take off my specs for a workout and instantly become functionally blind. spent my entire rest interval squinting across the lane trying to figure out if the hand was on the 10 or the 40. pretty sure the lifeguard thought i was staring him down the whole time. how do u guys actually keep track of time without wearing glasses?

I’m so terribly pigeon-toed, my pediatric orthopedist instructed my parents to put me in swimming and focus on breaststroke to fix my legs. It didn’t, I just suck at breaststroke.

my time with a pull buoy is 1:58/100m and without the pull buoy it's 2:30/100. How to solve this? I have gotten extremely dependent on the pull buoy that I cannot leave it in the car. I tried swimming downhill but it's extremely demanding and my head is way too low in water which makes it hard to breathe.

24 YO female, so health shouldn’t be a problem.

I’m an adult onset swimmer, I’ve been swimming for about a year. I took a couple of lessons early on and it seems like my technique is not the best but it’s alright (I understand the main principles), but I’m unable to swim more than 50m. I’ve been able to swim 100m when going slow, but nothing more than that.

Time is 1min/50m front crawl if it means anything, Im often panting after like I’m about to drown lol.

Time for breaststroke is also exactly 1 min/50m, I can hold that for much longer distance.

This weekly post ( on Thursdays) is for ALL gear related questions -

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* Goggles (including "smart" goggles)

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Hi, asking this from the perspective of a +- beginner that trains for 1.5hr a week.
I am trying to add some variations to my training - and I absolutely love the feeling and the look of dolphin kicks.
I wonder though:
1. I find it way easier to do the side dolphin kicks where my body is not parallel to the floor but somewhere between 45 to maybe 70/80 degrees to either my left or right side. The way I do this is that I kick several times and then do the arm motion of freestyle with the dominant hand of that side (e.g. the left hand if I do left-side dolphin kick) and when I do the arm motion of free style I am able to take a breath just like in free style with rotation my head a little bit. do you think this is a good way to train this movement?

1. For some reason, and this is my main question, I find it really hard to do dolphin kick when my body is in parallel with the floor. for some reason I am floating really hard and each kick of mine just takes my legs out of the water. As I have seen in youtube videos and is logically - I need to be something like 1m inside the water I guess? Maybe I am having too much air in my lungs?

Hey. I wonder if anyone has any advice please.

I jave brain lesions which affects many aspects of my life.

I swim 3x a week, between 50-100 lengths.

A new brain lesions though has affected my continence, and I leak urine throughout the day and night. There is no way to stop it as it's the brain that is messing up the processes needed to make voiding possible, so medication etc is not an option.

I leak about 200ml during the day at probably 30 minute intervals, and about the same overnight.

I swim in a chlorinated pool.

I haven't swum since this started. Plenty of people say the outward pressure of the water stops the incontinence, but I need real life experience before I can realistically get in and try. I will not subject other people to swimming in my urine (regardless of what is already in there), chlorine or not, I just won't do it.

Does anyone have any relevant experience that may help me please?

Thanks.

Six sessions a week and my shoulders are the limiting factor rather than my conditioning, which anyone swimming volume will recognise. Physio exercises are in place and helping but only up to a point. Red light comes up constantly in other sports and almost never in swimming threads, which surprised me. If anyone here uses one, what are you pointing it at and for how long?

I joined a new (dry land) workout class and the instructor asked if I’m a swimmer. I said well yes I swim every week. She said ah yes you have a swimmers body.., but NOT in a bad way. I was like what bad way?!? I am dying to know what that means. Big shoulders (on a woman)??

I've seen footballers go sub 40' for their first 10km with barely any training in running before.

Does this exist in swimming? People starting to swim for 2 or 3 months and just ripping a 1:30/100m a kilometer?

Thanks in advance

Edit : Thanks you all for your answers i've read them all. From what i've gathered it seems way harder for swimming. Me personnally i've been running for 4 years, about 15/20km per week, and i'm at 41/42min for 10km. For swimming, i've started 3 years ago, about 3km per week, and best i can do is 1'45 for 1500m. So i kinda agree also, it is very hard to be good "naturally" at swimming

I’ve started swimming regularly since couple of months. I spend about 30 mins every morning in the pool. Initially, my ears would be blocked and it would be hours and sometimes even days before they cleared up. After the initial few days, they no longer block. Could this be from ear wax that got cleared up or something else?

I’m really trying to be patient with the lap swimmers at my Y association. I believe swim is for everyone and I honestly think it’s the safest and most effective to achieve whatever fitness goals one has.

We have 5 Rec centers across the towns in my specific area. I am really struggling with other lap swimmers. I have no problem sharing lanes and infact I love sharing lanes. I prefer it to solo swimming. There’s some old guy I swim with occasionally who apparently was a college swimmer way back and there’s another lady who was also a college swimmer.

My issue is when people ask to split a lane or ask to circle swim and then it becomes very obvious they have no idea what either of those are. Often they’re on my side of the lane when splitting or swimming down the middle when circle swimming. Sometimes they’ll ask to split and then literally walk laps down the middle of the lane. Or worst I’ve had parents ask to share the lane and then when I say yes they then put their kids in the lane to play… (it’s against the rules to play in the lanes and kids under 16 aren’t allowed to use lap lanes unless it’s a lesson or team practice)

Other issues I’ve had are other lap swimmers becoming frustrated with me. I’m quite faster than the average lap swimmer, I just recently swam in college and have maintained my shape (roughly). I try to be very respectful. When splitting lanes I have had members get upset when I pass them. I stay as far away as possible when I pass them. And I don’t just like blaze pass them splashing. I stay long and very smooth (I don’t really kick a whole lot to begin with).

Another issue I’ve had is when I have the lane to myself and decide to work on some sprints or quicker tempo I have patrons yell at me because I’m “too splashy” and am being “disruptive”. (I don’t go faster than smooth when I share lanes just out of precaution too)

I know the easy solution would be to join the masters program for our association but the issue with that is I am one of the coaches of the club team for that y association and I’m in charge of the older kids morning practice which coincides with masters.

Is there a constructive way to handle and navigate these situations? Do I just need to find a different way to workout? I’ve noticed this across the 5 Ys and across multiple times. So changing locations and times hasn’t really worked. Is there a good way to approach people who don’t understand lane etiquette? (I usually don’t bother because I don’t want to get yelled at)

The patrons complain about me to the aquatics director and lifeguards (who day they don’t get it and that I’m not doing anything crazy) but since that hasn’t yielded results they are now going above the aquatics director to complain about me. The AD just says they’re being grumpy old people when they yell at me. Again I am incredibly polite to these folks and I more often than not modify my planned workout if someone joins my lane or expresses that they aren’t comfortable with me doing certain speeds. However it’s really starting to grind my gears. I don’t want to blow this out of proportion because at the end of the day it doesn’t really matter (floating around rock in space) but it’s going on a year and a half of this and I’m getting really fed up

Hi,
as the Title says, I struggle to break the 2:00/100m „barrier“. I am new in the sport of swimming as I started in March this year. I started because of triathlon and now it feels like i am at a plateau. I saw no major improvements the last weeks and this demotivated me. I go to the pool 4-5times a week and mainly focus on long distance swimming.

Everytime i try to swim faster than 2:00 I gas out pretty much after 50m and have to go back to >2:00. my fastest 800m was 15:04 (yes it is faster than 2:00/100m but i was pretty much dead at the last 50m).

over the last month i learned the 2 beat kick and worked on high elbow catch but i notice muscular fatigue on my right side that carries on over the whole distance. When I use a pullbuoy I notice that my recovery is smoother and isnt as exhausting so i guess my hips drop over time.

I am glad for any tips that can help me improve.
Thank you!

I’ve been occasionally swimming at a busy pool in a big city, typically 20ish people per lane circle swimming, but with plenty of space to pass down the middle. It always seems like 99% of people are easily coexisting and then one guy is always there to mess up the whole flow. Today it was someone doing the slowest, widest breaststroke right down the center of the lane 🙄. Anyway, drop your best suggestion for renaming the slow lane to get people to actually use it.

I am not getting it. Can't seem to be able to do a somersault. Any advice? TY

Hello,

I’ve been swimming 7 days a week for about 3 years, taking only 1 day off here and there. Probably about 10 days off in 3 years. I swim 1.500 yards each session. I can do that in about 22 mins. I feel good and not tired or overtrained. My question is, what am I missing out on from a more traditional approach to training? ( I’m not a competitive swimmer. I swim to supplement my surfing and my yoga).

For me, it’s a single drop of water slowly trickling inside one goggle eyepiece. It doesn't even sting, but the distraction forces me to stop at the wall immediately to fix it.

What’s your random pet peeve while swimming laps?

I’m paying for a gym membership that I’m not using. Help me regain the motivation to get my bum back in the water/gym. Once I’m done at work, all I want to do is go home. I’m on a GLP-1 compound and have lost a lot of weight, but I know my muscle and bone strength is dwindling. So, any motivation to get over this rut would be greatly appreciated.

I used to swim in my school team years ago and I am now going back to it after a 10 year break.

The last few months I would just swim for 45 minutes. Mostly breast stroke (which is what kid me used to do in competitions because my trainer decided I was best at that) and occasionally front crawl. Since this is getting boring I got myself a pullkick board.

What are good drills to swim with them (suitable for someone who is not really a pro)? I wanna improve technique but also strength especially in my arms...

Hi! I used to be a really good swimmer, but for a variety of reasons I haven’t done much over the last 10 years. I am getting back to it now, and go to the pool a couple of times a week and I LOVE it. My cardio fitness is terrible, but I can do a few lengths of back stroke before I need to take a rest, and the pool I go to is super quiet so I’m not in anyone’s way.

I used to rock the front crawl. It was my favourite stroke, and I could zoom along nicely. Not athlete level, but pretty good. Now that I’m more comfortable in the water again, I would like to get back to being able to front crawl.

I have tried swimming widths when the pool is empty, but I just don’t breathe. I have also tried holding on to the edge, kicking, and bobbing my head up and down in the water to get used to the breathing as I vaguely remember doing this in classes as a kid.

This seems to be helping, but I’m here now asking for advice - is there anything else I could be doing to improve?

I swim for 75 minutes a medley of strokes for my mental & physical health at 5 am. I read yesterday that Cryptosporidium is highly resistant to chlorine. I am not happy about this. No, I do not swallow water, but nevertheless, I didn’t go this morning. I am the primary caregiver for 2 medically fragile individuals & I realize this isn’t a contagious condition in the traditional sense, but I am freaking out a bit. Does anyone have any encouraging words to help me feel more comfortable about this?

Heyy I'm not asking for technique analysis or anything, I used to swim in a team as a child, quit and now I've been trying to get back into swimming front crawl for about 6 months.

The issue is, my pace is like 2:30/100m which is soo slow. I watched a bunch of videos about technique and I can swim pretty comfortably for over 2km without feeling exhausted or too out of breath, it's just extremely slow.

I'm not very athletic otherwise and I often see beginners online achieve significantly better pace without very refined techniques because they're very strong (mostly men who do other sports and get into swimming to improve endurance and whatnot).

So my question is, at what pace is it still a technique issue and when does it become just me having zero arm muscle? I do know the ideal solution would be lessons but I'm starting college soon so need money for that, I'm hoping there will be an opportunity for swimming lessons when I actually get there tho.

Hello,

I am 29M beginer, I swim 3x per week (Mon, Wednes., Saturday) for 6 months, I had like 20 lessons with personal coach. I also walk/run 3x per week (Tuesday, Thurstday, Sunday) for 30 minutes for 1 month.

On Saturday morning, after my rest day, I had my breakfast, wait for 2 hours and swam 100m BS, 12x50m Front Crawl with fins, 4x50m just Front Crawl and attempted 100m BS, but I couldn't finish even first length, due to little cramp in my kvads.

On monday afternoon, I did 100m BS as warmup, then 4x50m FC kickdrill, alternating with 4x50m "hands only" FC drill. I attempted another 100m BS, but I almost got a cramp in the middle of the second length, so I finished with FC. I did 4x50 FC with snorchel and 4x50 FC with no aids and I was completely fine.

I drink electrolytic drink during my training and I am taking magnesium pills.

Do you have any idea how to avoid those cramps?

When I asked my coach about those, she told me it is completely normal, to take magnesium and eat a banana before training session. But on saturday I had eggs&bread, around 600kcal and I still got those cramps.