Articles and Videos
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Masters Swimming Training Plan for Former Competitive Swimmers
Returning to competitive swimming as an adult through U.S. Masters Swimming offers excellent health benefits, structured coaching, and an age-grouped competitive community. Former swimmers hold a major advantage because their muscle memory, stroke fundamentals, and familiarity with pool culture (such as pace clocks and workout lingo) make the transition much smoother, even after decades away.
How to Do a Great Backstroke Pull
Mastering the backstroke pull is essential for generating upper-body speed. This guide details how to execute a proper pull, from a pinky-first entry and a bent-arm "hook" setup to a powerful straight-back push and efficient finish, complemented by targeted technique drills.
6 Ways to Swim Fast as You Get Older
Although aging naturally declines cardiovascular fitness and muscle mass, older swimmers can maintain or even improve their speed. By implementing six key strategies: strength training, technique adjustments, high-intensity intervals, proactive injury management, proper recovery, and modern gear, athletes can flatten the performance curve.
The Sound of Swimming
Emmy-nominated composer and Masters swimmer Chad Cannon uses the pool as a vital mental escape to recharge his creativity. Swimming has not only improved his musical endurance and physical strength but also provided a supportive community and inspired his latest artistic projects.
Food for Thought
What you eat directly impacts athletic performance. This article explains how specific nutrients such as omega-3s, folate, selenium, polyphenols, vitamin B12, and nitrates boost brain health, improving a swimmer's coordination, reaction time, focus, and mood regulation while highlighting the critical role of proper hydration.
Free Diving With Jacques Francis
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Volunteer Profile: Sue Jensen
New England Masters Swim Club member Sue Jensen helps bring high-quality meets to her area by being the New England LMSC Officials Committee chair. Her biggest passion, though, is helping adults learn to swim.
Why Rest Alone Won’t Heal Your Injury
Resting removes the pain of a swim injury temporarily, but it doesn't address the underlying cause. Strength and mobility training and focusing on your technique are needed for long-term success in injury prevention.
Make-Ahead Protein Breakfast Burritos
Make-ahead protein breakfast burritos are perfect for when you’re running out the door or need a hearty breakfast after a morning swim.
The Wolf in the Pool
Lupus is one of more than 100 identified autoimmune disorders that occur when the body’s immune system becomes dysregulated and begins to attack itself. A lupus diagnosis, however, doesn’t have to mean giving up swimming, indeed swimming can help relieve some symptoms of lupus.
What Mental Performance Coaches Wish You Knew
You look around at the meet and you’re pretty sure everyone else is seriously fit, feeling confident, and ready to go for it. And you’re totally not. Big secret: Most everyone else has some worries and other mental gymnastics going on too. Here’s what mental performance coaches want you to know the next time you step up to the blocks.
Night Lights
If your open water swimming adventures start before the sun rises or continue after dusk, you should use glow sticks or waterproof lights as a commonsense safety measure. By lighting up, you make yourself visible to other waterway users as well as your swimming partners, which can keep you safer in open water.
Go Far by Building Your Postural Strength and Control
A great swimming posture starts long before you enter the water. Your ability to keep your ribs, pelvis, shoulders, and head in a straight line while you’re on land directly affects how well you hold a great body line while swimming.
From the Center Lanes: Michael Gilliam
Michael Gilliam, who has attained 32 USMS individual Top 10 times over the past six years, says he focuses on his underwater dolphin kick to improve his backstroke.
Great Glennie!
How Gary Girolimon of New England Masters Swim Club created a cherished annual event in Glen Lake in Goffstown, New Hampshire.
How Masters Swimming Transformed My Mental Health
In early 2025, I was in a dark place, living in North Carolina by myself. Between losing jobs, dealing with personal issues, and gaining nearly 100 pounds since graduating from college in 2022, I felt more lost than I’d ever been. In fact, the word lost doesn’t even begin to describe how I felt.
The End of an Era
When I first joined USMS, SWIMMER grabbed my attention the moment it reached my mailbox. What a marvel it was to see swimming—my kind of amateur, adult swimming, not kid stuff or news of the elites—in bright color with smart writing splashed across those glossy pages. I devoured every issue. What I didn’t realize then was that in short order, SWIMMER would change the course of my life.
Ask the Coach: Eric Wong
Quicksilver Masters Coach Eric Wong doesn’t give his swimmers a lot of kick-focused workouts outside of warm-up. But when he decides to make kicking the focus of their main set, he wants his athletes to think about the mechanics of kicking to create speed while feeling tired.
Closing Your Rings: How USMS Workouts Maximize Your Apple Watch and Strava Data
Today, many swimmers wouldn’t think of hitting the water without first starting their watch so they can collect all that data and “close their rings,” a term that came from the Apple Watch, which gives users a daily activity target displayed as a ring that fills in progressively with each additional minute of exercise.
How to Meet People in a New City as an Adult
Building a healthy social life requires deliberate effort for many adults, but U.S. Masters Swimming and the instant community of like-minded folks it gives you access to can supercharge your quest to build a social network in real life.
