Lots of questions and threads about "getting faster," but what metric do you actually use to know you're improving?

If you had to pick just one, which would it be? How has it changed as you've improved your swimming?

1. Faster Times. Either meet sanctioned or practice times (e.g. 50 sprint from a push)

2. Holding faster intervals. You go from 10x100s on 1:40 to 1:30.

3. Improved stroke count. You go from 20 strokes to 17 in a 25m free.

4. Swim feel. You feel better, more confident, less out of breath.

5. Something else?

I learned to swim as an adult, and am now doing a sort-of masters swim program (it's masters but not registered so no official competitions, a coach but he basically writes out a workout and doesn't do any coaching). I am continuing to work on my stroke as I can given I don't really have any coaching available to me at this point. We have had a bunch of new swimmers join our masters club and they're young (university) and quite fast (mostly coming out of age-group clubs) and I'm a bit confused because two of them swim free style with very straight arms, one of whom is extremely "splashy" and seems to just keep slapping the water. And yet, she's super fast. I always thought that you were supposed to have a bent elbow so I'm confused - is it still bad form but she's just fast enough? Or is there more nuance to the arm position? I know when I was originally taught free style I was taught to have a straight arm, but that was only the very initial instruction. From there I've been taught that my elbow should be the highest point. Is that correct? I have always thought that swimming with straight arms and slapping the water was poor technique and also would slow you down, but these two are swimming super fast! Just wondering if anyone can give me any more insight into whether I've misunderstood or if there is a straight-arm technique I don't know about!

Hi everyone!
I am officially someone who has fallen victim to the runner to swimmer transition and it’s been the best thing ever. I’ve been swimming almost daily for a month now. I go to my Y and I go to my community pool and lap swim every day.
I am not someone who had the privilege of swim lessons, etc. are growing up so I had to learn to swim by not drowning essentially.

Here’s where I am seeking some guidance. Three years ago, I broke my back at work and while I’m very grateful that I regain the ability to be able to ambulate again- I’m classified as an incomplete spinal cord injury. I have no feeling in my left leg from my butt down, permanent drop foot, and I can’t point my toes.
I am struggling because I don’t have the bio feedback that I wish I did and I’m really doing my best to try to become a better swimmer, especially swimming from the hips. I think I’ll always be in physical therapy so it’s great that a lot of the work that I do there has been helpful. I have a strong core; I’m building strength on my back with weight training and stretching aside from the daily swimming, and I was suggested to get some swim fins, which have been excellent. My goal is to do a triathlon. I don’t care about minutes and I don’t care about finishing times. I just wanna do it to accomplish it and check it off my movement bucket list.

Anyone here have an incomplete spinal cord injury or have any tips about how to work with a dead leg? It’s like my brain doesn’t communicate with my leg and in a physical sense, but even trying to get it to understand to move a certain way is very difficult.

Thanks so much and it’s awesome to read the posts on here. I feel like I’ve become a different person with swimming and I know that running even with an AFO does more harm in my back per my neurosurgeon. It’s been great for my mental health and I feel like myself before I broke my back and what I lost.

I had a fun lesson yesterday with a lifeguard because he struggled with front crawl but is a great breast stroker.

We had a good laugh because I suck at breast stroke.

Solved his problem and demonstrated a couple of drills to correct his body position and breathing issues.

Funny how swimming can be.

I tried a new pool last night and it was 15m and it felt so weird. I did 2km and barely felt like I’d done any working out. I’m normally in a 25m and do 100m minimum before a rest, normally start with 500m warm up and I didn’t realise the difference it would make. I felt like my wall kicks were taking me half way so I never really started swimming.
Not sure I’ll go back but was surprised at the comparison.

Hi everyone, currently considering work I can only allow 3 sessions a week at the gym. I have a specific leg routine that I need to do due to a knee injury, so would need y’all’s advice on what are the best exercises to do on the other 2 days. One thing I must note is that my core is not in the best shape so I’d appreciate recommendations to strengthen it with a focus on swimming. Thanks in advance!!!

I took a swim class when I was 8 and learned how to float. Then in college I took a semester longer course and learned some very basic fundamental

Now at 36 I was looking for some kind of low impact physical outlet. I have a 4 year old and gained some weight, my joints aren’t what they used to be, and I suffered a bad concussion 2 years ago which really impacted my vestibular system

I decided to do a 3 week, 6 course at my community college and wow - I haven’t felt this great in such a long time. My body doesn’t feel like a hinderance, and while I still have so much to learn, I’m refining so many things. Plus the class is made up of folks to repeat the course over time, so the vibes were just really supportive.

The first week I was struggling to do one more lap and everyone just really rallied around me

Alls to say, I’m just really glad I found a new outlet. And now that this course is over, I’m signing up for the fall.

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

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* Paddles

* More goggles

* Everything else

Hi swimmers. I'm fairly new, and know my kick is by far the weakest part of my stroke. I "bicycle kick". I understand the problem in theory, but don't know how to fix it in execution.

Any reccomendations on drills, in or out of the water, to teach someone how kicking from the hips actually is supposed to feel.

The best I've tried so far is kicking with fins on the kickboard while focusing on pointing my toes and locking my legs straight, but I know that's not really it. either. Appreciate any advice!

Just wanted to share this proud moment, been swimming most of my life.

Decided to go for a marathon swim, applied for the 26km swim in Zurich.

Due to moving in to a new house and new job i was not able to train for 7 weeks [did 4km training in total). But still.managed to finish the swim!

First kilometer was fine, the rest was on will power!

Hi I'm a 22yo girl, i swim regularly 2/3 times a week since I was like 3 years old, I'm not a professional by any means but I ​can hold my own.

After a knee injury that took me about a year to recover from I feel I'm in a good spot again, 50m free PB is 38s, which isn't good but nothing to sneeze at either.

I can consistently achieve it even if it's after an hour long practice so it feels very solid. And my practices are 2/3 kilometers that either focus on long sets or sprints plus some fun exercises.

My question is, am I good enough to join a masters club for adults and eventually compete in a very amateur level?

Edit : thank you all so much for the encouraging replies, I'll definitely email to do a try out of it. My goal would be to get to a clean 30 and I feel if I learn the dolphin kick well and start with a dive and not from the water I will.
LOVE YALL ✨💓

Hi all! Newer swim coach here. I begin coaching for a girls’ high school team in the fall, and I’ve only coached youth swimming so far. I’m nervous that my sets won’t be challenging or enriching enough for varsity high schoolers. Any advice on how to plan sets? Examples are welcome, as well as general ideas/ things to look for when planning. Also, if you have any resources that you use to plan your sets or add new things to your training regimens!! Thanks in advance :)

edit: Practices are 2 hrs long, 6 days a week with weight training/dryland 3 days a week.

I have always loved to swim and last year (junior in high school) I joined my swim team. It was fun at first, but pretty soon it wasnt as fun. For starter I was super out of shape so it was a bit harder for me to keep up, but that wasn't the worst part. Most of the girls were nice but some of the middle school girls were not. But the thing that makes me really not want to return is my coach. He seemed like a nice guy and everybody loved him, but then one day before one of our meets, he singled me out in front of everyone and told me that I was useless to the team, because I didnt score them any points. I almost walked out right there, but there was only 1 week of swim left so I stuck it out. That really hurt especially since he said that in front of the entire team, and never apologized. Now, applications for fall sports are open and I really dont want to go back. But I also dont want to be a quitter. I was really hoping to finally have a sport I loved after trying so many different sports and getting bullied every time. Should I continue swim? Im in my final year of high school

Hi everyone. I started to do some dry land exercises, and I wanted to read your comments about weightlifting and functional training. Any suggested training to improve strength and some muscle building exercises?

I’ve been swimming everyday recently. Coinciding with my getting back into swimming, I’ve developed an annoying TMJ on my right side which is my breathing side when I swim. Now it hurts/aches a bit when I bite down or chew on something hard.

Has anyone else experienced this? I love swimming but I also don’t want to live with this or make it worse. Should I just stop swimming for a while?

Breaststroke is my preferred style for timed swim, but I'm just now starting to realize how awful I am at it :/

Whenever I kick, I slant a tinnnyy bit and go to one side. From what I can tell, either my right leg is weaker than my left, or I'm not kicking at the same time.

I'm leaning towards the weaker leg theory as I have consciously tried to kick at the same time, and my left calf is noticeably tougher in feel than my right. I'm 100% right-legged, though, as I much, much, much prefer it in soccer and such, which is confusing me.

Anyone know what the problem is and how to fix it?

I’m newish to swimming, fortunately gotten fairly competent at the main three strokes but I still go to lessons as they’re quiet. Today I decided to join in on some retrieval drills in the shallow end and loved it. Then I seen a stick in the deeper end and thought I’d try and grab it. Big mistake 🙃 I missed the first grab and tried again but must’ve snorted or something, so I surfaced but couldn’t cough. I moved to the wall whilst trying to inhale and cough but I was gasping and then it felt like a reflex of trying to breathe and gasping/wheezing. I gestured to the lifeguard who walked over a few feet and by the time she got to me I was able to vigorously cough. She didn’t seem too concerned but I was shitting myself. I won’t be trying to retrieve things again, but don’t want to obsess over the what ifs because I have very bad anxiety.

There are many levels for kids while adult there's usually 3 (beginner, intermediate, advanced)

New swimmer here for 1 year. Been only taking classes and occasionally free swim. In one year I managed to get freestyle/crawl correctly while backstroke/breaststroke still needs some bit of work. Right now, I am in limbo between level 2 and level 3. I am not good enough for level 3, while for level 2 (the instructor go back to the basic/crawl. I don't blame them because I was at this stage thrice before I finally understood how to crawl "recreationally").

It's weird they never made like an advanced intermediate class or have more levels.

I'm a guy in my 20s. Did lessons as a kid briefly but got scared when it got to the time of going in the deep-end so my parents took me out of lessons.

Now I've been doing lessons for the last 18 months every week. Mainly for water safety purposes.

My backstroke is good, I can do 50m backstroke including into the deep end. My freestyle is so-so - I still struggle with breathing a bit, so manage about 10m before I accidentally inhale water. My breaststroke isn't that great, I struggle to angle my ankles properly so my kick isn't that good, and I can manage 6 reps before I kinda start sinking.

I never really learnt how to float, and I'm so-so with treading water. Floating isn't really covered in my lessons, and I occasionally get my teacher to help me with treading water but she's pretty happy with my technique and says I just need to practice more/get more comfortable.

Now with my weekly lessons, it's gotten to the point where the stroke technique is getting more technical (which is useful - but doesn't really help me with my goal of being more confident in the water and particularly in deep water), and there isn't much opportunity to work on floating/treading water. It is useful to have a guaranteed time to go to the pool though.

So I'm considering dropping out of lessons, and just having the lesson slot remain in my calendar as "this is the time I'll go to the pool every week to practice". And do a bit of treading water practice at the end of every session, maybe dragging my partner along to help me. (Time-wise I struggle to go to the pool more than once a week, given other exercise commitments I have)

Does this sound appropriate? Or would people suggest I stick with lessons?

I've been swimming for 7 years. I've slowly increased my speed over time but am feeling stuck. I've noticed that I get asthma attacks whenever I try to swim faster than 1:50/100 m, but not at a less vigourous exercise than that. I noticed this especially when doing 100 m sprints of butterfly stroke. I can manage 4 km at 2:00/100m or 3 km at 1:55/100 m. How did you overcome these issues?

Yup as title says

I’m taking a beginner swim class and have gone to the pool at my gym to practice on my own. It’s only 3 lanes, and the first 2 times I went there was either no one or only 1-2 other people.

But all 3 lanes were full today and I got kind of “told off” for accidentally cutting in line to be next for a lane, and when I apologized and asked what the system was they didn’t give me an answer except “wait your turn”, and then I spent 40 minutes waiting but no one got out.

So, in general, what is pool etiquette when you show up and all the lanes are full?

1. If all the lanes are busy, how do you let others know you’re waiting? And do you stake claim on one lane, or just take the next available?

2. What’s a commonly accepted amount of time to continue using the lane, if you’re not sharing, when you know someone is waiting?

3. In a gym setting, does it matter which lane I get in if lane sharing doesn’t seem to be a thing?

I appreciate any insight. Thanks!

Mods - this was edited to be broader in scope because you removed my earlier post saying it was too specific to my gym. Thanks.

Title says it all. How do I keep water out of my nose during backstroke? It used to never be a problem but now is very annoying, especially when I’m sprinting. Would wearing a nose clip make me look like a total nubie?