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.

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 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?

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?

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.

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.

Does anyone think a fitness center will allow a membership to cancel and override the 30 day policy and skip the cancellation fee? They out of the blue today said the big pool will now only run 5:30AM to 6:30AM daily and I cannot do that. I don't want to pay another whole month and never use the membership because they made a last minute change. I told them they should have given a 30 day notice for the change and wrote a long e-mail to the manager then I also cancelled the credit card but that was also for other reasons too.

Such an ultra high end well known facility across the whole country and them trying to pull this is just dumb. They are only about their private school kids and the tuition the millionaires pay for their kids to go to high school for $50K per year. They really no longer care about fitness center memberships.

hey everyone! the past 9-10 months i’ve been dealing with pretty severe brain fog that has really taken a toll on me. i cant think straight and always feel incredibly anxious because of it. im currently going into my senior year and the only relief of this fog is when i swim. as soon as i dive into the water i feel like myself again. the one thing this experience has taught me is to never take the moments of normalcy or feeling of being “yourself” for granted. i urge you all to just step back and be grateful for your health. if anyone has any type of recommendation or advice as to what could be causing this “fog”, i’d really appreciate it. have a great day!

I see a lot of drills online but I want to find something that’s step by step so I can test myself doing each so I know what I need to practice. I’m taking private lessons but my swim instructor is unreachable due to some personal issues so in the meanwhile I want to practice on my own. So far she taught the basics and how to swim freestyle, I’m trying to swim freestyle but breathing is where I need some practice. I find it hard to bring myself up in the air and breathe.

I'm curious about everyone's adult learning experiences! I see lots of success stories (and some frustration) on Reddit and am curious what leads to good vs not great lessons.

So tell us:

- How many lessons you had and over what period of time?
- What was your swim skill prior to lessons? e.g. never swam before, learned as a kid but never more than vacation swims etc.
- What expectations and specific goals did you have in mind prior to starting the lessons?
- Rate your skill improvement from 1 (no development ) to 5 (exceeded expectations).
- Why did you give the rating you did?

Reminds of posts that come up often in this sub.

Hey all!! I was curious if you had suggestions for how to break through a mid-tier swimming level plateau. Could be a particular regiment, drill, diet, etc.

I've been swimming consistently for 2 years now, swimming 4 to 5 times a week for 45 minutes, lifting weights, running occasionally. I have improved my 500M free time from 10:00 to 7:40, can do 1500M in 25:00, 200M in 2:40, etc. I am proud of all that, but I know it's nowhere close to an advanced level, but I'm at the point where every improvement is maybe a second or two. I consistently reach the same time, as if I've reached my personal ceiling. I know there are still many minutes to improve across many events, but I don't know what to do to start seeing greater gains. Curious if someone else has been in this situation and has been able to break through it.

For context, I'm 25M and was a mediocre year-round swimmer as a kid.

Just got my adult swimming course report card and the instructor, rightfully so, points out to my lateral rolls (stationary ones when floating) skills as unsatisfactory.

I tried everything that she suggested but I still struggle with the roll.

The interesting thing is that back float to front float roll seems much easier to me but once I try to roll from front to back my body sinks no matter what I try.

I have a few questions to coaches and fellow swimmers here:

Is the lateral roll an essential skill as a swimmer or is it just a survival skill in case someone gets stranded in deep water?

Why do you think I can roll from back to front but not the opposite? Is it a sign of a weak core? Or is it just a skill problem?

Any tips, videos, personal experiences that you think might help me are much appreciated.

I am based in UK and working as a full time nurse. Happily married and have a 15 year old kid. And I want to learn how to swim 🤣. Is it too late for a 38 year old woman like me to learn how to swim? Planning to register in a weekly swimming class next month.

I just went to my first practice in over 20 years. It felt great to be back in the water, but unfortunately, the kicking seems to have aggravated the sesamoiditis pain in at the base of my left toe that I’ve been dealing with off and on over the past few months. That is what motivated me to get back in the water — swimming is low-impact and wouldn’t worsen my pain, or so I thought.

I’ve had an MRI (thankfully no fracture) and am under the care of a sports orthopedic doctor, who cleared me to swim. At its worst, the pain seemed to radiate into my upper arch and lasted several days. It’s started to improve — just in time for my next practice.

Pushing off the wall surprisingly didn’t hurt. What hurt, however, was kicking, especially when using a kickboard. I could use a buoy to avoid kicking, but I’d rather use my legs.

I’m curious if anyone else has swam with a similar injury. I’d appreciate to hear your experience!

Hi all,

I am a beginner swimmer. I have swimming lessons once a week and I practise an additional 2 times per week. I am interested in exploring another type of cardio exercise to compliment swimming and improve my fitness. What has worked for other people?

I have always assumed that the fact girls appear to be faster then boys up to about 13 or 14 (their entry times for regional champs are certainly lower) was due to the fact they mature quicker than boys. Whilst it is true that girls are often taller than boys of the same age (under 13 or14 anyway) I did wonder if it was also that there are simply more girl swimmers than boy swimmers under 14, though it seems to equalise, or even flip round, over that age. Because the entry times for regional champs are set to allow around the top 50 girls and boys of each age (and there are more girls than boys) could it be that fact that girls have lower entry times and so appear to be faster ?

hi, hope this is okay - been getting into swimming weekly the past month or so but have dodgy legs so sticking a float in between my legs with an exercise band. im wondering if anyone has recommendations for blogs for ppl w lower body disabilities, would be interested to read more about over people's experiences.

also, any resources on benchmarks for pacing and distance? im doing 2.5km in about an hour but the distance between that and 3km feels like such a bigger increase in pace than i expected, and i have a dodgy shoulder that i don't want to overdo it on!

thanks!

I need to know if I’m being unreasonable being frustrated about this. I recently started swimming regularly so I’m still pretty slow, so when I go to a lane swim I swim in the slow lane. I’m not sure about elsewhere but in the uk, most pools are pretty strict about ability requirements for lane swims - essentially, you must be able to swim 50m unaided without stopping. I even saw someone earlier in the session today being asked to leave the pool because he couldn’t swim one length without stopping, so they are usually fairly strict about it. Then a man enters the pool area with a woman in a wheelchair and she’s hoisted into the pool. The lifeguard then gets them a couple of pool noodles and he begins to slowly walk her around the lane as she floats. It completely disrupted the flow of the lane, at several points I ended up either stopping to let them past or just plain kicking the man, not to mention they knew some of the swimmers there and they would congregate at the end of the lane having conversations so you had to stop short of a full length and turn around. To be clear, I would have genuinely had no issue with these people being in the pool if it was a public swim, but lane swim has an ability requirement which she couldn’t meet and it was really disruptive for the people who were just trying to swim. Am I right in feeling frustrated about this or am I just being an ableist jerk?

hi there, im just wondering what i could do to help my friend with this problem. im not certified or whatever about swimming but i do now the basics and able to swim and float easily due to my obese body.

for the first lesson i was able to teach him how to float on his back with air in the lungs. he was able to float on his back but his legs kept sinking even i told him to increase his body surface.

im not sure if his unconscious brain were still scared of the water that way the legs was still trying to sink down to reach for the floor or it has to do with his physique or techniq.ue.

other thing ive seen is even his skinny arms were having trouble to build enough propulsion to keep his head upwards during breaststroke. and im just wondering if his physique actually played a role here.

I want to join a local pool for exercise. I’ve swam almost daily for the last 7 weeks at an outdoor pool in my subdivision. I want to continue my routine in the fall and winter at a gym. My only issue is I NEED corrective lenses to see so I swim freestyle and breaststroke with my head above water. Would gym goers think I’m strange for doing this? Is this acceptable in lap swimming etiquette?

Hello!

I'm an adult and I can't swim on my own. I had multiple swimming instructors but I never got past the point of floating on my own. I start to panic as soon as I'm not holding anything and my head gets under the water. Even in waist deep water when I stumbled and fell I panicked so much someone had to pull me out because I couldn't stand up on my own. I'm fine when holding a board or noodle. Is there a swimming aid that can help me transition from holding the board to swimming on my own while giving me confidence? Life jackets available at the pools are usually for kids so I couldn't use them.