r/Swimming 6d ago

Weekly Technique Critiques July 16, 2026 - Post all your form check request videos here

1 Upvotes

Hi all,

Due to the high & always increasing number of such requests, this is now the weekly (Thursdays) thread to post your requests for critique & community feedback on technique, all strokes.

Requests for feedback or critique on technique outside of these threads may be automatically deleted.


r/Swimming 3d ago

Weekly Whiteboard - Post Your Progress, Pool TIFU, Achievements, Workouts, Records, Pools etc July 19, 2026

4 Upvotes

This is the thread for posting your achievements, progress, workouts, records, pools photos, pool etiquette, swimming TIFU (Today I F'ed Up) or AITAH (Am I the A-Hole), etc.

Due to the increasing number of screenshots, progress reports, pools etc. being posted, we request members to use this weekly whiteboard thread to post these, rather than as a new post.

It's intended for pretty much any swimming-related chats, rants etc, as long as they are within the r/swimming rules.

Join in and have fun, have a brag, commiserate, encourage each other, etc!


r/Swimming 4h ago

Can/Should I join masters?

18 Upvotes

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 ✨💓


r/Swimming 5h ago

Sri Chinmoy Marathonswim

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18 Upvotes

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!


r/Swimming 6h ago

Should I bother returning to the swim team this year?

7 Upvotes

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


r/Swimming 6h ago

Weightlifting or functional training?

6 Upvotes

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?


r/Swimming 7h ago

TMJ on breathing side?

4 Upvotes

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?


r/Swimming 3h ago

Have you ever experienced Laryngospasm?

2 Upvotes

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.


r/Swimming 13h ago

Asymmetrical Breaststroke

6 Upvotes

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?


r/Swimming 15h ago

Why are there only 3 Adult Lesson Levels

9 Upvotes

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.


r/Swimming 14h ago

How to know when to stop beginner lessons?

3 Upvotes

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?


r/Swimming 20h ago

Exercise-induced asthma

5 Upvotes

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?


r/Swimming 21h ago

Backstroke and water up my nose

5 Upvotes

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?


r/Swimming 1d ago

Water trapped in my ear , it's been 3 days I've tried every method and still there. Any advice?

11 Upvotes

Yup as title says


r/Swimming 1d ago

Beginner question: pool etiquette?

35 Upvotes

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.


r/Swimming 21h ago

What stretches can I do to eventually achieve a proper streamline?

4 Upvotes

(Last post got deleted because I used a photo to show my streamline and I'm guessing that's not allowed since I don't see any other posts with photos.

My shoulder mobility is horrible. With my back to a wall and without arching my lower back, when I try to streamline, my arms make a 30 degree angle with the wall.

I used to swim competitively but even back then, my streamline put my arms in front of my ears. I had to tuck my chin in to get my arms behind the ears back then. I couldn't do backstroke kick because my face would go underwater.

I want to slowly get a proper streamline. The lack of shoulder mobility is affecting me in other sports and disciplines as well including weightlifting and calisthenics.

Only stretch I know is the one where you kneel on the ground and put your hands on a chair and push your chest to the floor.

Any other tips or stretches to help me get there?


r/Swimming 7h ago

Is this a good time?

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0 Upvotes

I have recently got into swimming regularly. Is this a good time? I did 40 minutes of front crawl then took a two minute breather then did 10 minute of breast stroke.


r/Swimming 1d ago

My coach suggested swimming with a cotton t-shirt on, is this common?

73 Upvotes

I go to a private swimming pool and my coach owns it. Today he mentioned I could bring a cotton t shirt one day to practice and it would help me with my sprint times when I take it off. So I guess it would help me generate drag and resistance during my sets before sprinting.

It wouldn't be a t-shirt I'd been wearing, I'd bring a clean one specifically to put on when swimming. He also said to bring an old one I wouldn't mind swimming in.

Has anyone done this? It's the first time he mentioned it, and I've never seen anyone with a cotton shirt on swimming before. I read the fibers could harm the pool's filter, but I guess my coach knows the risks since he's the one who takes care of it. It also wouldn't be a regular thing.


r/Swimming 1d ago

Worried about starting swimming with bad shoulders

5 Upvotes

Hello all. At the moment, I mainly do jiujitsu, and have been considering starting swimming to help with general fitness and conditioning. I have heard many great things and benefits for swimming, but I have also heard that over time they can put a lot of strain on your shoulders. This worries me a little as I have had a number of shoulder injuries in the past from the aforementioned bjj and also bouldering, so they are not in the best shape. With this being said, I just wanted to hear your thoughts on the subject: Is it something I should be worried about? Is swimming still a good idea to still try? I’m thinking of doing it 2-3 times a week alongside running.


r/Swimming 1d ago

Any exercises to strengthen fingers?

5 Upvotes

I have an issue with my right hand (left hand seems fine) - when swimming long distances, it gets tired of cupping water and my fingers get splayed apart more and more (especially the last 2 digits). Any exercises that I can do to keep the fingers adducted?


r/Swimming 1d ago

Question for student coaches

0 Upvotes

Im a high school senior with over 6 years of competitive swimming experience. I want to coach other students in my area, but im curious how much I should charge.

Im offering 1-on-1 private in-water lessons at my local pool or clients' backyards (if they have one).

Im also a pretty accomplished swimmer with Junior National time standards and am fluent in all strokes

I was also a former lifeguard and certified in like a dozen certifications from Red Cross

With all these qualifications, how much could or should i charge?

I know friends who coach (and are underquaalified than me) who charge $50/hr.

Im thinking somewhere in the 40s and will probably charge according to demand

Thanks!


r/Swimming 1d ago

I need some input on learning how to stop holding nose when jumping into water

3 Upvotes

I never learned this as a child. Now I'm in my mid 30's, and this year I decided that I have to learn how to do this.

By learning how to close my soft palate, I'm now able to dive head first without any problems. I can also swim/dive with my head submerged and keep the water out.

However, I cannot figure out how to keep the water out when jumping feet first. I've tried beathing out, as well as closing my soft palate, yet water gets into my sinuses. When jumping into the water and closing my soft palate it also seems to build up a lot of pressure in my ears, creating quite the discomfort... Is this normal?

Any suggestions for what to do? What am I doing wrong?

EDIT: For clarity, I do not hold my nose anymore. The issue is water in the nose when jumping feet first.


r/Swimming 1d ago

Shipping container swimming pool

14 Upvotes

Anyone?

I work, 10+ years, at southern us state swimming facility, but this is a new one on me.

Has anyone experienced swimming in a shipping container? Do any of you *own* one?

Tia!


r/Swimming 1d ago

Better drills for a beginner?

9 Upvotes

I started swimming a few months ago as a middle aged adult. I can probably do about 80 yards without stopping but will be absolutely gassed. My short term goal is 200 yards without stopping.

I tried doing some 50 yards drill. With 30 seconds rest in between 50 yards, I could maybe do 50 x 3. Then either I would need more rest or only go 25 yards.

Would it be better to keep trying 50 yards sets or switch to something like going 25 yards with shorter rest (like 15 seconds)?


r/Swimming 21h ago

Asking chat gpt to write practices for me, is it accurate?

0 Upvotes

Hey guys, with ai getting more and more advanced I started using it to write my dryland workouts for swimming. I wonder if someone has ever done it before and has some success/failure stories related to that?

I've been using it for like a month now and I am progressing on a gym but obviously at this point it would probably be hard to workout constantly and not see progress so I still dont know what to truly think and how to judge it.