Minimum days without swimming that will get you rusty?

Interesting topic! In my first two to three years of swimming, since 2009, it would take me multiple days to lose that slipping through the water feeling that I always had whenever I got back in the pool after missing as few as two days. However, having now swum four complete years this month, I get my feel back much more quickly after missing as many as 7 days. That is not to suggest that simply swimming at least four years is responsible for my ability to get the feel back quickly, but that the amount of experience, learning, and adaptation I have gained within that period of time is much more likely responsible. My old coach gave me a rule-of-thumb: for every day you miss, it takes two days to make up. Obviously, the rule can't strictly be true. For Eelbilly, with his 21 year hiatus, it would've taken him 42 years to get back up to par on his breaststroke. However, I find that for much shorter periods of time, within a year certainly, it holds up and works very well. But what if you swim twice on a day after missing one day? Maybe if diminishing returns are applied, then the double removes 75% of the debt? Who knows. Ever since I got pneumonia during my taper last July, I've been swimming much less. That's not because the pneumonia significantly impacted my training ability or anything, I just decided to lessen the workload for the remainder of the year 2012. Between missing more days than usual, my own debt got up to 10 on New Years' Eve. 10 means 20 days straight in the pool to remove. At my current rate, with one double in the last eight days, I can remove it all on Saturday the 19th, but not in time for my meet this weekend. I'll check back after this weekend with further observations.

How many days without swimming (illness, travel...) will make you rusty? Not only losing the speed, but also losing the techniques? How long does it take for you to recover the previous best performance? I usually swim 5 days a week, with Tuesday and Saturday off. If there for some reason are two off days in a row, then the next practice usually feels a bit weird, but not necessarily slow. A week off and I'm fumbling to find my strokes. But technique can disappear in the middle of a consistent training period, in my experience. Right now I can't seem to remember what to do with my left arm during my breaststroke turn (I turn to the left)! Out of the blue I've started doing something strange which creates a lot of drag. For me, breaststroke is usually the first to fall apart, and the hardest to get back. It took me almost two years after my 21 years hiatus before I could swim breaststroke with any feeling of fluency and power.

I can take 2 days off with no problem.3 days and I can notice a little difference.5 days and I can definitely tell I've been out of the water.

Interesting topic. I need to swim at least twice a week to avoid the feeling that I've lost ground. More is better but if I can get my self in the pool twice a week I may not be advancing, but I don't feel like I am losing either.

I can take 2 days off with no problem.3 days and I can notice a little difference.5 days and I can definitely tell I've been out of the water. I am the same way. Generally I try to swim M-F and take the weekend off. If I miss a day I will swim on Saturday sometimes. More than 2 days off and my arms start feeling weird pulling through the water. I call it "jello arms." If I take 4-5 days off it usually takes a couple practices to get the feel back.

I can take 2 days off with no problem.3 days and I can notice a little difference.5 days and I can definitely tell I've been out of the water. Same here. I try to swim as many days as I can each week, making sure I take at least one day off but no more than two in a row. I swim with my kids' team 3x a week and try to get to a local pool at least 2-3 times on the off days. If I have 3 in a row (if I don't make it to the local pool at all) I feel a difference - sometimes I just feel extra rested, others I feel a bit off or slow. If I miss a whole week, I really feel it. We had 2 weeks off over the holidays from the kids' team (an the local pool was also closed) and when I got back in, I felt very rusty and out of shape. ETA: as far as getting back into it, it can take me a couple practices to feel right again after a week or more off. But if I'm only off for a few days, I usually get back into a groove by the end of practice.

Sounds like 3 days is where the effect begins to show for most people. Recently, after 6 days off, I swam the first 2 laps like a drunkard :D. The 3rd one was much better, though still very bad. Took me 2 or 3 more days to get back to "normal".