Articles and Videos
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How to Avoid Lower Back Pain When Swimming
Swimming with poor alignment or completing any movement in which your back is arched can bring on a backache. This can happen in all four strokes. These exercises and technique tweaks can help decrease pain and get your lower back moving normally again.
What Swimmers Need to Know About Underwaters for Each Stroke
Under the surface of butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, and freestyle lies a fifth stroke. When coaches mention the fifth stroke, they're referring to underwater techniques, including streamlined positions off the wall at the start and after turns of all strokes, maintaining a streamlined posture during turns for optimal efficiency, and deploying powerful, hip-driven dolphin kick cycles that add speed on both sides of the kick.
The 5 Best 30-minute Swim Workouts
This article presents five efficient, USMS-certified 30-minute swim workouts (1,050–1,100 yards) designed to maximize limited pool time, offering targeted sessions for aerobic endurance, freestyle technique, pace changes, consistent splits, and mixed-stroke variety.
Heel-Tap Breaststroke Kick Drill
The heel-tap drill is my absolute favorite breaststroke kick drill. You can do this on your stomach or your back. In both cases, the goal is the same: Quick heels that come up and snap together through a circular motion to push you forward.
The 5 Best 2000-yard Swim Workouts
This guide outlines five efficient, 2,000-yard USMS-certified swim workouts designed to fit under an hour, helping swimmers build endurance, speed, pacing, and technique through targeted sets like speed changes, pyramids, and high-intensity intervals.
Breathing Rare Air
Born with cystic fibrosis, 61-year-old Patti Zuppan-Hood survived a double lung transplant to become a decorated swimmer. Joining Walnut Creek Masters, she went on to break world records and win dozens of gold medals at the World Transplant Games and Transplant Games of America.
How to Do a Great Freestyle Pull
This instructional guide details how to execute an effective freestyle pull by establishing an early vertical forearm, applying backward pressure, and accelerating through to the hip. It outlines five practical drills—including wall pulls, single-arm power pulls, and paddle variations—to build propulsion and technique.
Swimming to France
Writer David McGlynn details his successful, four-year preparation and 11-hour, 17-minute unassisted swim across the English Channel. Guided by experienced crew members and pilot Rob Thompson, he overcame turbulent seas, shipping lanes, jellyfish, and shifting currents to complete the 20-plus-mile crossing.
Meet the Man Behind the Lens
For 30 years, former research scientist turned sports photographer Peter Bick has captured elite and Masters swimming. A fixture at pool decks nationwide, his prolific work has graced publications globally and earned him the International Swimming Hall of Fame's Arthur Schoenfield Media Award.
Holiday Gift Guide 2026
Shop these USMS partner specials for holiday gifts, or just to start the New Year off right with some new equipment.
Rich Burns Receives the 2026 Ransom Arthur Award
Tamalpais Aquatic Masters member Rich Burns, 83, received the 2026 Capt. Ransom J. Arthur M.D. Award for 40 years of volunteer service to USMS. The world-record swimmer created USMS's first logo, developed member benefits, and spearheaded marketing initiatives.
Overuse vs. Under-Prepared: What’s Really Causing Your Pain
This article argues that swim injuries often stem from being under-prepared rather than simple overuse. Consistent training, conservative volume increases, and swim-specific dryland strength programs build the physical capacity necessary to handle higher training loads and reduce pain.
Sweet and Sour Pork Over Brown Rice
This complete, well-balanced, quick-and-easy, mouth-watering meal can be made in 20 minutes. It’s packed with vitamin C to support a healthy immune system during the winter.
How Much Are You Slowing Down?
USMS founding member and researcher Robert Rubin analyzed 40 years of USMS 1-Hour Virtual Championship data, revealing that swimming performance declines by ~0.6% annually between ages 35 and 70 before accelerating. However, consistent training and strength work significantly slow age-related drops.
Sleep Won’t Fix This Kind of Fatigue
Beyond physical tiredness, nonphysical rest deficits like emotional, social, and mental fatigue can leave you exhausted. The article highlights how setting boundaries, varying routines, processing emotions, and seeking professional guidance can help restore energy when sleep alone falls short.
Technique Tune-Up
At 68, Barbara Cocci transitioned from casual pool laps to completing the 28.5-mile 20 Bridges Swim around Manhattan. Working with coaches, building distance incrementally, lowering stroke turnover, and training in open water were essential to her ultramarathon swimming success.
Relieve Your Tension With Foam Rolling
This article explains how combining foam rolling with targeted, low-resistance movements improves swimming recovery, range of motion, and stability. It details three specific exercise pairings for the lats, hamstrings, and calves to relieve tension and build control.
From the Center Lanes: Greg Oxley
Multiple USMS record-holder Greg Oxley, 68, explains how he adapted his training to preserve his joints while maintaining speed. By prioritizing fast freestyle kicking sets, short-fin sprints, resistance work, and explosive dryland exercises, he successfully preserves fast-twitch muscles and race power.
Ask the Coach: Ondine Beaufils
Long Beach Grunions coach Ondine Beaufils explains why sprint training, resistance work, and dive technique benefit triathletes. By building cardiovascular capacity, stroke tempo, and power, controlled high-intensity pool sets help athletes build a stronger training base to swim faster in endurance events.
Counting Down to Personal Bests—the Artist’s Way
Faced with her father’s severe health crisis, 49-year-old artist Bonnie Lee used swimming and an 80-day creative art countdown to cope with anxiety and prepare for the 2026 USMS Summer National Championship, ultimately achieving multiple personal bests.
