Articles and Videos
3 Drills to Improve Your Freestyle Catch
If you've been working on your freestyle technique for a while, you've likely been thinking about your freestyle catch. The catch is perhaps the most important aspect of the freestyle stroke, as that’s where you generate most of your propulsive power from.
In-Water Stretching Drills for Swimmers
Staying flexibile is a critical skill for swimmers because it improves streamlining, stroke mechanics, and resistance to injury. But staying flexible as we age isn’t always easy.
Butterfly One-Two-One Drill
Butterfly can be the most exhausting stroke to swim, and it takes many swimmers of lot of practice to learn the proper timing. Practicing it, however, can be exhausting. Once you’re worn out, your stroke will start to fall apart, at which point you’re practicing bad technique—that’s never a good thing.
USMS Elects At-Large Directors and Honors Members at 2024 Annual Meeting
U.S. Masters Swimming has concluded its at-large director elections and honored many of its deserving volunteers and coaches during its 2024 annual meeting.
Why Swimmers Need to Use a Snorkel
There are many good uses of a snorkel and not just for freestyle. The benefits are numerous including reducing the anxiety associated with breath holding and regulation, developing a better stroke, and injury prevention.
How Can I Keep My Hair Healthy While Swimming?
When we were kids, it was some sort of swimmer’s badge of honor to have slightly green, hyper-fried hair. It marked us out as pool lifers, and the ever-present perfume of chlorine was somehow affirming that we were on the right track in life.
A Wheel Winner
Fortune smiled as Jeff Commings selected three additional letters and a vowel—P, C, M, and O—to add to the provided R, S, T, L, N, E that Vanna White turned on the instantly recognizable “Wheel of Fortune” letter board in the bonus round.
Two Father-Daughter Duos Enjoy Summer Nationals
Most Masters swimmers know well that this is a sport you can engage with at any point in the lifecycle. But for some, it’s become a special way to connect across generations.
How to Swim Modern-Day Breaststroke
Breaststroke made its Olympic debut in 1904 in the form of a 440-yard race. Here's a retrospective on what was taught in swim schools and competitive programs years ago, and what the latest ideas are.
Finding Strength In The Water
Olympian Vesna Shelnutt is reclaiming her health and strength through Masters swimming. She's gone from being a child sports prodigy in her native Macedonia to a coach, mom, wife, and swimming mentor living outside of Atlanta.
I Keep Meaning to Go to Workouts But...
If you're just making garden-variety excuses, it's important to know that they don’t always have to win. And there are ways to take the fight out, especially when it comes to the most common excuses. Here's how.
What Was I Thinking?
The Portland Bridge Swim was a test of my endurance but a welcome introduction to ultramarathon-distance open water swimming. At 17 kilometers, the distance of the Portland Bridge Swim seemed to strike a balance between challenging and doable. I wondered: If I could make it that far, how much farther could I swim?
Neighbors in Water
Amid the flurry of disharmony and exclusion prior to the passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1964, one neighborhood strove to integrate its pools simply and with little fanfare, led by avid fitness swimmer and beloved children’s television icon Fred Rogers.
Thinking Traps That Can Hold You Back
If you really wanted to swim better or love it more and hired yourself as your coach, you probably wouldn’t tell yourself things like “You messed up that start and your whole meet is blown.” Yet we often bring thoughts like that into the pool with us. And obsessing over things like that false start will affect how you go off the blocks the next time.
How to Beat the Post-Race Blahs
You set a big goal and train hard for it. Your nutrition has been on point, and you’ve gotten good rest. Finally, race day comes and you’re ready. You swim beautifully, besting your goal time. You should be riding a real high, and you are. For a few hours at least.
Instant Pot Lemon Chicken Vegetable Chowder
This quick, hearty meal can support your immune system.
Wingenroth Receives 2024 Ransom J. Arthur Award
The Gulf LMSC met in May to celebrate members who had participated in a fitness event, but when Kris Wingenroth walked into the room, longtime volunteer Karlene Denby made a major announcement: Wingenroth was receiving the Capt. Ransom J. Arthur M.D. Award.
I'm in Love With Swimming
How does someone like me—someone who was in the U.S. Army and now hates regimentation, someone who isn’t and never will be a morning person—keep getting up before daybreak nearly every morning for the past 45 years to not just go swimming but to work out, get my heart rate up, and torture myself?
From the Center Lanes: Roberto Delgado
The key to Roberto Delgado’s success swimming butterfly is swimming less butterfly. In a workout, he might do no more than 1,000 yards of butterfly—half of what he used to do while at Arizona State University—with a heavy focus on race preparation and less on what he calls the “survival butterfly” that comes when you’re tired in a workout.
Let’s Hear It for Our Coaches
Being a Masters coach is a tough job or volunteer responsibility. Our coaches lead groups of swimmers of varying ages, talents, and desires. Some swimmers want to do repeat 100s on 1:15, some on 1:40. Some swimmers want to do 25s, others 300s. Some swimmers want to mix in strokes, others only want to do freestyle. Oh, and their coach might only have four lanes to work with.
