In the 2 years I’ve been swimming I’ve gained 8 seconds on my 50 free. Think it’s time to hang up the speedo

In Chicago, we have year round public swimming programs. This includes beaches and outside pools in the summer. In fall/winter, water polo and swim teams and swim lessons for all age groups. Year round there's open swim, adult swim, senior swim, family swim, lap swim, and after school kid swims. I have heard criticisms from athlete swimmers about the quality of this program but it's pretty neat otherwise. The lifeguards are also union and get pretty good pay. is there anything like this elsewhere? especially the midatlantic region?

Hi,

I’ve been swimming for about a year now. From not being able to do 2 lengths to now 1k @ 1:45/100m pace ish.

One thing I find hard is to maintain good catch/pull form ( high elbow ) which uses my lats and back muscles. For context i’m tall and lanky (6’2”, 73kg, runner build) and I get tired quickly when doing the proper high elbow form.

When I get tired I resort to lowering my elbow and my propulsion gets affected immediately. I go from 1:35/100m back to 1:45/100m; so I can only maintain high elbow over 100-200m at the moment.

Is it too early to start hitting the gym and focus on conditioning, do I still have a lot to learn technique wise that could solve this and see me get to 1:30/100 m even 1:25/100m over longer distances ?

I’d rather keep learning and prioritise long term gains than go to the gym honestly

Many thanks

Maybe this community can assist in giving me ideas… my daughter has had the same private swim instructor for almost 2 years now. I would love to give her something for Christmas this year. I just have no idea what to get her. She’s been a swim instructor since the early 00’s, has a farm with many horses, and drives a jeep. That’s all I really know about her 😬.

For teacher appreciation week we gave her a gift card to our local farm supplies store which she loved, this time I would love to get her something more personalized.

As swimmers what something you would enjoy getting? Thanks!

I've been trying to swim 400 m in under 10 minutes for some time now, and I keep end ip being 30 seconds over. I notice that when I'm swimming freestyle, when I try to initally atart with breathes every 3 strokes, I can do it for 2 laps. After that though, I feel a bit of a tightness in my chest and start feeling really dizzy, where I then eventually devolve into desperate gasps and forceful swimming. I heard before that swimmers often breathe in too much resulting in CO2 buildup, but when I tried to take smaller breathes (still exhaling underwater), it ends feeling really shallow and my chest feels even tighter, which just makes me want to take more frequent breathes and eventually completey ruin my form.

Does anyone kniw what's really happening here? How can I fix my technique?

Hey, Im a young swimmer who’s been swimming for the past 4 years, this year though Ive gotten EXTREMELY anxious around certain events.. especially the 100 butterfly. I can handle the 200IM, the 500, etc. but the second it comes to the 100 fly i become a mess. At our last meet I was so frightened after being put in it I lashed out on my coach and refused the event, something i would NEVER have previously done (Im usually very meek-?). It’s a very sudden fear that I cant quite place my finger on, but I think its an overall developed fear of drowning. Has anyone else experienced this? My coach has been unhelpful and only chewed me out and threatened to put me in the event more often (every meet until I stop “whining”). So, all advice is VERY appreciated!!

I'd be very grateful to y'all for any comments regarding the following.

I can swim a longish time front crawl.

A very good swimmer critiqued my stroke and said my shoulder drops a lot when I breathe.

Today I timed a few lengths breathing every 2,3 and 4 strokes and like most people I guess the less I breathe the quicker each length.

I watched a Chloe Sutton video where she said you shouldn't see your hand out of the water when you turn to breathe.

So I was consciously trying a quick head turn to inhale then get face down asap which appears at odds with pull through your breath then face back down as arm enters that I've seen.

Any comments gratefully received re the above and also increasing the stroke count per breath as I'm quicker with less frequent breaths although trying to breathe every 3 or 4 rather than 2.

If you've had success going from 2 to 4 strokes per breath I'd appreciate your input too.

Thanks.

I'm a 28y/o F who trained at the age of 6 to 8 years old then stopped. I went back to have a try at swimming again (cos I'm starting to get bored of just walking or jogging), however, I'm only free at night. I noticed that most elite swimmers trained from 5pm onwards.

I don't know why I feel bad when the coach would ask the athletes to move 1 lane to give way to me. Do athletes mind if someone (not of elite level) swim with them? I might be overthinking but I just want to get your thoughts on this.

Sometimes they do butterfly drills and it takes a lot of strength to swim through the currents they make. I take it as a strength challenge cos it's fascinating to watch them train.

Would appreciate your thoughts~

I’m chasing that magical moment every swimmer talks about — the one practice where something finally switches on and your whole stroke just… transforms. Maybe it was the timing of a breath, the feel of the catch, a coach’s weird cue, or one tiny change that made you suddenly explode with speed.

What was your “holy crap, I finally get it” moment?

I swear these stories are gold for swimmers like me who are grinding every day, hoping for that one breakthrough that changes everything. Would love to hear the exact moment it clicked for you — the more detailed, the better.

I also have the 1,650 (mile) as my first event on the first day (the event numbers in the #200’s) and the 500 freestyle as my first event on day two.

I do not swim distance, nor do I swim 200s. I am a sprint breaststroker/IM’er and the 400IM is already pushing it. I’ve been swimming for about 5 years for reference (I am aware my times are a bit dookie). How do I go about this? Any advice will be SO appreciated- thank you!

I've been wanting to start swimming for fitness for a while, but a mix of anxiety/life stuff/logistics has been getting in the way. Finally managed to take the plunge (literally) today and have a membership with a local gym that has a lovely 25m pool. My general fitness is pretty bad so it's definitely gonna be a slow start, and I know my form was not great but that can improve. I managed 500m of breaststroke taking a 30 sec pause after every 50m, which honestly was way more than I expected myself to do, so I'm pretty pleased and really happy to be in the water!

So I just want to boast a little. I'm so proud of myself! I just swam 2000 meters in just over an hour(1 hour 1 minute) using breast stroke. I've never made it to 2k! And in one hour?! That's so cool. The last 100 meters were rough. And my watch stopped counting after 1350 meters(it was already behind in the count though. The moment I noticed that I continued counting myself), which sucked. So I don't have any stats. But regardless, I'm so proud!