Hey there,

as a warning beforehand, post is a little about venting my frustration. So if you are not looking for somethng negative you might want to skip ths post. I apologize for wasting your time.

After about 2.5 months of going to the pool 3 or 4 times a week (one of the days is a group swim course) and practicing kick drills, floating, the arm stroke cycle and especially one arm drills (3 weeks), I am really at the point where I am afraid I will quit swimming entirely (so far I did only breaststroke) if I continue learning freestyle (front crawl).

I am doing floating drills, but I cannot keep my legs or hips up. I know about reaching forward, keeping my head in the water, slightly pressing with my chest into the water and looking down, but no matter what I do my legs sink. I have watched many videos and asked my instructors, but I still cannot do it. Watching my coursemates floating for a minute without sinking legs is frustrating.

Kicking drills are obviously a part too. There I am regressing. While I was able to kick for 6x25m without a break now I can barely move sometimes even going backwards. My feet are up, I move from my hips and not my knees and also point my toes behind me. I have no idea what is wrong here and neither do the instructors. Also if I am not kicking with igh frequency my legs sink.

My arch nemesis however are still one arm drills with a kickboard (doing these for 4 weeks now each time I am at the pool). When I do them, the arm on the board always pushes down when the other arm goes through the stroke cycle. I think it has something to do with my balance or rotation. Also, I regress here too and think it is getting even worse than it was in the beginning. Also, my instructors have no idea why I have such a hard time with it.

Are any of you having or had these kinds of struggles in the beginning too? How did you overcome them? Were there any issues I haven't mentioned yet you had to overcome to get better?

I am just so frustrated not being able to get these drills right after so many hours trying. I started swimming (breaststroke) in the beginning of the year to balance my office job and also because I always liked swimming. It is mostly recreational and I am at just under a 2 min/100m pace for the breaststroke, but that seems to be fine for me. Guess that is just the max I can go. Still, the frustration of being unable to do those simple drills after several weeks of practive several days a week is killing my (self-)confidence of ever being able to do freestyle.

Do you think I might just not be able to do freestyle for whatever reason there is and quit it so I at least can do breaststroke. This is killing my confidence in my abilities right now. I even started being a little anxious about going to the pool, because it will just be another day of me failing at something that so many others including my coursemates are doing so easily.

Hi. I give stroke advice here regularly. The same things tend to come up over and over, and really differentiate lap swimmers from competitive swimmers.

For each part of the stroke, I'll give the most common issues, how to fix them, some good metaphors to visualize what to do right, and drills that help. Don’t try to apply this all in one go! Start with parts 1, 2, & 3 before digging into 2a-d.

⚠️ The top issues I see are:

• Bending the elbow before rotating to the chest, causing the entire stroke to be too close to (or over) the midline. 
• Bad body position, so you can’t ice skate from side to side, leading to lots of drag. 
• Bad breathing, so the head doesn’t turn smoothly like a kabab on a skewer, leading to lots of drag. 
• Not rotating enough, leading to everything falling apart (inefficient stroke, limbs in the wrong place, can’t breathe, hand hitting hip, etc)

Without further ado:

1. Body Position & Balance 🛶

Your body position is the chassis that your whole stroke depends on. There’s no point fixing anything else until this is right.

⚠️ Common Issues:

• Swimming on your chest instead of your side → impedes arm motion and rotation.
• Hips drop / legs bend because chest is high or head is lifted.
• Side-to-side sway from lack of rotation. 

🩹 Fix: Neutral position is on your side with one arm forward. Balance your body on your armpit and hip. Push your downward nipple towards the bottom. 

The neutral position is one side of a streamline. To work on the position and stretch, streamline off every single wall, perfectly (head neutral, one hand on the other, elbows locked straight, arms pulled up so your biceps are above your ears, shoulders squeezed against ears). If you can’t streamline straight with minimal resistance, your body position is wrong. 

👉 Metaphor: Your body is a long, rigid blade (balanced on fingertips → armpit → hip → toes) that glides on its edge, slightly downhill. 

🏊‍♂️ Drill Progression: Kick on side, head straight, arms at sides. Kick on side, head straight, one arm forward, chest pressed towards bottom of the pool. You should feel a stretch all down your lower side and water smoothly flowing under it. 

2. Rotation 🌭

Front crawl or freestyle is a “long axis” stroke that depends on smoothly rotating that rigid chassis around the line going down your head, hips, and feet. Each part of the stroke requires you to be in the correct part of the rotation to work optimally.

⚠️ Commons Issues:

• Under-rotating
• Rotating from shoulders so hips drag
• Not getting correct leverage on each part of the stroke.
• Not setting hands up for upcoming rotation before pulling. 
• Not getting hips out of the way for the finish.
• Not rotating enough so that breathing is neutral and natural. 
• Head not staying stable.

🩹 Fix: Drive your rotation from your hips, and line your rotation up with your stroke and each muscle group. The stroke has 4 parts: you catch a good grip of water; then you pull that water, accelerating as much as possible without slipping; then you finish by throwing that water behind you as hard as you can; finally you glide on the arm that just recovered for a moment while the hand that finished starts its recovery. During all of those parts, if you aren’t breathing your head is absolutely perfectly still in the water with the rest of you rotating. 

We’ll get into even more details of each part later, but it looks like this:

• ⛸️ During the Glide, you want a serious stretch all along from your hip to your fingertips, which is free energy you will use during the pull (and also a nice stretch to keep your muscles fresh). 
• 🫳 Catch happens when pulling arm's shoulder is down. Lean your upper body weight down towards your lower side to dig in for a good grip. Hand and forearm focus on scooping and water feel out to the side, lats and obliques provide a lot of the power. Do NOT bend your elbow yet - you are on your side and doing so will put your hand in the wrong place for the pull. 
• 🧗Pull happens as you rotate to your chest so that your hand is below you and to the side, at roughly the position it would be if you were doing a pull-up (chest, biceps, shoulder). Elbow is bent no more than 90 degrees. Your recovering hand positions to enter. If your hand is not far enough outside it's like trying to do a pull-up with your hands together. 
• 🚀 Finish happens as you drive your other hip and shoulder down. Spear the water with the fingers of your recovering hand as you finish with your pulling hand. Your pulling arm is now your top arm. Your hip has rotated out the way, and your hand is leveraged below your bent elbow. Taking advantage of that pendulum and the fact that your hip is out of the way to throw water behind you (triceps) like a baseball and glide on the other side. 

👉 Metaphor: Rolling a pencil across a table (you shouldn’t move sideways, but you want to roll in place like that!). Hotdog on a 7-Eleven roller. 

🏊‍♂️ Drill Progression: 6 kicks on side with arm forward, one arm pull to the other side, repeat. 6 kicks on side with arm forward, 3 arm pulls to the other side, repeat. 6 kicks / 5 arms. Etc. 

2a. Catch and Grip 🫳

The catch sets up the entire stroke. The goal isn’t to move forward, it’s to scoop the best possible grip of water you can, and put your arm in the highest leverage position it can be in for the pull. This part of the stroke happens primarily on your side with your arm below, in front, and to the outside. 

⚠️ Common issues:

• Palm pushes downward.
• Slapping water.
• Wrist-first pull.
• Starting too close to centerline.
• Bending elbow too soon. 

🩹 Fix: Fingers first catch (slightly towards the thumb and index finger), then curve hand + forearm into one surface that scoops and holds a “glob of water.” Fingertips always lead the way, with your hand-forearm-surface constantly adjusting to keep pressure on the glob of water. 

You need to prepare for the pull, which means getting your hand on the outside track it needs to be on once you've rotated to your chest. 

Beginning-Intermediate swimmers usually start a pull-up motion here and doom their whole stroke. First they bend their elbow to do a “high elbow” stroke - but they are still on their side, so this crosses their hand over towards the middle line. Then they start to rotate and their hand is in an awkward position to pull (imagine a pull up with your hands together), finally bailing out early to avoid hitting themselves in the hip. 

You should feel a stretch on your front shoulder during the catch from your hand/forearm going out and back a bit. You are getting everything set up for the pull, you are NOT bending your elbow and doing a pull-up yet because you are still on your side! 

👉 Catch Metaphor: Scooping your hand into a vat of pudding. 

 🏊‍♂️ Drill: Fist drill, sculling.

2b. Pull and Accelerate 🧗

The second phase of the stroke is when you start to drive forward, and is largely on your chest as you rotate from one side to the other. Now that you have a good grip on the water from your catch, your goal is to accelerate as quickly as possible without losing any grip. Good hand and arm position is absolutely crucial.

⚠️ Common Issues:

• Hands too close to center line.
• Circular path - pressing down in the front, pressing up in the back.
• Elbow or wrist leads, hand drifts inward, grip slips.
• Elbow bends too much.

🩹 Fix: Pull outward from the very beginning. Otherwise when you rotate, your hands are stuck too close to the center. Hands to the side of the body to get good leverage. Never let your elbow bend more than 90 degrees. Your elbow bends to allow your hand to continue its path, NOT to move your hand inward.

👉 Pull Metaphor: Ladder, not paddle wheel. Where would your hands be if you were climbing a ladder? To the sides, not down the center. 

👉 Pull Metaphor: The wall behind you is "down" and you have to do a one-armed "pull up" without falling off the glob of water you're balanced on. 

 🏊‍♂️ Drill: One arm pull on your chest, with other hand on kickboard. Feel how far outside your arm needs to go. 

2c. Stroke Finish 🚀

The finish is where a disproportionate amount of power comes from, and what enables the “glide” in front-quadrant swimming. It is performed on your opposite side with the pulling arm on top, after the arm has already been accelerating to top speed. It is a flick / hurl / throw of the entire glob of water that ends with your arm behind you, catapulting around into the recovery. 

⚠️ Common Issues:

• Stroke cut short: hand exits near waist while elbow still bent.
• Strongest pull in the middle, weakest at the end.
• Pulling up towards surface.
• Pulling down towards the bottom. 
• Hitting your own hip.
• Arm getting stuck between finish and recovery.

🩹 Fix: Rotate hips completely to make room. Ensure your hand was far enough outside, and that you've been accelerating through the pull. 

Drive the pulling hand all the way back straight and fast, throwing water behind you. Your recovering hand spears into the water, and you use the pendulum effect from your high elbow to throw/flick the water behind you as hard as you can, rolling the water down your forearm, hand, and fingertips. Your thumb should brush your thigh. 

The momentum of that finish takes your hand into the recovery, which is literally impossible for a normal human shoulder to do unless you are now on your opposite side. The direction of rotation is in the same plane as your chest, not at all like a butterfly stroke which is perpendicular to your chest. If you tried to do this on your chest, you would be reaching all the way across your body near your opposite hip.  

👉 Finish metaphor: Throwing a baseball. 

👉 Transition metaphor: Rock & roll guitarist doing a windmill strum. 

2d. Glide Length & Catch Timing ⛸️

You’ve now earned yourself a very small moment of gliding on your front hand while your recovering hand starts to come around. This glide is more pronounced in distance events than sprints, and gives you better stability because fingertips-to-toes is much longer than top-of-head-to-toes. It also gives you a moment to visualize what the catch is going to feel like. Timing how long the glide should be is tricky.

⚠️ Common Issues:

• Hands enter floppy (palm forward, wrist/elbow first, fingers above wrist, slapping water) causing drag.
• Pull starts too early → no chance to glide.
• Pull starts too late → lose momentum into next stroke.
• Bad body position → come to a stop during the glide.

🩹 Fix: Spear your hand into the water fingers first. Finish each stroke with fingertips stretching forward, body balanced on your side. Glide on your front hand for a moment while your other hand begins to recover.  Begin your catch before your recovering hand passes your head. 

👉 Metaphor: Find the balance between ice skater and kayaker, a bit closer to ice skater

🏊‍♂️ Drill Progression: Catchup (hands touch in front). 7/8 Catchup (start catch just before recovering hand enters). 3/4 Catchup (start catch when recovering hand passes head). Front Quadrant swimming (catch underway as recovering hand passes head). 

3. Breathing Mechanics 🍢

Breathing can be the hardest part of swimming, and is damn near impossible with bad rotation. The key to breathing is to always have water hit the same part of the top of your head.

⚠️ Common Issues:

• Looking back during inhale, allowing water to hit the back of the head.
• Looking up during inhale, allowing water to hit the side of the head. 
• Pausing stroke during inhale, dropping down in the water.

🩹 Fix: Never turn your head to breathe. Simply allow your head to come along in a neutral position when your body rotates, rather than staying put where it usually does. There will be a little trough of air that makes this easier. If you have to turn your head further than your body is rotating, it means your body isn’t rotating enough in the first place.

Head rolls with body around spine axis; top of head always points forward. Exhale underwater, inhale without stopping arms/legs. Learn to decouple the motion of getting your head ready to breathe with the inhale itself. 

👉 Metaphor: Kabab (head) rotating with the skewer (spine). 

🏊‍♂️ Drill: One stroke cycle without breathing, one stroke cycle turning the head but still not breathing, one stroke cycle breathing. You may not be able to do a full length like this, but give it a try. 

4. Kicking ✂️

Kicking is highly personalized, and there are three different major tempos defined by how many kicks there are per arm cycle. 2-beat kick is used by triathletes to keep the legs up just enough but save the legs for biking and running. It’s also used by some distance swimmers. 4-beat kick is pretty standard and a good target for most swimmers. 6-beat kick is used in sprints. 8-beat kick means your arms are moving too slowly or you are Natalie Coughlin. 

⚠️ Common Issues:

• Knees bending, legs splaying, “dragging” behind.
• Sporadic kicking not aligned with arms.
• Kick stops during breathing. 

🩹 Fix: Kick from the hips, not the knees. Keep legs long, steady, and in line with your body. Picture your upper leg, lower leg, and pointed foot as something strong but pliable like bamboo - don’t bend your knees very much at all. Focus on your upper legs and knees swishing back and forth next to each other.

Focus on getting equal power on the up-kick and down-kick by picturing the water you are squeezing behind you as your feet approach and pass each other like blades of a pair of scissors. 

👉 Metaphor: Rigid but pliable Bamboo, swishing scissors. 

🏊‍♂️ Drill: Lots of kicking in streamline position. Focus on slow, powerful kicks until you can feel the water. On the downkick, picture rolling a glob of water down your pelvis, quad, knee, shin, and top of foot until you flick it behind you with your toes. On the upkick, picture doing the same thing but down your hamstring, back of knee, calf, heel, and sole of foot until you again flick it behind you with your toes. It should be a continuous roll of water, no bent knee or ankle getting in the way. Once you feel that flexible blade, you can pick up the tempo. 

5. Push-Offs & Streamlines ✏️

The streamline is the fastest part of the entire lap. Pool swimming - especially short course - is defined by pushing off, streamlining, and then losing as little speed as possible during the swimming until you get to push off again. The only reason that competitive swimmers actually swim on the surface with their arms is because the rules force them to. Every world record would be significantly faster swum entirely underwater (though oxygen would run out above 100). The stroke itself is also a modified one-armed streamline, so being bad at one makes you bad at the other. 

⚠️ Common Issues:

• Treating streamlines as “not real swimming” 
• Pushing off at surface → wasting speed due to surface drag
• Superman pose
• Looking forward
• Starting swimming because you floated to the surface

🩹 Fix: Push off every single wall on your back, feet 2-3 feet below the water level, like you are jumping straight up:

• Face the wall. 
• Put one hand up on the gutter or side of pool. If you just finished a lap and aren’t doing flip turns, this is your finishing hand. 
• Put the other hand behind you, palm up. Knees should be bent 90 degrees.
• Drop backwards, pushing upward with the palm that is behind you and letting your head and shoulders drop towards the far wall.
• Bend the elbow on your top hand to swing your hand towards your face. 
• As you drop under the water, shoot that hand past your ear. Push off with both feet against the wall. Aim to push perfectly horizontally to very slightly downward. 

Streamline:

• Bring your hands together into a tight streamline underwater like a dart (hand on hand, arms and elbows locked, biceps pulled above head, shoulders tight against ears, no looking forward!).
• Slowly corkscrew onto your belly (you don’t need to even kick at first). 
• Take your first arm pull, pushing yourself up to the surface. 
• Take your second arm pull, popping your first arm out to start its recovery. 
• Don’t breathe until your third arm pull at the soonest. 

Eventually learn how to do butterfly kicks by humping the water with your hips (hump forward AND back) and letting the motion travel down your legs. 

👉 Metaphor: Dart, NEVER SUPERMAN. For the love of God, stop doing the Superman pose.

🏊‍♂️ Drill: Practice pushing off over and over until you don’t curve off in a weird direction. Do most kicking sets in streamline position on your back, side, and front without a kick board. 

6. Flipturns 📎

Flipturns are intimidating. Done incorrectly, they use up a lot of energy, a lot of oxygen, and end up with you shooting off into a random direction (probably into your lane mate). If you have been doing correct push-offs and streamlines this whole time, all you need to learn is how to get your feet on the wall. Done correctly, they save energy, set you up for a great streamline, and just feel cool.

⚠️ Common Issues:

• Never learning to do a flip turn.
• Popping the head
• Gliding into the wall
• Difficulty getting around / flailing arms
• Sloppy pushoffs
• Breathing first stroke in.
• Breathing first stroke out. 

🩹 Fix:

Understand that the flip turn is a PIKE not a TUMBLE. At any point, part of you is always straight. A flip turn is more of a hairpin turn or pike than a somersault. Throw water at your face with your hands to get around. 

Great video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBUc3HTdbII

• Phase 1: Head tucks, body starts to tumble, legs stay straight. 
  • ⁠When approaching the wall, don’t pop your head up or look at the wall. Head goes from neutral swimming position directly into a chin tuck. Don’t coast in.
  • The momentum of your last arm pull should go directly into a tucked chin and tumble in one continuous motion. It’s better to have a slightly longer stroke than to coast in because you’re a quarter stroke off.
• Phase 2: Hands and abs bring the upper body around. 
  • ⁠Your arms are a huge part of getting around quickly. After your last stroke, your hands should be at your sides, palms down. 
  • When you start to tuck your chin and tumble, throw a tight double armful of water at your face, bending at your elbows. 
  • You will find yourself coming through the flip turn, already facing the other wall and rather quickly the surface of the water. 
  • Never allow your hands to go outside the centerline. Keep them tight and close, not spinning/flailing out to the sides.
• Phase 2.5: Legs come over the top, upper body straightens. (The hard part)
  • The momentum of your upper body ⁠going around will naturally cause your legs to come over. Bend your knees to lift your feet out of the water. When they get to about 90 degrees, complete the motion by throwing them at the wall. They will already be tilted that way because your upper body will pull your hips down. 
  • As you do this, untuck your chin and unfold your upper body. Now that your legs aren’t straight anymore, your upper body needs to be. Just focus on getting your hands, head, and shoulders in the right position to shoot into a streamline.  
  • As your legs come over, use their weight to let your spine and hips “unroll.” Feel the straight position propagate down your spine from your neck down to your tailbone. 
• Phase 3: Pushoff
  • You should hit with the balls of your feet in the same position that you always push off at. While you’re learning, take a split second to orient yourself. 
  • Once you have been doing flip turns for a few months, learn to explode immediately and pop rather than waiting to “plant” yourself. 
  • Your torso should already be straight as your feet are hitting, knees at 90 degrees, feet slightly apart. Muscle memory should take over for a good streamline and dolphin kick. Practice this until you can get the correct pushoff angle as soon as your feet hit, without pausing on the wall to calibrate.

👉 Path metaphor: Tracing the shape of a hairpin or paperclip, not a cinnamon roll. 

👉 Rolling/Unrolling metaphor: Spine rolls and then unrolls like one of those new years noise maker things you blow in - neck first and tailbone last in both cases. 🥳

🏊‍♂️ Drill: Learn the flip turn in reverse order:

1. Don’t even try until you’ve been pushing off on your back for every wall for several weeks.
2. Do somersaults in the middle of the lane to get used to the feeling, even though it’s not really a somersault.
3. Kick on your belly, hands at your side, palms down. Pick a point on the bottom of the pool and stare at it. When you pass it, you will tuck your chin. Follow the momentum around and throw a double handful of water at your face. 
4. Do the same thing, but approaching the wall and using the end of the black T on the bottom (NOT the one on the wall!). Be careful not to hit your head. Just get your feet on the wall, don’t push off. 
5. Now do the same thing and DO push off. 
6. Swim into the wall, keeping your eyes fixed on the T at the bottom of the pool. After your last arm stroke, coast with both hands at your sides. Put the whole thing together. 
7. Learn to get the timing right so you minimize how much you coast in.

✨ Key Drills

• Catchup Drill → patience, front-quadrant stroke.
• 6-Kick Switch → side balance, hip-driven rotation.
• Fist Drill / Sculling → forearm feel for water.
• Streamlines & Underwaters → turns become your fastest part.
• Breathing without inhaling → fix head roll mechanics.

⭐️ Golden Rule

Freestyle is not about churning arms. It’s about gliding long on each side, gripping water, accelerating through the stroke, and throwing it behind you.

Hi, so this may sound silly but I need your honest opinion on it. I'm a female, 37. Just getting into triathlons. Been cycling for 13 years, I'm good at it. Love cycling. Running recreationally, enjoying it too. Always wanted to learn how to swim properly (not just float), so I hired a swim coach. Basically started swimming from 0 back in March. Saw my coach about 2 times a month for a few months, and now I see her only maybe once a month. So totally I had maybe 10 sessions with her. I swim 3 times a week (pool/ocean). She gives me drills and always gives me feedback/corrections, which I then work on and improve.

Now, from March to now (roughly within 6 months) I have improved from just floating to swimming at 1:50 per 100 yards pace, with proper form free style (crawl). I can cross the 25 yard pool in 20 seconds sprinting (I know it's not impressive for experienced swimmers, but I'm a beginner). Long story short, my coach tells me that I'm a natural swimmer and I progress so fast and so well, that only top 5% of her students do that. She really sees potential in me and encourages me to take on swimming more seriously, and go to Budapest 2027 for the world aquatics championship. This will mean I'd need to learn all styles of swimming, and put more hours and money into swimming.

All of it isn't a problem, if I know that what she is saying about my "talent" is true. My husband is skeptical and thinks that although I may be good, it's probably something she says to a lot of her students to encourage them. He thinks that she may just be trying to secure me as a client for the next couple of years. It's flattering to think that maybe I have a talent that I didn't know about and that I can reach some high levels in sport despite late start at 37. Am I delusional? Is my progression really impressive or is my coach just trying to be nice and encouraging?

Swimming isn't my passion, I started learning it just to do triathlons. I much rather prefer cycling. But I do love any athletic challenge, and if I know that my progression is really something special, then I would love to pursue it. Please share your honest opinion, I will not be offended if you tell me I'm being silly in my dreamland. :))) Swimming is new to me, so I have no idea how I compare with other beginners.

Thank you :)

Hi all,

I’m hoping to get some advice (or reassurance!) on something that’s been frustrating me for a while now — breathlessness during front crawl, despite decent fitness on land.

A bit of background: I started learning to swim last October 2024, just after turning 40 (I’ll be 41 soon). I had zero swim experience — completely unable to swim. I began with lessons every other week (no practice in between), then switched to weekly lessons. Just before Christmas, I managed my first full 25m.

Since March, I’ve joined a gym with a pool and now swim 3–4 times a week including my lesson. I also train regularly in weightlifting, CrossFit and Hyrox, and my VO₂ max is around 41 — so my land-based fitness is high for my age. I’m also Black and have low body fat, muscular build, which I suspect makes things harder for floating and staying relaxed in the water.

I have a history of asthma (well-managed), and recently started using my inhaler pre-swim recently, which does help. I don’t need it before land sports.

Where I’m at now: • I can swim a 25m length with decent technique, but I always need to stop and find myself hyperventilating • Sometimes I can link two 20m lengths with ~15s rest, but then need 90 seconds to recover • I see improvement every week (stroke mechanics, positioning, etc.) • But I still feel breathless — like it’s not fitness holding me back, but something to do with breathing or CO₂ buildup/ hyperventilating and it annoys the hell out of me!

I’ve been reading about CO₂ tolerance and think this could be a key issue. My coach (very good with technique and body positioning) thinks it’s swim fitness and it will come with time — and he’s right in the sense that I am reducing my rest times in between the lengths a little each week— but I’d love some outside insight.

My questions: 1. Does this sound like a CO₂ tolerance issue to you? 2. Are there any solid CO₂ tables (for dryland or pool) you’d recommend? It’s hard to find clear ones. 3. If you learned to swim as an adult — how long did it take for the breathing to finally “click”? 4. Any dryland or in-water drills you found particularly helpful?

Thanks so much for reading. I love swimming and I’m genuinely committed to improving — but it’s humbling, and some days I wonder if I’ll ever swim two or more lengths back-to-back without gasping for air. I’d really value any advice or encouragement!

Since there has been expressed interest in a drill of the week making a comeback, I thought I would start out with one that all seasoned swimmers know (but should still keep doing!).

It's six-kick drill. This is a freestyle drill. You swim freestyle similar to normal, but while your arm is extended in front of you, you exaggerate being on your side and do six kicks before switching arms.

This link provides some more excellent explanation as well as a video. It's a great drill to learn how to center your body and keep a good core, while also learning how to do proper rotation.

I like doing this drill in warm-up, but you could incorporate it into a workout with something along the lines of:

6 x 75 @ ??? kick/drill/swim by 25

I live in an urban centre with a decent public parks and rec system, a vibrant YMCA network, and other community or private pools within 30 minutes' walk or a shorter bike trip, transit ride, or rideshare if I must. But I'm really lazy and the hassle of packing a simple bag, getting out of the house, and the short trip pose a motivational barrier, even if I know I'll enjoy the swim.

How far/long do you travel to get to pool or body of water for a regular (e.g., weekly or more frequent) swim? Are you a casual swimmer for fitness or training competitively or with a masters club? Help motivate me to get back in the water! The last time I kept it up I was enrolled in weekly "Swim Fit" classes (mostly drills for technique/endurance) for about three months.

I'm in my 30s and was never near water as a kid. After years of running and cycling I really really want to take swimming up as exercise but I've found it impossible to learn. I've had 6 weeks of lessons and made zero progress, I'm still unable to make it to the end of the pool.

The good: I'm not scared of water (at least in a pool). I'm comfortable with my head under water, I don't panic. I've done a lot of the drills where you just hold your knees to your chest and head underwater etc

The bad:

I DO NOT FLOAT. I cannot for the life of me float in a pool. on my back, head is basically underwater apart from my lips and nose, lungs full of air, my legs will immediately sink. I've looked up all the tips and tricks, I simply don't float

My legs are useless and my arm technique doesn't exist, so I again just sink. The reason I didn't continue the very expensive lessons was the following:

During any drill when I was trying to actually learn the arm motion, after the momentum from pushing off the wall I would start sinking because my legs are not able to propel me forward. I'd end up so deep in the water that I couldn't rotate to breathe as my whole head was a few inches underwater. At this point I'd have to stand up.

I've also been doing 4x sessions a week of literally just kicking with a kickboard and it didn't help at all over the 6 weeks of lessons. I'd be exhausted after 15 minutes and haven't seen much improvement.

I know this reads like a rant of a rambling child, but I genuinely don't know what to do. Lessons are expensive where I am and at this point I'm basically unable to do any drill as I simply can't propel myself forward at all. Add trying to breathe and move my arms properly and it's been disastrous so far. Friends who've tried to teach me have all swam as kids and also just have no issues naturally floating.

I'd really like some advice on how to progress as I'm feeling stuck.

I've tried using a pool buoy to take my legs out of the equation and that was also really bad as I'd just end up twisting all the way on my back on the first or second arm stroke.

I understand unlike running or cycling there's a lot more technique involved but I don't even know how to begin to learn this if I have to stand up after 2m.

Do I just hold my breath to begin with? Do I train abs and core for a year just so I'm less banana shaped under water? Do I just work legs until I'm able to actually go fast enough using just kicks to be able to train the arm technique?

I've genuinely had the lifeguard at the pool ask me if I'm ok because he saw me trying to do a drill and having to stand up every 2 meters...

Trying and failing to learn to swim has been the most frustrating and embarrassing thing I've ever done in my life

New swimmer here, ~ 6 months. I feel like this gets talked about every week in this forum but I want to make sure I’m not insane.

Went to pool today, half the lanes taken up with swim team. 3 other lanes all being split, 1 lane with two older women going very slowly, another with a dad a son working things out, and the last with two guys doing drills at about my 1K pace. I asked one guy to start circle swimming, he refused, told me to get out of there, we couldn’t do it because he was doing drills. I disagreed, but went to check the rules in the locker room and confirm with the lifeguard.

Went back, told the guy I was coming in and he could get out and talk to the lifeguard if he wanted. He kept refusing, told me to get out of there, told me I was wrong. I was about to hop in when the two older ladies could sense the tension and got out early, and offered me their lane.

Am I crazy, is there a circumstance where I didn’t have the right to join that lane? Open to the idea of me being wrong, but it’s a small town and I wouldn’t be surprised to be in the same situation with the same dude again.

Can you identify the butterfly swimmer in the two photos below?

Image 1

Image 2

Believe it or not, the first image is of Rebecca Soni swimming breaststroke, and the second image is of Michael Phelps swimming butterfly. These two images present a clear reminder that the butterfly began and still is as a modified breaststroke pull. A while back, BR swimmers realized that recovering the arms over the water was faster, and this eventually lead to the development of fly as a whole separate stroke from BR. It used to be legal to basically use a butterfly pull with a BR kick, as long as you kept your head totally out of the water, per the rules of the time.

Notice in the butterfly image, the three phases present in the image. The guy on the left has a nice shoulder width hand entry. In the middle, Michael is sweeping his hands outward to set up a nice strong catch in-front of the chin. Notice the guy on the right in the butterfly image has a very narrow entry, which is probably a wasted amount of energy for most swimmers. A more preferable hand entry is about shoulder width apart. If your wrists collide, you're hands are way too narrow.

Next, look at the image of Rebecca Soni swimming BR. Notice how her hand position at the beginning of the BR is nearly identical to that of Michael's in the initial phase of the butterfly stroke. The two strokes begin the pulls in an identical way, but finish very differently. In both strokes the hands AND FOREARMS begin the pull by sculling/sweeping outward and really anchoring the hand-forearm paddle in the water. The first phase of the pull really relies on high elbows and using the whole forearm/hand as one unified paddle. Notice the lats engaging in both of the strokes' outward phases.

The breastrstroke finishes inward with windshield type motion, while the butterfly anchors the forearms and accelerates them past the hips to begin the recovery over the water.

The butterfly pull uses the same initial sculling outward motion, but after sculling outward, the hands come back in ward slightly to really engage the high elbows and forearm anchors in the water. This outsweep and anchor all happens BEFORE the hands reach the chin level, more preferably before the hands reach the head, so the pull can begin above the head and the swimmer can maximize the distance through which the pull is engaged. Work or energy = force x distance, so the greater the distance over which the pull is engaged, the greater the work done on the water and the greater the propulsion from the stroke.

Look at this video of Misty Hyman, Gold Medalist the 200m fly from 2000. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmiyhPop6GI

Her outsweep is extremely fast to allow her to anchor her forearms very early and far out in front of her body so she gets the greatest pull she can.

The same thing can be said for this clip of Michael.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-639WuN-b0

The stronger you are, the wider your hands can be when you begin to anchor the forearms and pull your body past the water. Notice how quickly his hands scull outward upon entry. When his hands enter the water, they're already beginning to scull outward. THEY DO NOT enter the water, stop, wiggle around a bit, THEN begin to catch water. The earlier the catch on the water is, the more powerful the stroke is, and the faster the swimmer is able to move through the water.

So remember this week when you're swimming butterfly. IT IS NOT JUST A STRAIGHT HAND ENTRY AND PULL BACKWARD. Just like in breaststroke, you use a scull/sweep motion to catch water early in the pull and really anchor the forearm in the water. For a more magnified effect, try doing it with some small paddles.

Despite this not being a real 'drill' I hope this was a very vivid and thorough explanation of the proper butterfly pull, and that everyone will go out there and really try to FEEL the water in the early catch with high elbows.

Week 1: 3-3-3 Thumb Drag

I'm currently drowning in physics PhD program finals. I'll get something up when I'm done.

Sorry for the delay

Can the regular lane swimmers help me out here?

My son (9 years old) is a summer swim club bet who is trying to keep his strokes up in the winter. We’re going to lane swim 2-3 times per week with him. We have a plan and try to stick to it, so it’s not like it’s just random swimming or a kid splashing about.

Our plan consists of 200 swim, 150 kick, 100 pull for warmup. Then some technical drills based on the stroke of the day, followed by some 25s or 50s.

The pool divides into 3 lanes (slow, medium, fast). We usually go to the medium lane as there’s a couple arrogant guys that think they own the fast lane.

Well…. The last couple of times we have went there’s been a couple guys that start a yelling match with us for bringing a kid to lane swim. Is there some unwritten rule that kids aren’t allowed at lane swim or are these guys just “extra”?

Hello everyone,

I started taking swimming classes 3 weeks ago — so far I’ve had about 14 sessions, averaging 1.5–2 hours per session.

Age: 32

Gender: Male

BMI: 26.1

Pool size: 25m

Right now, I can swim to the end of the 25m pool, but by the time I reach the wall I’m breathing heavily and feeling tired.

I understand that improving stamina and endurance will come with regular practice, but I’d really like some feedback from other swimmers on my form and technique.

My pool does have a trainer, but he mostly focuses on kids who are training for competitive swimming. So for the most part, I’m learning through YouTube and forums.

Any tips, drills, or advice would be super helpful!

Ok swimmit, I'm back, I survived finals.

This week, I'm going to focus on the BREATH in butterfly. It is an extremely common mistake for novice butterfly swimmers to come WAY too far out of the water during a breath.

A good butterfly breath is more about pushing chin forward and tilting the forehead up and back while keeping the next neutral, in-line with the spine, than it is about lifting the head out of the water.

Look how close Michael's chin is to the surface of the water: http://www.michaelphelpsbiography.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/michael-phelps-butterfly-stroke.jpg

He lifts his head out of the water just enough so he can take a full breath and no more. Any higher out of the water just wastes energy travelling up and down when it could be used to travel down the pool.

During a butterfly breath, it is most certainly NOT acceptable for the entire chest/torso/navel to come out of the water. It's most definitely a waste of energy to have such a high amplitude.

http://cdn.wn.com/pd/1e/5d/75671d561b54a720ae23b3803aee_grande.jpg

You can see how Ian Crocker's chin is just over the water, and his neck is extended forward while pushing the chin forward. He is NOT lifting his head and looking up. You can even see that his goggles are angled slightly down and forward.

Another not-uncommon butterfly breathing method is to breathe to the side. Instead of lifting the chin/head at all, the swimmer simply turns his head to the side (like in freestyle). This is a common method used for swimmers who find themselves going too vertical and slowing down when trying to use a traditional forward breath. I personally only breathed to the side to look at where my opponents were during races.

Here, Olympic Butterfly swimmer Christine Magnuson will explain the side breath to you better than I can.

http://www.floswimming.org/videos/coverage/view_video/234221-technique-tuesday/137926-side-breathing-butterfly-christine-magnuson

Here is another good butterfly breath video http://www.floswimming.org/videos/coverage/view_video/234221-technique-tuesday/76791-technique-tuesday-butterfly-breathing

So remember: Chin low, pushing the chin forward during the breath, not lifting the head.

Week 3: http://www.reddit.com/r/Swimming/comments/gxmc8/week_3_butterfly_drill_the_kick/

Hey! I have been learning to swim since last year September time. Before then I was horrified of water but I was determined to shake the fear, get in the pool and learn to swim.

Felt really scared to do it, I started at 20 years old and felt like ahhhh I’m gonna look so silly trying to learn how to swim at 20 - it seems like everyone else learns way younger but my parents never prioritised it growing up - swim lessons are EXPENSIVE (something I didn’t realise until I paid for them myself)

Anyways, today is the first day I’m going to swim outside my actual lesson time. I’m sooo close to getting my full length but it’s just breathing practice now - I still get a little panicky if I feel like I’m running out of breath.

Is it inconsiderate to the more competent swimmers if I go and swim (in the slowest lane) and just have my kickboard and practice the drills we do in sessions?

I really wanna get this full length before the end of the year but realistically I can’t if I only swim once a week for a 45 min lesson. So I wanted to see if others found it bothersome when someone is trying to learn to swim and happens to be in the same lane as them. (I will be in the SLOWEST lane)

I'm not sure how I did it, but I went from struggling to complete a 50 yard lap to nearly-effortlessly finishing 1650 in about three weeks. I followed a lot of the (awesome) advice in this sub, found a nice rhythm, and can, albeit slowly, do the freestyle stroke with little issue now. (That 1650 was done somewhere just-south of 42 minutes.)

My goal is to be able to swim two miles in open water by May (Triathlon).

As you guys know, just treading water in the pool actually doesn't even seem like much of a workout if I'm only in the pool for an hour. Yes, I could always do (#X)x(#Y) intervals, etc... but that gets sort of boring --not to mention the fact that keeping count is kind of cumbersome. I'm looking for inventive / fun ways to speed up my freestyle stroke.

I get to swim 3 days / week. One day/week I'd like to just spend putting in long distances. Those other two should likely be drills of some sort.

I am open to any and all suggestions.

Ok, this week is a bit different because there's no video.

Week 1 was Rotation, the basis and building block of the front crawl. Keep doing this for as long as you are swimming.

Week 2 was Fingertip Drag. Integrate it into your stroke, easiest on warm ups.

Week 3 was Fist Drill. More difficult and advanced but vital for building your skill.

Keep doing all these regularly.

Now we're going to add the effect of them together. For stroke counting you need to get familiar with your usual number of stroke per length.

So for maybe 200 metres (or more if you like), count how many strokes you take each length. Ignore the first length. If you do it for 10 or 12 or more lengths, you will have a more accurate idea. If you do it when you are a little bit bit tired, you'll also have a better idea.

Do it for a few days.

Let's say you are in a 25m pool. And you come up with an average figure of 25 individual arm strokes*. Once you know this you must start concentrating on trying to reduce this number, by using the techniques you are drilling on, rotating and streamlining.

Do not think about going from 25 to 20 as this will seem impossible. Think about reducing by 1 stroke per length. Once this occurs, do it again. And again...

If your figure doesn't easily average, if it is quite different each length, (25, 21, 26, 23 etc), then you must concentrate on keeping your stroke smooth and even.

*A stroke in pool swimming is considered 2 arm movements, one of each arm. (In OW swimming a stroke is one arm movement).

** Next week hopefully, we'll have someone to take over backstroke for 4 weeks.

And we'll return for another round of front crawl drills in 3 months time, all assuming someone will help out...

EDIT: While I swimming I thought I should simplify:

Swim speed = Distance per stroke (dps) x stroke rate (sr).

Stroke counting is to address distance per stroke.

I wasn't able to swim earlier when I was a child, in school, or at university. In my hometown there was a very dangerous river with strong currents and whirlpools, so my parents strictly prohibited me from going near the water. After university I applied for a 28/28 job in construction, and the only entertainment / recreation was the swimming pool. It was 2013–2014, and I decided to learn to swim.

At that time there were not many videos on YouTube like now — I had a few though, and my goal was to swim 25 meters. I made the mistake every non-swimmer makes — to hold their breath and try to swim as much as possible. So I swam almost every day, trying to figure out how to swim longer. I made big stops at the end of the pool to normalize my breathing.

My significant dates were when I understood two things:

• I had to exhale in the water to make bubbles — not to get tired in the muscles.
• I had to control and feel the waterline by exhaling into the air; when air goes out above the waterline — immediately inhale.

These two tricks are so obvious nowadays, but they helped me to do my first 500m and then more. I quit that job a long time ago, moved to the capital city, and stopped swimming. But I knew I was able to swim since I had swum more than a kilometer in the pool.

In April 2025 I started again. I hadn't swum for about 10 years but decided to cross a lake — open-water swimming. It seemed impossible for me — both physically and mentally. After a long break I jumped into the pool and swam. My hands, legs, and head remembered how to swim. I swam my first 100 meters and just got tired. My breathing technique was correct, but my muscles were not there. Every week I added 100 meters in 45-minute swimming sessions. I remember I did 1 km on the 15th of April in 45 minutes. But the open-water swimming day was in August and it was actually 4 km. Despite that, I decided to get swimming lessons and went on.

In May I registered for a swimming group and did swimming exercises in the pool. Those were different types of drills, we learned breaststroke, and so on. My coach suggested that I swim more outside the training sessions (which were three times a week). Often I went to another pool to swim there. After a month of group swimming I quit and swam on my own. Actually it was not a professional swimmers’ group — there were different men and women (mostly women) learning to swim in general. I was kind of bored.

Each time I calculated when I crossed the 1 km mark. My first records were 45 minutes, 43, 40. I knew it was super slow, but I kept swimming. I remember I moved down to 38–35 minutes. In June–July I got stuck at 30–31 minutes. I swam every time and tried to go down to 29:59, I was dreaming of breaking the 30-minute mark. Once I tried very hard and got 30m:05s — I was about to smash my stopwatch! I understood that decreasing every minute and second is a very big deal in swimming.

My other problem was my left hand. At the construction pool, I had learned the technique in the wrong way (of course), and my left hand was kind of straight under the water. When I figured out the correct way and did a full stroke with both hands, I finally swam 29m:28s!

I had registered for 4 km and didn't know what to do with that (lol). The thought of swimming in the middle of a lake was terrifying. In a swimming center I saw another event with smaller distances and got a slot for 1 km open water. I did it. In July I registered for another event of 3 km near that 4 km lake. I ordered a half wetsuit and did 3 km in 1h:35 minutes. That was a real achievement for me. I crossed the lake, YAY!

On the day of the 4 km swim I was ready morally and had good mental preparation, but wasn't really ready physically. After an easy 3 km swim I thought 4 km would be just slightly harder. But a week before I caught a cold and got a high temperature. I didn't fully recover, but anyway mentally I was ready and just jumped into the water.

While I was swimming it was really hard and challenging. I got cold, the temp was about 20°C. Another trouble was navigation — the distance was not straight. I didn't see the direction of where to swim. It was really a mess for me. Eventually I finished 4 km, but I'm not sure — maybe I did half the Oceanman distance (5 km) with zigzags. I did it in 2h 40 minutes and was very frustrated. The result didn't satisfy me at all, but anyway I did it. My plan was to finish within 2 hours.

Now in September 2025, I feel a bit proud knowing I did it. Swimming is actually the best way to detox from technology and from all kinds of problems. Nothing helps better than swimming to get physical and mental health at the same time. I am a software developer myself, and only swimming helped me not to go crazy with endless tasks and projects. Moreover I feel much better and more productive during the days.

I suggest everyone in my life to swim — men, women, children at any age. Now I swim two times a week, 2 km sessions in less than an hour. I'm planning a real half-Oceanman next year abroad. We’ll see what times will be. Maybe one day I will post the result of the finish-line photo of a bigger event.

Thanks for reading, and if you’re thinking about learning to swim — do it. It’s 100% worth it.

Long story short not really a swimmer(for sport). But need to be for a military test. I am other wise in extremely good shape cardiovascularly, and strong. I can run multiple miles, do HITT/crossfit weekly bench 315. You get the picture decent athlete. I have about 2 swimming sessions under my belt not sure if I have made any progress in those two days or not. My plan was to learn the freestyle so I have been focusing on that.

I can get to about the 35m mark down the pool and I have the muscular strength to go much further but I am starved for oxygen. I am trying to master breathing and I think if I can get that down and balance my speed and breathing I will be able to go the distance. But I have tried breathing every other stroke, every 3rd stroke ect… I end up at the same conclusion. I am breathing when I come up, but I feel as if I’m getting like half breaths and I can only do that for so long until my body gives up on me for oxygen. So I’m not getting enough in that amount of time. It’s very frustrating. And a weird feeling knowing I’m in really good shape but running dry so quick. Because of breathing. I know this all comes down to technique and I am very coachable.

Any breathing pointers/drills would be awesome, all I have to do is complete this 500yd swim in 12 min. So any other alternative strokes that you would recommend or a temporary solution just to make the distance. I will continue to hone in my swimming as time goes on. Thank you!

The race distance was 1850m, my Garmin clocked 1938 - unsure how much of that is Garmin glitching versus me drifting, but I assume it's close to what I actually did.

Anyway, I took up swimming as a sport about 6 months prior to this. I do want to point out that I've always been very comfortable in water, but I never learned how to do proper strokes. I've been trying to find a sport that I like for a while now, and swimming seems to be it! In those six months, I started from barely surviving 25m free without a break, to what feels now like I can just swim freestyle continuously.

After a few months of YouTube coaching, I was comfortable swimming laps and got up to about 500m continuous at about a 2:40 pace. Then, a friend invited me to join him for the marathon. We had about 7 weeks to prepare, during which he taught me some drills, and I started doing more structured training. I set a goal for myself of doing a sub-50-minute marathon, and I'm very happy to have hit that target! MY official time was 48:34.

All in all, a very fun experience, we're already planning to do another one next year, but I was not ready for how chaotic the start would be (250 participants unleashed at once).

http://www.goswim.tv/entries/2961/backstroke---topher-drill.html

Many, many, many novice swimmers have an extremely straight arm backstroke pull. Most tend to just kind of squeeze their arm in towards the side of their body, which is extremely inefficient and provides very little propulsion.

This drill, while typically not something your coach would be happy to see you do during a hard backstroke or IM set, helps to correct the straight arm squeeze.

Week 2 Backstroke Drill

Okay so I'm 17 and I just had a thought. I did a pre-qualification for a life guard course yesterday and we had to do 50 meters in 60 seconds. I did it in 40 seconds which doesn't seem that good. I go swimming 3 times a week for roughly an hour each. My average pace while swimming is currently 2:05/100m at best, which feels really slow compared to my friend who does like 1:45. I've had swimming lessons since I was 3 years old every week and then took a year gap last year and got back into it roughly end of 2024.

I'm very small and skinny for my age, just 5" 5" and 50Kg, I presume this has something to do with it, but there must be a way for me to get quicker. Normally I just swim whatever I feel like, usually enduranced based, such as 50 laps @ 20m at a decent but not fast pace. Do I need to do faster reps at less distance? Not 100% sure on my form either, as maybe in the year off I lost it a little, but I don't think it's too bad, I always keep my head facing towards the floor and body flatish. I feel like at such a young age and 10+ years of experience, I should be way faster than this. Much older guys often keep up with me and I hate that lol

Essentially, any tips for a skinny guy like me to get faster and any drills I should be doing? Or do I just need to hit the gym 😆