SWIMMER Magazine

Fast breaststroke requires an effective kick, a powerful pull, precise timing, and a streamlined body position. These coach-written workouts will help you improve all of that. These breaststroke workouts, which incorporate some freestyle swimming, integrate timing, pulling, kicking, speed, and endurance, and range from 2,350 to 3,800 yards. Adjust the distances and rest to your ability. If your knees, hips, groin, or lower back start hurting, stop or substitute another stroke.

Swimming faster freestyle requires more than simply increasing your effort. An effective freestyle stroke combines a powerful pull, a consistent flutter kick, efficient breathing, a balanced body position, and well-timed rotation. Here are five workouts that’ll help you improve all of those. These coach-written workouts integrate technique work throughout each session rather than confining it to a few drills during warm-up.

Improve your backstroke rotation, pull, kick, speed, and endurance with these expert-written workouts A lot needs to come together for you to swim backstroke fast. You must have an effective pull, a continuous flutter kick, a balanced body position, and precisely timed rotation.

Improve your butterfly timing, pull, kick, speed, and endurance with these coach-written workouts Great butterfly requires strength and power, but those qualities are most effective when they’re supported by precise timing. Your arms, dolphin kick, body position, and breath must work together in a repeatable rhythm. Without that coordination, swimming harder often creates more fatigue without producing more speed.

New in town? Find your people in the pool. Moving to a new city is a common thing for many adults. Work transfers, needing to move to look after an ailing family member, retirement, or just looking for a change of pace can open up exciting new horizons in a new city. But moving to a new town can also be lonely as you leave behind your old routine and friends, neighbors, coworkers, and acquaintances. Finding new friends doesn’t come as easy as finding a new favorite coffee shop or grocery store.

Rich Burns couldn’t figure out what was happening. Several of his teammates in the 1980s would disappear for a few days every September and come back talking about rule changes and national championship locations. He eventually asked where they had gone. Their response: U.S. Masters Swimming’s annual meeting. Burns attended the next year, in 1986, starting 40 years of volunteer service with USMS. His longtime dedication has led to him being named the recipient of the 2026 Capt. Ransom J.

Love open water? Find your swim community. While there’s no replacing training for open water racing in open water, most open water swimmers do much of their training in a pool. If you’re relying on the pool to get ready for your next open water swim, here are some technical, physical, and mental skills you can practice in the pool that will actually transfer to open water.

Swim leg holding you back? A faster swim starts here. It’s no secret that swimming is often the weak link for many new triathletes. A lot of athletes come to the multisport discipline via cycling or running, and unless you grew up swimming, picking up that third sport later in life can be challenging. But there are big gains that can be had by working on lowering your swim times, and Masters Swimming can help you access those gains faster and with a community of fun fellow athletes.

Know how to swim? We found the right workout for you. If you’re trying to lose weight, you’ve probably been told you need to “eat less and move more.” There are many different ways to approach the “move more” portion of that statement, and swimming can certainly be one of them. So can running. Both activities offer a range of health and fitness benefits that go well beyond the number on your bathroom scale.

If there’s one go-to drill to fix your breaststroke timing, it’s this one. I call it “Head up! Heels up! Snap!” The drill helps you learn to correct the timing of your breaststroke, which includes pulling first and kicking second. To perform this drill, put your arms into Superman position, grasping a kickboard that’s sideways. Place your head in the water, keeping your bodyline straight. Push off and lift your head out of the water for a breath.