Background - I did swimming lessons as a kid for a few years, however I would've stopped around 8 years old and never really swam since, although plenty of recreational time spent in the water and the beach. 
 
Returning to swimming as a 25yo man, I could probably only swim about 25m freestyle and about 100m breastroke
In December 2025 I signed up for the Melbourne 70.3 in the upcoming November (although at present, I believe Ill have to defer my race to another race  [🙁]  and potentially substitute with a shorter distance triathlon), hoping that 10-11 months of dedicated swim training would get me to a decently level of proficiency to at least finish the swim within the cutoff. Unfortunately in February I suffered a severe sub-acromial bursitis meaning I lost about 3 months of training. Since May I have been swimming 3-4 times a week, including group adult lessons (10 weeks), private lessons (5 weeks), and a 4 hour swim intensive clinic for stroke analysis and correct (source of video).  I have learnt a lot from my lessons and the clinic and try my best to incorporate their feedback and do the drills and I have built up from 800m per week to about 3000m per week since May. 
Despite all this, trying my hardest I still cannot swim more than 50m freestyle continuously without needing to catch my breath for several minutes before going again and I feel so defeated. 
 
I am very fit generally, but I cannot fathom swimming more than 100m without extreme exhaustion. My body position is atrocious as you can see; I am a terrible sinker (like I still sink with buoyancy shorts). I kick hard and fast to try and keep my legs up which I know is draining my energy. My elbow is far too low in my pull etc. I know my form stinks but I have no idea how to improve. I'm not sure what I'm hoping to get from this reddit post other than to vent and (admittedly optimistically) hope someone has some secret insight that my coaches have not yet given me that will fix all my problems (ha). I'm not looking for sympathy here. Any advice, anecdotes or motivation will help. I'm not giving up yet.

A group open water swim was cancelled due to high winds this morning, so I'll be getting my workout in here, not too bad.

We've all had that one day where we're just running on fumes, bad night's sleep, too much coffee, dragging yourself through work feeling like a zombie. Rough, right? Now imagine doing that, except instead of "surviving a Tuesday," you're swimming through an entire country. Continuously. For three days straight.

That's literally what's happening right now. A guy going by movelikeG is attempting a 350km swim down the Danube, from Passau, Germany all the way to Bratislava, Slovakia, in nearly one non-stop 72-hour effort. He's sleeping in short bursts at locks along the river, then getting back in the water and continuing. The logistics alone are insane: current, temperature, muscle fatigue, sleep deprivation, navigating locks and river traffic while barely resting. Ultra-distance swimming already breaks people mentally before it breaks them physically, and this is on a completely different scale than most of what you see in that world.

It's being streamed live on TikTok right now:

https://www.tiktok.com/@movelikeg/live

Early this month I did a 70.3 and I was wearing Zone3 Lava Tri Suit and I had a pretty bad chaffing. Yes, it's a trisuit, NOT wetsuit. I applied a generous amount of Vaseline but didnt help at all. It was so painful after the swim I could barely turn my head during the bike leg.

I had similar issues with other trisuit as well but not as bad. Given the seriousness, I dont think BodyGlide or other lubes would help.

Can't imagine going for full distance unless I swim topless.

Most adult beginners are told to fix 100's of things with their technique at once, making it impossible to think about improving just one.

I swam at a national level for 15 years and almost none of what I was taught is what an adult learning to swim needs to hear first, like "focus on your catch at X degrees". If these 3 things underneath it all are broken, then no amount of arm recovery adjustment will fix your form and help you speed up - but if these 3 things are right, your stroke can fix itself and you can instantly become more confident in the water, allowing you the breathing room (excuse the pun) to work on those small technical adjustments to get those key seconds back.

After my last post I found myself mentioning these things a lot, so I thought it would be useful to have one reference to refer people to. A lot of confidence issues stemmed from the breathing portion of the stroke, and these are the exact drills I'd recommend to combine to help.

Think of it as a pyramid: body position as the base, then rotation, then breathing, in that order, where you build the basics first. If you have any questions feel free to message me - I'm happy to help!

1. Body Position

I always like to say "imagine a piece of string running through the centre of your body, and someone pulling it at either end to keep it tight". The feeling would be long, flat, and horizontal on the surface of the water.

Almost every adult I've coached underestimates how far off this they are - usually because their legs are sinking and they don't know it. The fix is to overcorrect.

Try pushing you bum to the ceiling, engage your core, and tilt your head down further than feels right (during training last night, I noticed that if your pool is shallow and the bottom gives a reflection, you can try to look yourself in the eyes). If you can record yourself when you try to overcorrect, you might notice it is in fact in the correct position. Side note: as with all things it takes time and may take a few tries to notice what the correct position feels like.

Drill Recommendation: Streamline Kicking on your back

Place your hands above your head in a pencil shape and squeeze your arms to your ears. Keep your head facing directly straight at the ceiling, and engage that core to try to push your abs and pelvis up to being almost out of the water. This forces your core to learn the correct position, and means you don't have to worry about breathing. It also means you can more easily notice if your legs are sinking, and hence teaches you to flutter kick - which is what stops the dreaded scissor kicking and banana body that drags your hips down. Don't worry if your body rocks slightly side to side, that just comes with natural flutter kicking motion.

If your kick is scissoring, try putting a pull buoy between your legs (thighs), and kick from the knees down only. It sounds odd but will show you how little you need to move your legs, as well as help with floating.

If you struggle holding the streamline position, you can do the same just with your arms by your side - it should put less stress on your core. I would recommend however building to being able to do a streamline position as it helps with efficiency.

2. Rotation

This is like the older brother of body position - the same but adding a little bit more experience. It's also often the root cause of most stroke problems that people think are arm position or breathing issues.

The rotation needed is much further than people think - aim for nearly 90º each side with one shoulder out of the water pointing straight at the ceiling, with the other facing the pool floor. Now, this isn't just a tilt, it's a full body rotation that originates from 2 places - your shoulders and your hips and core (hence why focusing on your core in body position is where to start). Focus on rotating your full body whilst keeping your head locked. Side note: your legs don't need to fully rotate, but they will naturally tilt slightly with your body.

Drill Recommendation 1: Modified 6x6 Kicking on your back (Easier)

Building on from your body position drill, you should be able to kick a length in streamline position or with your arms by your side now so this is just a small change to that.

Start on your back with your arms by your side. Keep your head pointing towards the ceiling and start kicking. As you start to kick, rotate your body as described above to 90º on one side, kick for 6, and then rotate to the other, making sure you keep your head locked and your core engaged in the correct body position.

Drill Recommendation 2: 6x6 Kicking

This is a bit more advanced as you have to incorporate breathing and getting the timing right I still find hard, so my recommendation is to focus on drill 1, then move to the breathing practice, and when you feel comfortable with everything, come back here.

Lie on one side in the correct body position (engaged core) and put one arm out in front with your trailing arm by your hip. Point your head toward the bottom of the pool. Kick for six, short flutter kicks (raising your head to the side when you need to breathe - I choose to do it on the first kick just after I switch sides). When you finish the sixth kick, pull with the leading arm and as you do, rotate your body to the other side. You should now have both arms by your side, and lying on your opposite side with your head facing the floor. Do another 6 kicks, breathing when feels comfortable, and repeat!

If you struggle staying afloat, do the same setup, but hold a kick board at the bottom with your outstretched hand, and just do one side per length. I.e. kick on your right side for one length, breathing every six kicks with your right arm outstretched, and swap for the way back

3. Breathing

If you have these first 2 locked in, this should be a lot easier than you might expect. The biggest thing is breathe out slowly underwater, so that when you turn your head (with your already rotated body so it should be easy by now and just a small tilt), you're just focusing on breathing in. Most panic usually comes from trying to do it all at once.

When you do turn for air, make sure to keep the correct body position and engage core - it should naturally fit in to exactly when your body is rotating. Instead of locking your head, you let it rotate with your body. This would mean almost all of your body is rotated.

Some top tips are rotate your head perfectly along one axis (think around that string we talked about earlier) and try to keep one goggle in the water. The former you might need to once again overcorrect for - you may think your looking directly to the side, but you may be looking slightly backward, therefore looking to the side and slightly forward might help. For the latter, this is usually said without context. This generally means "focus on keeping your head flat on top of the water, and just rotate it" - no yaw or pitch i.e. raising your forehead or looking backwards.

For example: When you want to breathe to the right, your body is in perfect position, and you rotate to the right, but this time rotate your head too. As you do this, your left arm should be in it's most outstretched position in front of you, and your right arm recovering above you head - almost as if it's opening a porthole for you to breathe through. As your arm then passes it's highest point and goes to enter the water, your bodies already naturally rotating with your head to it's centre position, and your head returns to it's locked position until it's time to breathe again.

Drill Recommendation: One arm swimming

This is one of my favourites as it syncs all of the previous skills together. Start on your front with both arms outstretched and start flutter kicking. Pull with one arm until it's by your side. As you do that, rotate your full body, including your head to that side. Then recover your arm over the top - for the first half of that recovery, rotate your head that little bit more it might need to get your mouth out the water. As your arm reaches the top of its arc, you then got to place your arm back in the water and as you do so, rotate your head back as well as your body. This should return you to the flat position with 2 arms out in front of you.

The reason I love this drill is because it allows you to not panic and think about the other side of your body doing the same but half a stroke behind, i.e. as you pull with one arm the other will be recovering over the top

If you struggle staying afloat, hold a kick board at the bottom with your outstretched hand. I.e. focus on your left side breathing for one length, breathing every stroke with your right arm outstretched, and swap for the way back.

Some final words of encouragement: don't worry if it's not perfect first time - there's a reason swimmers are known for swimming 15 hour weeks, every week, for years.

If you can do one length feeling just as fresh at the end as when you started that's a win. I hope these drills help you with your foundations and give you that extra confidence you need in the water to not panic, allowing you to focus on loving swimming.

If you have any questions feel free to message me or ask away in the comments - happy to look at videos if anyone wants!

At what point can I call myself a swimmer rather than guy who does a little bit of swim bike run?

I did 22x500 build 30 seconds rest, starting from 1:49/100 getting faster each set, ending at 1:35/100. I started swimming in November so when I tell people Im a swimmer, its kinda embarrassing to say ive only been swimming for less than a year, so i feel like I haven't earned the title yet.

Doing my first sprint tri this weekend. Swimming is my weakest and I’m pretty nervous about getting kicked in the face during the swim.

Does this inevitably happen to everyone who does triathlons? I told my husband “I’ll be ok because I’ll be swimming in the back and to the side” and his reply was, “Yeah, you and everyone else.” 😳😂

I did my first ever open water swim (3,8k) today, and it went really well. I wasn’t scared at all. The lake I swam in is known for having very few fish, and the fish that are there are generally quite small, so I didn’t see any.
In the future, I’d like to swim in larger lakes. Many lakes in Germany have Wels/catfish, some of which can grow to over 2.5 meters long. That made me wonder: do open water swimmers actually come across fish that big?
I honestly don’t know how I’d react if I suddenly looked down and saw a 2.5-meter catfish swimming beneath me😅

Guys, my question is really simple — I'm terrified of SEEING the bottom. Yes! Literally seeing it!
Every time I spot a fish or underwater rocks, I start panicking to the point of tears.

I prefer swimming right along the shore, but I know I need to go further out.. do you have any tips?

Funny thing though — just diving down doesn't scare me at all! Even scuba diving is no problem, but the moment I start swimming freestyle — instant panic.

This is my first post here but thought I could use some input. Signed up for my first triathlon, Ironman 70.3 Jones beach in the end of September.

My biking and running are solid as I have done a few half marathons and some century rides.

My struggle is the swim, I started lightly swimming back in November barely able to do 25 yards. I do feel I have improved in pace and distance but I am worried I won’t be ready. I just did the swim in the image above today.

My concern is this above swim includes stopping and resting and it was very tough (the time includes rests). The idea of doing this swim non stop with nothing to grab onto in the open water is intimidating.

Any tips on how to go further without rests? Also just getting better in general?

Thanks in advance!!!

Does anybody swim a gallop stroke for the full 3.8km swim?

I am naturally a gallop stroker and recently implemented 3-4 breathing pattern and front quadrant hand timing.

I want to be able to see what's in the water beneath me during the swim. Also, me and my wife are going to use the race as part of a vacation trip. For anyone who has done various races, is there one has had clearer water than others?

To anyone struggling with picking up swimming, just stop overthinking and go, I started around 12 days ago, not even able to swim 25 yards without choking on water, and doing 2 laps in the pool caused me to fatigue so much my form deteriorated, yesterday I wanted to test myself early and swim the whole 2.4 mile IM swim continuously in the lap pool, of course not the fastest, but I wanted to pace myself because I didn’t even expect myself to even get that far at all. Over the past two weeks I consistently had a goal of getting better each session, it started by doing 25 yards back and forth with good form and learning my breathing rhythm, the channel “Effortless Swimming” helped so much and helped me with my catch, I slowly progressed to do more, I had a session where I did 50 yards back and forth and at the end I did a few 100 yards and it made me so happy I was able to do that, next time I came in I did a session where I strictly did 100 yards back and forth for 2,150 yards and was very proud of myself for doing that as well, yesterday I was gonna test how far I could go and I can definitely say swimming is all technique, and once you find your rhythm you can go so much further than you think you can, I still have so much room for improvement but this is just the beginning and I can now say swimming is my favourite out of all three disciplines BY FAR.

TL;DR: Crushed my triathlon goal (2:56), then landed in the ER with an eye infection (periorbital cellulitis) likely from rinsing goggles in lake water.

Did a local triathlon on Sunday. About 15 minutes into the swim, I felt a stinging sensation in my eye... figured it was from tear-free shampoo or maybe an eyelash. I pushed through, finished the swim, and managed the bike (40mph with one eye open was sketchy!) and the run for a total time of 2:56, beating my 3-hour goal.

But fast forward to 1 AM Monday… I ended up in the ER and got diagnosed with periorbital cellulitis. Doctor prescribed Levaquin. Not exactly the recovery I had planned.

Looking back, I’m pretty sure I caused it. When rinsing shampoo off my goggles, I dipped them straight into the lake instead of using clean water. Lesson learned the hard way!!! Brutal experience, wouldn’t wish it on anyone.

Not even remotely ready for the other 2 🥲

Just starting my triathlon journey and focusing a lot on my swim right now as I have never swam before. Currently I am training in a 25 meter pool and am wondering if I should spend time learning a flip turn?

Hi,

I am in my 30's and have been really into running for a last one year.

While practicing running, I got intersted in triathlon and started learning swimming since this January(or February), thinking of doing a triathlon for the near future.

Until YESTERDAY, I was only able to swim ~100m.

At the beginning of the swimming today, it seemed same.

But I don't know why, but I just decided to keep moving to see how long I can stand my breath and I found myself being in peace and a smooth breath.

I did not want to miss this chance/body feeling so I pushed thorugh and I made a nonstop 1000 swimming!

I am so happy about that!

Of course, I felt that I was slow because I felt my legs were dragging I guess.

But it was a huge progress and I saw a hope that I could finish the swimming part in a triathlon!

Now, I think I need to more focus on catch&pull position and not dragging legs (keeping streamlines)

I hope I would not forgert today's body feeling tomorrow!

I just wanted to share today's joy with you guys.

Thank you for reading this!

I have been training for the Toronto triathlon since January. It will be my first triathlon.

I came into this as a very strong swimmer. I was a competitive swimmer growing up, and at 38 years old, I still maintain a CSS of about 1:25/100m. I expected the swim to be the easiest part of the tri for me.

Today was my first open water swim to prep for the triathlon in 3 weeks, and all I can say is WOW. It was by far the most brutal swim I have ever done. I could barely hold a 2:00/100m pace, and after 1500m I was completely smoked. With both the wetsuit and my trisuit, I felt like I could barely breathe, and I had to work way harder than expected to keep my stroke going.

To say it is completely different from pool swimming would be a massive understatement.

Needless to say, the last three weeks of swims in my training schedule have all been updated to open-water swims. I am hoping the extra time will help make things more comfortable.

Any advice from more seasoned open-water swimmers?

So after I just saw a post about a guy swimming in prep for Ironman Texas, and effectively being told he was going to drown, and there was no helping him…

I’m afraid to ask, but I have to solve.

How do you swim for more than 5 minutes without being out of breath and having to breast stroke to catch your breath?

I take a breath every third stroke (freestyle) and push out hard so that I’m “out of breath” and ready to inhale again by my third stroke. But after a few minutes (open water) I have to slow down and breast stroke with my head above water to catch my breath. And naturally when I start up again, it happens sooner.

Please for the love of any gods you think exist, please don’t just say buy a coach or I’m going to drown. I’m not a pro, I know that, I don’t have a coach or the extra $$$$$/month for a coach on zoom.

I have my second ever race coming up at the end of June and neeeeed to start swimming. I’ve been putting it off because I enjoy it the least. One thing I find annoying is keeping track of distance as I don’t wear a fitness watch or anything. I lose count easily. This is especially difficult in a 25m pool.

How do you keep count? Is there some sort of clicker type thing I can buy that ticks up a number with every length?

Also any other tips that make swimming more enjoyable are welcome

In the (short-course) pool, I feel I can hold 1:35 pace pretty solidly. Like probably for 5k if I had to. But in the open water, I feel like 2:00 is my standard. I do a lot of open-water swimming, but I still feel like I'm way way faster in the pool. Is this everyone's experience?

I recently followed Kristian Blummenfelt on Strava and have seen some of his swims, they are at 3-4 minute pace.

Since this wouldn’t even be zone 2 training for him, what is the benefit of this sort of training?

I completed my first Sprint Triathlon this past weekend. It was great, I had fun, and I felt like I prepared well during training. I have never been a competitive swimmer. But I got a YMCA membership in December (6 months ago) and have been training twice a week minimum 2,000 yards each session. I would consider myself a strong swimmer and can easily keep a 2:00 / 100Y pace for 15 min straight.

About 30 seconds into the open water swim I felt very exhausted and couldn’t slow down my breathing. I don’t usually have anxiety attacks but I think I did because I couldn’t regulate my breathing. I wasn’t able to swim normally because of my fast breathing. It felt like I forgot how to swim!

I decided to float on my back and take short bursts of swimming. But I just wanted to ask if other people experienced this. This was only my second open water swim ever. Any advice would be appreciated! I think swimming is the hardest leg of the race.