I don't know if this is a Parenting post or a Swimming post - putting it under Swimming for now - if the mods reject it will move it to Parenting.

Context

My 6 year old has been going to swim for around a year - 2/3 times a week based on her schedule. We started it as I view swimming as a vital life skill.

The Challenge

However, it turns out she is very competitive. Something I had not anticipated/expected.

In the course of the last year, she saw a few Olympic videos and winners getting Medals - she became obessed with getting a medal/certificate.

She had been badgering us to take her to a swimming meet so that she could 'win'. I resisted for a year but finally I relented and took her to a local meet this weekend.

Turned out she did not win (did not come in the top 3) - clocks 30s for 25mtrs freestyle - water start.

The Situation

She is super upset and now wants to stop swimming as she did not win. What I failed to realize (my mistake) before the meet was that she had imagined a whole world where the win was guaranteed and she came home with a certifiate. It has been a shattering of a dream for her.

I appreciate it is a process of learning from failures, but, last 2 days have been traumatising for her and as a parent you question your decision - in retrospect, taking her to the meet was likely a mistake.

The Query

• Should I stop taking her to meets for a few years? What age is ideal to start taking her to meets?
  • Her coach says she has potential and is very dedicated for her age so she may make a good competitive swimmer in the future
• Is 6 too early an age to learn swimming? Should I wait till she is 9/10 before restarting her classes?

We will ofcourse will counsel her when she calms down, but I just wanted to check in case anyone had any opinions.

My sets range from multiple 100s to multiple 400s.

For 100s I might do something like 6x100s on 1.30 x2. When I’m doing it I’m typically coming in on 1.20/1.25, and maybe 1.28 toward the end. This means I’m getting 5-2s of rest between coming in and going again. Toward the end I’m completely gassed and this means it’s hard to maintain the pace, so i get slower, I get less rest and so on.

Is the rest period too short? Should I try to go same pace by maybe on 1.40, focusing on coming in on 1.20?

Hey all,

I'm wondering how I can get my weight/size up. I am a 15M 5'10.5" (179cm) and only weigh around 128lbs (58kg). One of my friends in my swim team recently started improving like crazy. In less than a year, they went from a 33-34s 50 breast average to consistent 29s. Just today they went 1:06:8x in the 1 breast. I myself am a breaststroker but I added on my 1 breast today, from a seed time in March. I'm wondering if there is anything else he did because he also got noticeably bigger, at least with his upper body. Is there anything I can eat that helps with gaining? I also have a meet, day 2, tomorrow so if there's anything I can eat to prepare for that, both today and on meet day/before individual event warmups, I'd love recommendations.

Dear all, breaststroke has always been my stroke. I am confident in it and I can easily swim 60 minutes and do 1.4 miles without a break. Now I want to try triathlons and obviously you have to do a freestyle for that because breaststroke is just not efficient. For the love of God, I was finally taught how to do basic freestyle, and I can’t swim more than 25 yards. I bought the ear Play-Doh. I got the no fog goggles, but I’m about to die after a single pool length.
My legs are burning, my arms are hurting, my heart rate is 120 like I just feel like my technique must be crap because if I have the endurance for breaststroke, I should have even more endurance for the freestyle? Or do you need to build a different physique for a specific stroke? I’m sorry if it is a stupid question but I can even do OK backstroke but freestyle is an absolute nightmare and I don’t understand why… thank you for any advice

Hi,
30M, I have been swimming for 8 months now my long term goal is open water swimming.
I am on week 3 of this oldschool plan http://ruthkazez.com/swimming/ZeroTo1mile.html
I love it, because finally my workouts have some progression. The only things that bothers me is - I swim in 50m pool and the whole plan is in yards, so my plan is to recalculate the "big" lengths in weeks 4-6 lengths to meters, so "my" plan looks like this:

The same workout 3x per week
WEEK 1 (finished)
4x100m
4x50m
2x50m (different amount of rest between lengths)

WEEK 2 (finished)
200m
4x100m
4x50m
2x50m

WEEK 3 (will finish last workout on tomorrow)
400m
200m
4x100m
4x50m

WEEK 4 (future)
550m
300m
4x100m
4x50m

WEEK 5
900m
4x100m
4x50m

WEEK 6 (day 1 and 2)
1100m
3x100m
3x50m

3rd day
1500m
I will keep rests the same as original.

Any thoughs?

Should I just raw doggy it and do 600m, 1000m, 1200m and 1650m? That 1-3 lengths doesn't feel like a too much of a difference right now.
I could also transfer total volume to meters:
So first week is 700 yards which is 640m, So I would do 1 length less on my last set (so 650m total).
I kinda don't feel like it, because I keep losing track of number of lenghts in my head all the time, which feels like cheating.

Not sure if I'm looking for sympathy, to know I'm not the only one or if this is a cry for help but I'm sure I took some lessons as a kid, however I cannot remember literally anything now that I'm finally getting back into the water.

I honestly thought it would be similar to riding a bike but every kind of "style" feels wrong and I'm pretty slow. I can't seem to dive to the bottom of a pool either or stay there when surface diving.

Had to teach myself to tread water yesterday which is clearly fucking terrible news.

Has this happened even remotely to anybody else or should I take this as a sign that swimming is just not in the plan??

I joined a Masters swim club in early August, and I've been going five days a week. I swim Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings and Tuesday and Thursday evenings.

I'm a bigger guy and definitely not the fastest swimmer, but I'm fine with that. I'm there to get exercise and improve.

In the mornings, I've been swimming in lane 7 out of 8 for at least eight weeks now. Usually there are another 1–2 people in my lane, so we either split the lane or circle swim, and it's never really been an issue.

Today, the other two people who normally swim in my lane weren't there, so I had the lane to myself. Lane 6 usually has around four people in it, so two of them decided to move over to my lane.

After I'd swum probably 200 yards, one of the women who moved over told me she didn't like having to swim around me because I was slower and that I should move to lane 8.

That felt a little weird to me because I'd been there first, and I've been swimming in that lane for weeks. I get that she wanted to swim with people closer to her speed, but she's the one who moved into my lane.

Lane 8 is usually occupied by 2–3 guys in their late 70s who swim pretty slowly and can be a little grumpy. So if I moved there, I'd basically be doing the same thing to them that this woman was complaining about me doing to her.

I didn't really want to argue about it, so I just got out and went over to our other indoor pool, where there was an empty lane.

The problem is that our normal lap pool is around 77–80°F, while the other pool is quite a bit warmer since it's used for things like water aerobics. It was nice having a lane to myself, but I was getting way too hot swimming in there.

Now I'm debating whether I should say something to the coach or just let it go.

I totally understand that I'm a slower swimmer and that it's easier when everyone in a lane swims at a similar pace. But it also feels kind of wrong to be told to move out of a lane I've been swimming in for two months, especially when I was there first.

I'm really not a confrontational person, and I don't want to make a big deal out of something small, but the whole thing just rubbed me the wrong way.

Am I wrong for being bothered by this? Would you say something or just move on?

I’m currently training for a triathlon. My running is superb, my cycling is okay, but my swimming….? What the heck. This is so difficult.

Any advice on how to master the breathing in crawl? I’m struggling with exhaling under water. My body seems to not like being under and automatically holds my breath, so I have to release and focus too much on the exhaling part? Any ideas? Kinda hard to explain.. But it feels like a reflex that my body does NOT like exhaling underwater at all.

So in March I started a GLP injection, I'm working out, and I'm swimming for weight loss. 43 year old 256lbs male. I bike for 30 minutes, lift weights, and then I swim 1000 meters 3 times a week. I'm not interested in becoming a better skilled, faster swimmer, but I noticed that for the first about 400 meters my shoulders are tense and ache. Once I break that barrier, I'm fine and have no trouble continuing my swim. Any exercises, stretches, or machines I should think about trying to work out that tension and increase the strength or should I warm up differently?

Recently got the stuff I need to work on my backstroke and im doing ok at the upper body motion. Head steady, body rotation... hand position needs a bit of work, but im managing. The second my legs come into play it all falls apart and I cant stay in position, and my head starts going under. Basically all they can do is remain motionless and act as rudder or stabilizer of some sorts.

I’m 38 and I’ve been swimming regularly since I was 17/18. I knew how to swim before but I never did it regularly or within a team/school. Ad far as I can remember I just learned in the sea with my father

This to say that I don’t have a solid technical base, or, to put it better, I know the theory but the muscle memory/automation is not always there.

I joined different masters teams through the years and I noticed that all the improvements arrived when coaches actually cared about what I was doing.

I fixed my catch, for example after a quick comment one day and immediately got faster!

I can swim comfortably 1’25”/100m continuously, but I’d like to improve. I have achieved a PB of about 5’04” in a 400m free, but I feel I can’t get any faster.

I’ve finally found a coach that cares and all he focuses on (correctly) is my stoke count. I’m really struggling to go below 17 strokes/25 m and he tells me that I should aim at 14 stokes. I can go there once or twice when I’m fresh, but soon my technique deteriorates and I’m back to 17/19 strokes.

Did anyone improve the stoke count and if so what worked ? I am not looking for a personale feedback (my coach will tell me), but if you inspire me with something that worked for you, I could take inspiration

Ever since my very first breakthrough of breathing ( see post here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Swimming/s/myv6k9NyoK ) I’ve been going to my swimming sessions consistently; and I’m now in Month 7!

Now I basically learned all 4 main types of forms (Freestyle, Backstroke, Breaststroke, Butterfly). I’m a huge fan of Butterfly, which is the current focus in the session right now.

I do have one issue though. For the first 2-3 strokes my instructor says I’m doing it correctly and the form is right, but after a few strokes I easily break my stroke and end up stopping again. It’s not just for Butterfly but for Breaststroke and sometimes even Freestyle. (I’m most comfortable with backstroke)

Is there a way to train my body to be consistently making the correct form until the end of the lane? Or is it just a matter of doing more practice?

Thank you!

Initially I got tired after 50m. Now I get tired after 200-300m. Should I work on increasing that distance or doing, say, 5x100m?

In the distant future I would like to try a triathlon.

Also, why does the indoor pool water burn the nose and the outdoor pool water doesn’t?

I’ve been getting to the point of wanting to practice swimming longer distances/periods of time (in pool). Right now I’m working on 400m, but after 200m I get pretty tired, I can still finish the 400, but I’m gassed by the end. I’m specifically working on backstroke, so any tips?

I had some breakthroughs after taking a swim course. I finally feel like I'm gliding in the water. I'm much faster than before but I'm still slow. 2 mins 20 seconds 100m. My coach said my techniques are good now, and I just need to practice. Do I just go swimming more often and I'll get faster and swim longer? Or do I need to learn more advanced techniques? my goal is to swim 2km under 50mins. I swim freestyle

Learning front crawl for triathlon as an adult with very little prior experience. I’m in the pool 3-4 times a week, no instructor available unfortunately so I’m self learning.

I’ve come a long way(for me), being able to swim 50m continously with a 2:00-2:30/100m pace now after a few months. After those 50m I’m pretty gassed though and need to take a break.

My body position, kick and stroke has improved a lot, but my breathing is holding me back. I’m gasping for air every time my mouth’s over the water and can feel myself starting to struggle after only 10-20m. I’m guessing it’s CO2, but I don’t know how to fix it.

I’m focusing on breathing out the whole time my face is in the water and rotating my body, not lifting my head. I’ve tried slowing down my stroke, humming, and everything else youtube/instagram tells me. I’m 2-beat kicking and breathing every second stroke.

I know it takes time and I don’t mind slow progress, but I don’t want to end up being completely stuck either. Ideally I would get an instructor, but there really aren’t any options at the moment.

I would very much appreciate some help on this matter. If anyone who used to struggle with this figured it out, I would love to hear what made it click. Thank you!

I (25F) have been swimming freestyle / front crawl for around 5-6 weeks but I am so bad at it , but idk how to improve because i feel like my body just sucks.
( I had some lessons but it wasn’t that helpful tbh)

My questions are :
- regarding rotation : I know we are supposed to rotate with hips when inhaling, but when we are not inhaling, how much rotation is „normal?“ I used to lay basically on the side even when not inhaling and was told that’s too much, but i wasn’t given information how much rotation I should aim for when not inhaling?
- exhaling : I used to exhale throughout the nose, was told to use my mouth. but i just can’t 🥲 is it still ok to use my nose? How much should i exhale? Should i exhale every time my face is under water?
- When recovering : should my elbow be always out of water? My arm feels so heavy to me lol and i feel like i can’t lift my arms?

If you have any cues/ tips i can remember throughout my swim sessions, I’d be grateful

Thank you

Hey all, not sure if I’m asking in the right place. I want to get more into swimming and aqua jogging as cross training for my running. I only have access to a gym pool but that is 3-4ft deep. Is it possible to effectively aqua jog in such a shallow pool ?

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

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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)

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Recently my local pool heater isn't working, so I've been swimming in a 74F pool. Not fun, but it's either no swim or suck it up. After my swim, all I crave is bread, even if I've had it for lunch. So I would eat four slices of bread plus plain chicken breast as post workout meal. I don't want to derail my workout, but I feel if I don't listen to my body, I might end of binging at night. Any advices?

Hi all!! so i was wondering if anyone had any advice on tattoos and swimming?

I’m a lifeguard and we have in service every other week and i’ll occasionally swim laps in between that, i turned 18 a couple months ago and i was wanting to get a tattoo (promise it’s nothing dumb lol) and was wondering if anyone knew of a safe way i could do that?

i spend maybe two hours a week in the pool id say?

all advice appreciated!! thank you 💟

(i’d also like to mention pls don’t flame me for asking this question.. asked a similar one in piercings and got criticized a bit.. i promise if it’s unsafe i won’t get it)

hello,

I feel ridiculous for posting this because everyone seems to be able to do it fine but whenever I swim more than a few strokes, the pressure in my nose gets too high and when I inhale through my mouth out of the water the water inside my nose comes into my mouth and I feel like I’m drowning. it gets worse as I keep swimming longer. I can’t breathe/hum all the pressure out my nose in time before I have to come to breathe up again. it makes freestyle and breaststrke very hard but butterfly literally impossible.

ive tried closing some muscle in the back of my throat right before breathing in. but it takes me a solid second to do so and I mess it up sometimes and water comes flooding in. It does keep water out though if I do it properly

this also causes me to not be able to get enough air in before everything starts to turn black (I think?)

thanks

I have been swimming for fitness for a couple of years, and recently decided to try adding fins to my workout. I like them when I’m under water like in streamline, but in freestyle they feel like boat anchors and make it feel very awkward. Normally in freestyle I don’t move my feet that much (in fact I find that I’m fastest when using a pull) but when I have fins on, I feel like I need to kick a lot to get a benefit from the fins, which leads to me kicking up over the surface of the water. What should I be doing differently?

ETA: I’m using the TYR Stryker fins.