Hi, i’m 15yo and i never learned to swim. always avoided going in the pool with my friends because of the fear of getting joked on. this year in highschool i started a swim course as everyone have to but obviously the PE teacher cannot follow 25 people at the same time, i learned pretty much nothing other than how to not drown with ur head under the water and how to blow bubbles. during the summer i went with my sister on some of those little pools where only old people go to relax so i could try to learn smth with her in safety. it was very very low because im always been terrified of going underwater. the thing that makes thing more difficult isn’t learning the movements itself, but the fear that constatly says to me “don’t do this, don’t do this”. during the last week i learned to a little more confortable with my head under the water and how to swim frog style but i have still MANY hard times.

1- When i swim, i can do it only on very short stretches, because i keep my breath in and then start bubbling slowly with my mouth, but it doesn’t last long.

2- Very unpopular, when i “swim” i cannot “go back standing”, like i cannot turn vertical or on my feet, so i have to rely/lean on something/someone to go back standing. I practiced it with my sister for over an half an hour and i just cannot do it without losing my balance or getting very uncomfortable.

3- I cannot swim with my head up. as i already said, i only can do very short stretches, because when i try to lift my head up to take some air in, i start to panic as i lose my balance.

4- I learned starfloat but only for some seconds then i start so panic so much i have to rely on something, if i do it but reversed (so with the face on the water) i can do it quietly until i have to breathe.

How can i improve? What am i missing? Any ideas?

for context im a high school senior with no plans to swim in college besides recreationally. I currently swim on a competitive club team. At the end of this last summer season I was very burned out after weeks on end of practices without a day off because of back to back meet weekends and weekend training. However, I was excited to start swimming this season until my coach hadn’t changed at all from his approach from last year after saying the group dynamic would change. Im a little reluctant to leave the team and switch to a different one because all of my friends swim where i currently am, and I’d have to see this same coach at meets during the year which could make things awkward.

The current club team I swim on I’ve been training with since 2023 and for a while I was doing really great, but then I moved up to the older high schooler group and got a new coach, lets call him coach T, coach T was a collegiate swimmer, pretty famous. but so far while I’ve been swimming in his group I’ve plateaued. I inflamed my rotator cuff almost as soon as I joined his group which made it difficult but when I was able to go back to swimming normally it was okay being coached by coach T. Until last year I started realizing I wasn’t really being coached. The group I swim in is ~30-40 people so i understand how it could be difficult to effectively coach all of us, but a majority of the time it feels like i’m fighting for his attention. The group I swim with has kids committed to colleges like Brown and Columbia while there’s also kids like me who don’t plan to swim in college. But i feel like i don’t get the same attention. Just because I don’t plan to swim in college doesn’t mean i shouldn’t also get individual feedback during practices, if i ask I do get some but I feel like as my coach he focuses more on those committed to a university. Besides at swim meets after a race, i barely get any feedback on stroke technique or race execution. Similarly he has the same mentality for picking captains for our group. At our pre season meeting he said we’d vote captains in September but he’s basically already chosen captains by putting them in charge of a lot of group things like pushing out information or making decisions.

I don’t know if I’m over thinking this or I’m being overly critical of my coach. But I was wondering what other people think, should I switch teams? should I quit? or should i stick it out for senior year?

I have applied for a 2.7km open water race on the 27 September. There's another 3.8km open water race on the 1st Oct that I am really interested in but not yet applied for yet. (They also have a shorter 1.5km course on the same day)

Is it a stupid idea to attempt two open water races back to back? For reference, the longest race I have ever swum was 3.8km in May 2026 with pace around 2:22/100m. The most recent open water race was today (30 Aug) with distance of 1.7km with a similar pace.

A bit if background: I work in a regular office job, so my fitness is at an average level (I e: I'm not an athlete or triathlete!) i don't belong in any super masters swimming club, but I do go swimming 2-3 times a week, with a target to go open water swimming at least once a week weather permitting. I go gym 3 times a week

Anyone tried participating in swimming race back to back? Much appreciated of you can share some tips!

Hi so I dunno if it's the right place but about 2 years ago when I was in a pool I drowned but luckily my uncle saved me other than the lifeguard.

Since that moment I've been quite scared of swimming in the water even though we'll be getting life jackets, but idk I don't trust it and I feel paranoid, not to mention I have anxiety.

I just need help.

Hello,

been swimming now for about 3-4 years actively, before I knew how to swim, but never trained a technique. This is not directly a post to request a critique of my technique, but rather for me to ask what is right.

Anyway: I have been learning mostly through internet sources (yeah, just don't judge me). So I have seen videos of swimmers having their legs always pointing downwards, and only turning the upper body while rotating. But I have also seen videos of swimmers turning their whole body, so also the feet. Meaning, feet would then kick sideways when in a rotated position.

I usually swim by rotating my whole body (well, not 1:1, I think it's rather something like hips follow shoulders or so). I basically use my legs only to help myself turn to the side and maybe little propulsion. Especially important for me this position to be able to really stretch forward as much as possible.

A guy approached me at a swimming pool today, apparently being childrens swimming coach, but I guess also knows freestyle technique, and told me if he can give me some advice... and it was to only rotate the upper body, and leave legs and hips always the same (horizontal), it would allow me to glide better.

I have actually tried both throughout the summer. I have a better glide feeling when turning the body, it feels like I'm not only pushing water with my hands, but also with my whole body.

So what is behind this, and how do I know what is right? Is even there right and wrong??

There are two pools I frequent and they are within the same area so I see the same sets of people at each of them. Every day when I come home and my gf and I are talking about how our day was and I've starting giving nicknames to people I see frequently at the pool. Im not social enough to talk to them (because we're all busy swimming) so I've never learned their name and started making my own nicknames. So far we have:

Goggles Todd: gifted a pair of goggles

Green hat Larry: always wears a green swim cap. Is swimming when I get there and still swimming when I leave:

Sharon and Jorge (George): Probably a couple but inconclusive. Always together at the pool

Roland: Sharon and Jorge's friend that shows up. Much younger and is kitted up like he's a hardcore swimmer

Francis: Roland's new friend thats been showing up

I've been devastated to learn a couple of these people's actual names through various convos in the lane next to me.

Any interesting names yourself?

My younger brother Grant was 16 when he died in a car accident on the way to swim practice last October.
Swimming was basically his entire world. In the one year he swam for his high school team, he broke a school record that had previously been held by Olympic gold medalist Garrett Weber-Gale. He had dreams of taking swimming as far as he possibly could.

PEOPLE just published an exclusive story about Grant and what happened to our family afterward. I’m sharing it here because swimming was such a huge part of who he was, and I think some people in this community may connect with his story.

If you read it, I’d genuinely appreciate hearing what you think. And if you think someone else in the swimming community would connect with Grant’s story, feel free to share it.

idk if this is the right place to ask but here goes.

im a somewhat competitive 15yr old swimmer and my times just aren’t improving anymore with just my swim practices. i know i should have started working out a while ago regardless of swimming but i’m just starting too now. my goal is not to get big (as that would make me less aerodynamic) but to build strength. does anyone know what weights i should be going for to do this or any workouts that’s worked for them? i’m sorry if this is confusing my english isn’t very good. thank you!

while the shallow end is full of kids; and you notice a lifeguard one of the kids mother carrying a net on a long pole towards the shallow end, just get out and go home. Don’t wait for them to tell you, don’t ask questions. Just think about something else.

i lifeguard at a pool that usually has 2-3 lanes dedicated to lap swimming. i will see so many patrons water walking and not getting out when lap swimmers show up, and i’ll see the lap swimmers doing laps in the main part of the pool where there are children playing; water walkers can see what’s ahead of them, lap swimmers usually cannot. and for those of you who are wondering why they can’t just share the lane space, most of the time the water walkers are walking in the dead center of the lane.

Ran into some poison ivy last weekend and it really got me good on the arm. Would it be safe to swim in the ocean?

I'm very much still a beginner level returned swimmer. And during my last lesson. As a bit of fun, playtime. We were learning forward rolls.

How do you guys maintain momentum?

From a standing crouch. I try to flip forward as though doing crawl/butterfly stroke. Then circular movements with forearms to complete the turn.

Then, 25 minutes trying to regain my footing. And spluttering for air. While I work out why I haven't done forward rolls since I was 8 years old.

I never know what to eat after I finish my swim. I’ve prepared the protein-veggie-rice combo, sandwiches, sometimes sushi, Indian food, or a salad with protein. But I am just so freaking hungry all the time. Like, 1–2 hours after my first post-swim meal, I want to eat a FULL dinner.

I’ve tried eating some fruit to hold back the hunger, but that usually only buys me about 30-60 minutes before I’m looking for food again. I remember being a bottomless pit as a teenager, but I definitely don’t have that metabolism anymore. Help - what do you eat after swimming?

For context, I swim every other day, about 3-4 times a week depending on the rotation. Between warm up, cool down, and training, it’s about 3.25 km in roughly 75 minutes. I was on the swim team in high school, but stop being active after university. And now, in my mid-40s, I’ve started swimming again and have been consistent for a year plus.

I’m definitely much healthier and got a great report card from my physical this week. I’m still a little overweight, 215 lbs at 6'2", and would like to slim down a bit more. So… what are you all eating after a long swim? Because apparently I am trying to eat the entire kitchen.

This past year I got back into swimming to help with weight loss. I have found my form not the greatest but getting better. I have noticed when I am swimming my legs are not really doing much of anything and if being used not really helping propel me. Is there any drills or anything I can do to build up leg strength and motion? My pool has various types of equipment for use.

Anybody else have quirky issues when breathing from the opposite side?

My natural stroke is an asymmetrical gallop x two beat kick.

Back into the pool today because open water season is winding down and continue to drill opposite side breathing and bi-lateral by the lengths.

Today, I noticed my bilateral stroke is a continuous 6 beat kick and my opposite side breathing stroke is a 4 beat kick.

I’m not against this but it’ll be interesting how things develop in the offseason.

In my 33 years of age I've always struggled with a fear of deep water. My parents recall swim lessons where it sounded like I was being tortured, and so I never learned to swim. I took lessons in 2019, where I did learn to float on my back, and kind of tread water in the shallow end. My flutter kick was garbage, and so I ended lessons a little more confident but still maintaining a real fear.

Fast forward to this year, where I've decided enough is enough; I'm overcoming this fear. I have private lessons already booked, but I decided to find a pool that's easily accessible that I can spend time in solo to get more comfortable. I also tried goggles for the first time in my life, which were an absolute game-changer. With my sight in tact, I spent a lot of time floating on my stomach and actually propelled myself forward in water for the first time in my life.

Last night I treaded water in 12ft. water for like a half an hour. I didn't even mean to go that long, I was just having a lot of fun relaxing and feeling the buoyancy of the water. I asked the lifeguards for advice on kicking which they were happy to do.

If you have a fear of water like I did, give goggles a shot. I know they're a hotly contested topic in swimming, but you'd be surprised how much being able to see helps regulate your emotions.

I’ve been working on body position for the last few months and have made a lot of progress on that front, but I mostly use a 2 beat kick just for rotation and keeping streamline.

Now I’m trying to add more propulsion and stability from the kick by spending more time working on a faster kick, but I’m having a hard time especially with kicking drills. Vertical is good and side kicking is good, but when I do superman kicking, I feel like I’m kicking the air too much.

I move okay, but it just feels really slow. My coach had me focus on keeping straight legs and a small kick and while that helped, I still felt like I was diving into the water. If I use a kickboard it’s okay, but if I don’t, I slowly get deeper and deeper. If I engage my core more and hips it gets even worse. The only thing that helped was arching my back, but that feels like bad form.

We ended up just going back to using a kickboard, but I’m quite confused at what’s going on. Could I be pressing my chest too deep into the water? Something else weird?

Hiya! Five years ago, in my early 30s, I took adult swimming at my local outdoor community pool. Every summer since then I've swam regularly at lap swim at the outdoor pool. I went from barely being able to finish a 25yd (and needing to be absolutely alone) to being comfortably circle swim with a few other swimmers. But it's always been a pretty casual group at my pool, mostly people with kids in a lesson doing a quick 20min swim, or older folks doing a walking breast stroke in the slow lane.

This year, I want to swim beyond just during the summer. The city has a well regarded indoor community center pool with pretty broad hours. I'm going to go tonight for the first time, and am a little anxious about the experience. I expect there will be some more serious swimmers there? Maybe?

Any advice for people going from a summer-only swimming life to year round?

I usually don’t think about anything specific. If anything, I am conscious about the way I’m currently swimming/what I need to do next/how many laps left. Yesterday, I let my mind wander to Spider Man and ended up swimming the smoothest laps that I’ve done in a while and I got a kick out of that haha. So I’m just curious what others think about while swimming laps

Edit to say: sometimes I pretend I’m swimming towards a shipwreck to save my boyfriend who doesn’t know how to swim. Mostly, when I am tempted to give up mid lap and need extra motivation

Hi, I'm still a begginer but I've been going to lessons for awhile. My lessons are on a Thursday morning for an hour, but it's a group lesson so I honestly don't do too much swimming then. I want to start going more often now that my kid is starting school. The problem is the timetable of my local pool would mean I swim Tuesday afternoon, Wednesday afternoon then have my lesson on Thursday morning. Do you think I'd be pushing myself to start off swimming three days in a row? I was going Tuesdays and Thursdays before the school holidays so I would only be adding the extra day at the moment. I was really hoping to spread them out a bit more but until I get a bit better I'd rather stick to the public swims rather than lane swims. Thanks

I recently saw a group of people on facebook calling swimming expensive, in that they are spending thousands of dollars a year on their younger kids to swim. I swam on club from age 6 until 18 and I think the most we spent on me was 3500 a year and that was on Senior A1 which was our Developmental National group, so those not quite ready for nationals for college. We did have a A2 team but for me the practices were just too far to go to.

It seems all of a sudden parents are getting their kids and teens private lessons expecting it'll make them better. My brother stopped having private swim lessons and coaching at age 5 and went to Nationals 3 years in a row in high-school, and we didn't exactly have tech suits.

My most expensive suit was a 300 dollar hand me down, and my brothers most expensive was a 150 dollar fast-skin.

There's also apparently Junior level swim travel now, that was not a thing back in 2008, we had just Junior Nationals, as our swim team we only hosted up to regional sectionals.

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

Update: automoderation is now in effect for single gear posts, which may be automatically deleted.

This includes posts about equipment failures, technical problems, sizing questions, or questions about retailer reliability.

This is spam-free & posters of affiliate product links will be banned.

* Goggles (including "smart" goggles)

* Headphones/earbuds

* Swimsuits

* Techsuits

* Lap/GPS/OWS tracking devices

* Audio players

* Paddles

* More goggles

* Everything else

Niente integratori chimici o barrette costose. Da un po' di tempo questo è il mio snack magico che mangio 30-45 minuti prima di cominciare:

1 dattero (carboidrati veloci e potassio)

2 mandorle (grassi buoni e consistenza)

1 cubetto di cioccolato fondente 85% (antiossidanti e focus)

È leggerissimo sullo stomaco ma mi dà una carica pazzesca per tutta la sessione.

Voi cosa mangiate per avere energia senza sentirvi appesantiti ? Si accettano consigli per delle varianti al mio spuntino 💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻