Dryland Training and Technique - Recent Threads

RE: How does one get an article considered to get published?

031YN — Wed, 27 Aug 2025 19:09:57 GMT

i have not heard back. were they received?

How does one get an article considered to get published?

031YN — Tue, 05 Aug 2025 17:06:27 GMT

in the awards section - it says that no one has attained the achievement "published 5 articles".

How does one get considered for an article?
what type of articles are being considered and submitted?
where are articles submitted?

RE: How does one get an article considered to get published?

Daniel Paulling — Tue, 05 Aug 2025 21:57:43 GMT

Hi! Thank you for your interest in being featured in our publications. Can you email publications@usmastersswimming.org?

RE: How does one get an article considered to get published?

031YN — Tue, 05 Aug 2025 17:52:59 GMT

I have noticed there are so many great stories

Aquablade suits

M49AC — Tue, 18 Jun 2024 02:23:22 GMT

I'm thinking about buying a Speedo Aquablade women's suit. But after reading the comments about it on SwimOutlet's site, I'm worried. Many complaints about the fabric being poorer quality than in past years and that Speedo has added a liner. Has anybody purchased one recently?

Dryland / Strength Training Suggestions

Mark Usher — Mon, 14 Oct 2019 11:00:07 GMT

For the current time our Masters schedule is limited to three mornings per week (M-W-F), with occasional Saturdays. Since I'm an early riser and up at 5:00AM anyway, I'm trying to come up with some ideas for some dryland and/or strength training routines for Tuesday and Thursday mornings when I can't swim. I've been doing some stretch cord and bodyweight training on a random basis, but thinking it would help if I had more of a structured plan. I've got a seldom used gym membership, so that's an option for my off days. Running is out due to some chronic knee problems. Any thoughts or suggestions? Thanks.

RE: Dryland / Strength Training Suggestions

swimike — Sat, 01 Jul 2023 15:19:18 GMT

I’ve done Cross Fit and had some of the best swims of my master swimming career.

RE: Dryland / Strength Training Suggestions

swimike — Sat, 01 Jul 2023 15:17:33 GMT

I’ve been taking a TRX class 2-3 times per week and it’s definitely helped me with core stability, endurance and speed.

RE: Dryland / Strength Training Suggestions

Karl_S — Sun, 25 Jun 2023 14:32:10 GMT

I endorse this comment. I've been reasonably happy with "circuit training" as a supplement to any training program. I typically do a circuit of 6 or 7 exercises and run through the circuit 3 or 4 times for 60-90 minutes in a session. I like a mix of "pre-hab" work with stretch bands, like external shoulder rotations and rows, (swimmers need to take care of their shoulders) static strength exercises like planks, body weight exercises like chin-ups and hanging knee-raisers, and light-weight high-rep work like squats and curls with dumbells. Sometimes I'll mix in work on the stationary bike, but more often I'll do bike work as a stand-alone session. It's easy to put together enough equipment to do this at home so it's a great go-to workout when pressed for time. You can do a lot with a yoga mat, an assortment of dumbbells, Bosu ball, maybe a chin-up bar, etc. Opinions on this kind of exercise vary widely. Some folks will tell you that this kind of training is worthless, but I feel that it has been generally beneficial for me. Averaged over time I tend to get in 7 sessions per month, so twice a week but I tend to miss about once per month.

Re the comment above about pull-ups and shoulder problems: I think there is some validity to the concern. Pull-up and chin-ups seem excellent for building upper body and core strength, but extreme caution is advisable. If my form slips at all, or I feel the slightest bit of a tweak in my shoulder, I stop. No pushing to complete failure. It's not worth the risk.

RE: Dryland / Strength Training Suggestions

CAZ33 — Thu, 22 Jun 2023 20:02:32 GMT

Bands- bands and more bands. Easy to set up and perform on benches. 5-10 dumbbells- circuit with rowing machine, stationary bike. Check out Stealth Board/ it’s an excellent core trainer.

good luck and stick with it

RE: Best female swimmer LCM

02GF1 — Thu, 22 Dec 2022 20:29:05 GMT

Not sure Babashoff was actually Jewish, but she did have some Russian heritage as do I. Spitz, and Dara Torres were Jewish, and for a good while were the man and woman with the most olympic medals.

Best female swimmer LCM

Allen Stark — Tue, 30 Aug 2022 21:00:59 GMT

There is a thread about the second best male swimmer, I'd like a pinions on the best female swimmer. This may be complicated and I'm very interested in others opinions. One complication is the East German cheaters and if you throw them out, which they should be, I think it changes who is on top. For instance Shirley Babashof is probably the best woman freestyler of all time but she was overshadowed by the cheaters. Katie Ledecky is surely the best long distance freestyle , but is she the best overall? Best Sprinter is probably Dawn Fraser, at least in my opinion. My vote for most dominant performance goes to Mary T Meagher in to 200 fly. That said, my vote for the best overall goes to Tracy Caulkins who was dominant in so many different strokes and would have been even more legendary without the boycott and the cheaters .

RE: Best female swimmer LCM

02GF1 — Thu, 22 Dec 2022 20:20:16 GMT

I love your choices!! I'm Jewish and so was Shirley Babashoff, so I followed her history. Mary T Meagher was from Louisville, Kentucky, as am I, so I've followed her as well. She swam out of Lakeside Swim Club, where I've swam a few times when I was looking for a pool during College break many years ago. It wasn't even far from where I grew up. Thanks for your comments!!!!

RE: Best female swimmer LCM

Karl_S — Thu, 01 Sep 2022 21:50:33 GMT

Tracy Caulkins. If you remove the LCM restriction Natalie Coughlin.

Mary T's 200 fly is from a different universe. It was finally surpassed, like 30 years later, but only with way better suits, and her stroke still is more beautiful.

RE: How to Achieve and Practice Good Swim Form

Z9F1V — Tue, 12 Apr 2022 17:30:50 GMT

I decided to finally learn to swim properly as a retiree - IE be capable of doing laps without getting totally winded. It was during the 2016 summer olympics. I watched the Olympians carefully and tried to copy the freestyle look. That helped a lot. Move from the hips. Reach long. Cheek to shoulder. Breath bilaterally. Tilt head down looking somewhat backward when breathing. Big inhales & full exhales. Bend at elbow after entry. (I've been told this distributes the force more evenly between your shoulder and elbow v. all the propulsion force going to the shoulder). Don't cross arms toward centerline. Think Fish, Dolphin, Arrow, Submarine shapewise. Relax. Focus on form over speed. Mind the catch - your hand moving water after entry. So much to think about. I got a lot of value out of these two books: Total Immersion Revised & Updated (Terry Laughlin 2004), and Swim Speed Secrets (Sheila Taormina 2012). Total Immersion has some good principles, but is a bit extreme on the glide emphasis over stroke. SSS is a more scientific approach and is full of great pictures. SSS is really big on the catch. I think both glide and catch are important and both books have great insights. One thing I learned is that there are no two bodies alike and therefore no two exact replicas of swimmers. You can figure out what advice seems to apply best to your body and stamina level. Recently I've been using "toys" like paddles flippers buoy snorkel etc...they break things up in the pool and after doing laps with these I feel more streamlined swimming without them. Good luck!

How to Achieve and Practice Good Swim Form

swimmer451 — Tue, 01 Feb 2022 17:49:56 GMT

I have horrible freestyle swim form. And when I'm doing it, I have no idea that is how it really looks. On dryland I am able to move my arms and hands into the correct "S" shape positions but when I get in the water, it all, apparently, goes to wrong. My arms do not come under my body in that "S" configuration, rather they stay out side beyond my sides. I do not even realize that I am swimming that way. Furthermore, even when I am trying to be aware of good form and practice good form, in reality, in the water, for some reason, I am not achieving much of a correction. My typical 100 yd time is 1:45 and I can get it below 1:30 for limited distances.

I am interested in practicing good swim form but I am at a loss as to how to sense when I am out of form and how to correct it. What can I do if anything? Are there dryland things that I can do to help with form? I enjoy swimming and swim 4 to 5 times per week. sometimes even 6 times per week. Maybe I should just forget about it and keep on swimming?

What to do?

RE: How to Achieve and Practice Good Swim Form

Kyle Deery — Thu, 03 Feb 2022 22:37:38 GMT

USMS has a ton of videos on the subject of freestyle pulling. Here is one of them: https://youtu.be/gO5PBl9BvFw. Check out the whole YouTube page here: https://www.youtube.com/c/USMastersSwimming

As others have suggested, join a club, hire a private coach, or post a video of your swimming (under the water from the front and side) to get some feedback about your specific form.

RE: How to Achieve and Practice Good Swim Form

ForceDJ — Thu, 03 Feb 2022 16:06:13 GMT

You say that you have a horrible freestyle form just because you are or aren’t making an “S” motion during your stroke??? Wether you are or aren’t doesn’t necessarily mean you aren’t swimming efficiently. I mean like mentioned above…making the “S” pattern was once considered ‘the way’ to do it, and now it’s not. Personally, I would just swim and be as efficient as possible. Think about the various aspects of your stroke as you’re swimming and, if need be, correct them. It doesn’t happen overnight. Eventually these things become second nature.

Dan

RE: How to Achieve and Practice Good Swim Form

Elaine Krugman — Wed, 02 Feb 2022 23:25:02 GMT

I agree with King Frog (Allen) on everything he said. Definitely get somebody to shoot video. Make sure they fill the frame by zooming in enough to see nothing more than your body. Get a straight-on view and a side view, and if you can get some underwater videos, that's even better! Upload the videos to YouTube, and then post the links here. Allen is great about providing feedback, and hopefully some other swimmers will join in. My freestyle is definitely not the best, but I can spot stroke flaws.

Another suggestion: You can subscribe for free to GoSwim.TV and receive an instructional video each day via e-mail. The videos (especially underwater views) are great, and I have learned a lot from them. You could also check out a few on YouTube.

Good luck!

RE: How to Achieve and Practice Good Swim Form

Allen Stark — Wed, 02 Feb 2022 19:19:51 GMT

I'm not an expert on freestyle, but I'm pretty sure the S shape is from and old paradigm that posited hand force was primarily generated by lift force, like a propeller instead of drag forces, like a paddle. Now we are back to viewing propulsion as mostly drag related. From this point of view the most important thing is probably early vertical forearm. You can Google drills to achieve that. What's the best thing to do would be to get a coach to at least look at your form and offer suggestions. Failing that you could post a video here and people could make suggestions. It's hard to know what you're doing right or wrong without seeing it.

RE: What to do until swim meets come back

XZ13S — Tue, 21 Sep 2021 15:48:44 GMT

Please contact me I went my 1st us master swim practice. I loved and I am all in but it the time of practice and can I train on my own and be late to some night practice. I will show but I don’t get work until 7 and they start at 645. My goal is at 43 to join the isl swim team. Like I need to and can do this . Please contact me 248410390. Like I want compation swimming.. Rod Squirrel change the world . I got this

What to do until swim meets come back

Allen Stark — Fri, 25 Sep 2020 10:21:15 GMT

It looks like there will be no more meets in 2020 and after that is unclear. Pools are opening, but pool time is limited. Right now I am fortunate to be able to swim 3 per week for 45 minutes at a reasonably convenient pool. With limited pool time, and no meets for awhile what is the best use of time? Here are my thoughts and I would be interested in yours. Strength is important, but it can be improved with dry land work. Conditioning is important, but 3 times a week for 45 minutes is likely not enough. Technique is arguably most important and I think I can get sufficient work in that area during my limited pool time. So I am focusing on every drill I know, on DPS, on streamlining, on tempo, and everything else I can think of to improve technique. What do you think and what are you doing?

RE: What to do until swim meets come back

Calvin S — Sun, 27 Sep 2020 12:21:59 GMT

Allen, forgive the long response but Iâ€™ll explain as best I can: the Little Rock Racquet Club SCY Pool deck is surrounded by a black fence (about chest high), With three gates to enter from. The Arkansas Dolphins hosted the meet here and barred all spectators (as best they could) from the deck, with meet marshals effectively acting as â€œbouncers.â€ The meet information said swimmers would also be barred from the deck except for those swimmers participating in the next four heats of an event. I didnâ€™t really see THIS part enforced, as I put my stuff down on a chair in an out of the way part of the deck and was never asked to leave even though I swam the LAST event of the session. All staff (coaches, timers, officials, and clerk of course) wore masks the whole time. The pool deck was closed to all LRRC members who werenâ€™t participating in the swim meet (this SEVERELY chafed the aqua aerobics ladies!). Because this was August and the SCY pool was set up for rec swim, the diving board and water slide effectively eliminated three of the eight lanes (2, 7, 8) from competition use (canâ€™t put starting blocks in). Therefore the heat sheet had lane assignments 1 through 5, but those actually corresponded to Lane 1 = Lane 1, Lane 3 = 2, 4 = 3, 5 = 4, and 6 = 5. It was confusing, as you can imagine, but also serves for some extra social distancing! Also it played to my advantage. I was assigned â€œlane 2â€ in the heat sheet for the 200 FL, which meant I was in lane 3 in the pool with lane 2 the empty unused lane beside me, so less turbulence! again I only attended one session. I didnâ€™t hear glowing praise of the meet, but I also didnâ€™t hear any harsh criticisms either. Hope this helps explain it! EDIT: also, to further encourage parents NOT to attend to watch their swimmers, the meet was streamed on Facebook live, which I think was a heads up move. There were still parents/spectators there, and a few did find their way onto the deck, but they always had masks on (honestly thatâ€™s a LRRC rule right now anyways, so if they didnâ€™t have masks on the club would kick them out).

RE: What to do until swim meets come back

Allen Stark — Sun, 27 Sep 2020 11:02:47 GMT

I am doing the occasional USA-S meet. Swam in one back in August, outside SCY. However I could only make one day and one event: the 200 FL. Actually up until last weekend it was the only meet with results logged in the USMS database since March 14. It is now one of only two :/ How was the meet run?

RE: What to do until swim meets come back

Patrick W. Brundage — Sun, 27 Sep 2020 01:36:06 GMT

What do you think and what are you doing?In the heart of the pandemic, when everything was shut down, I took up hiking in a more committed fashion. I'd hiked on and off in my life, but never as a primary form of aerobic exercise. Over the summer, I worked my way up to 35-40KM per week, but that's difficult to maintain that volume and layer on enough swimming. With our pools re-opened, my weekly goal is this until the snows come 25KM of hiking = likely over 5 hikes, ranging from 3KM to a little more than 8KM. 15KM of swimming = I'm fortunate that I now have access to two, hour long Masters workouts a week and can find pool time for 3 more hours each week I'm starting to layer on top of that 3-4 bodyweight dryland workouts at home each week, each about 30 minutes long. Think pushups, squats, planks, etc. That should keep me in a good aerobic zone and gives me about 12-13 hours of training time per week. I don't think I need to do any more than this in terms of time or distance, but will just increase the intensity. I think that when the snows hit here, I'll trade out my hiking for rowing during the week and then cross-country skiing on the weekend.