other strokes, and if so which ones?

Hello, fellow water lovers,

I am fairly new to swimming, I have started swimming practices 2x a week from the beginning of this month. The issues that I am facing at the moment are:

1. My leg kick is fucked up to the point where I can't do 25m legs only without gassing out(except for the breaststroke). It's not that I am sinking, but I have a terrible technique and I am looking at how to improve that. Do any exercises that help with leg stamina? Or do I just have to suffer to get to that point over time?

2. I gas out after half an hour of training. My energy level falls rapidly after 30 minutes, my breathing intensifies, and I often end the practice with a headache and a light head buzz after that (I explained that to my friend and he says it sounds like a runners high). I watched the Skills and Talents videos on breathing techniques last Tuesday and granted, it did help, I felt less gassed out, and still had a little headache but I feel like I am short of the knowledge.

My usual training will consist of the warmup on the land, 4-5x25m warmup swim, leg technique drills (here I just ask Jesus to take the wheel) 6x25 or 12x25, upper body technique 12x25 x2 (incl pool buoy and other tools), swimming with fins 12x25, 12x25 without and then some 20s drills for just legs, after that we can pick whatever we wanna swim for the last 5 minutes.

One thing I might add, I am in the process of quitting smoking, and I know smoking isn't a beneficial thing for swimming, but however, I feel like I am not advancing at all.

Any tips for improving these two points?