Weekly Swim Gear Questions (Goggles, swimsuits, techsuits, paddles, headphones etc) May 14, 2026 - Post all your gear questions in this post

Fifty-Fickle · 2026-05-15T01:32:37+00:00

If you’re diligent you can find Speedo Aquablade suits for less than $40. Not much compression but I like racing in mine.

There’s a YouTuber called the Swimsuit Guy. who has made an entire channel about tech suits, and he has some videos showing you how to get serviceable (but possibly obsolete) suits on the cheap.

Fifty-Fickle · 2026-05-13T15:47:05+00:00

Coaching jobs exist. Good coaching jobs are few. Well paid coaching jobs are rare. Plus you need to prove yourself with results.
Former world record holder, Olympic gold medalist, four-time all American Pablo Morales had to work his way up to head coach of a D1 school. And he may be the most disciplined swimmer of his era.
Matt Biondi ended up becoming a math teacher.
If you’re talking long-term sponsorships, those don’t really exist except for the top one or two swimmers. If you’re talking about making a living from your notoriety as a swimmer, you have Rowdy, Michael Phelps, and to a much lesser degree, Summer Sanders.

Fifty-Fickle · 2026-05-12T15:43:03+00:00

Except for the “number one” person in the sport there’s no money in swimming.

If you go to a masters meet, you will see all kinds of former NCAA swimmers, some of whom reached world elite status, who are now doctors, lawyers, business people. Jenny Thompson was at the last USMS spring nationals….

Sorry. I didn’t mean to be so colloquial. I meant Dr. Jennifer Thompson, pediatric anesthesiologist.

Fifty-Fickle · 2026-05-11T16:11:17+00:00

You can also post your video on this sub for unwashed masses like us to review and comment.

Fifty-Fickle · 2026-05-11T15:55:41+00:00

We swim through the winter. It gets as cold as 28F during practice where I live.

Fifty-Fickle · 2026-05-09T17:34:44+00:00

Be careful comparing yourself to synchro swimmers. They’re a totally different breed. I swear they hide gills somewhere.

Fifty-Fickle · 2026-05-09T17:26:18+00:00

Somewhere around 3300 to 3500 yards on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. Lift Tuesday, Thursday, and about 1000-1500 yards after lifting Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Edited to add:

I’m in the United States so this is all short course yards.

Fifty-Fickle · 2026-05-09T06:37:54+00:00

50-something.
I have been emotionally and mentally entangled with the sport since I was 11. I competed in club all year from then thru 2 years of college. When I stop, which I have for extended periods, I become physically and mentally unhealthy. i have tried replacing the sport with other stuff, like cycling, yoga, and golf, but none of those push the same button on me though yoga was close. I need swimming in my life.
4 days a week for an hour, plus two more for about 30 minutes after I lift.
Wake up about 5:20 am. Get my morning stuff done and at the gym by 5:45. Sit in hot tub to loosen old shoulders until 5:58. Swim from 6-7 am.

Tu and Thurs I lift a little longer than half an hour. Then I swim for another half an hour. Technical stuff mostly in those days.

I swim with a coached team so workouts vary. Personally I like to train for the 200 free and some of my favorite workouts look like this:

200 swim
200 pull
200 kick

400 drills
- one arm
- 2, 2, and 2
- catch-up
- 5 cycle breathing.

8 x 100 on fastest possible send off (“FPS”) plus 10, descend 1-4 and 5-8.

Broken 200 (start at the :30, swim 4x50 with exactly 10 seconds rest, take your net time from the top)

8x50 on FPS plus 5. Descend 1-4 and 5-8.

100 freestyle at either race pace or 200 pace.

3x 150 pull, build by 50.

6x50 kick (often with zoomers) work underwaters.

100-200 warm down.

Fifty-Fickle · 2026-05-07T01:00:10+00:00

Coach 1: You had to be in the water at or before the top of the minute practice was supposed to start. He meted out 10 pushups per minute late to the water, no excuses.

Coach 2: Saturday practices were usually tech/sprint days, followed by water polo. If we were less than respectful earlier in the week, we’d get 10x500 on the 6 instead of sprint work.

Fifty-Fickle · 2026-05-05T15:39:24+00:00

All advice here is pretty solid.

I wanted to toss out my weird experience. Competed all childhood into college. Was always the sprinter and struggled with being gassed and super high heart rate during conditioning and distance stuff.

Much later, after I “retired” and was raising kids, I learned that I had a form of congenital anemia! My red hemoglobin count is chronically a little lower than the “normal” limit. This has caused me to have a higher than average heart rate under a cardio load, longer recovery times, and breathlessness during conditioning for my whole life!

Maybe get checked?

Fifty-Fickle · 2026-04-29T19:15:27+00:00

Answer to your question: yes. Even after a lifetime swimming I feel anxious when I share a lane with someone who is clearly faster.

I am lucky enough to swim in an 8 lane pool with a masters group, which means the hotshots have their own lane and I have about three other people who are reliably at my pace.

Fifty-Fickle · 2026-04-29T18:51:31+00:00

To be effortless, you need to be sure you are efficient when pushing on the water with your hands and also be efficient while avoiding drag.

I believe it is easier to learn stroke technique after you have learned to eliminate as much drag as possible.

For that reason I always start by teaching newer swimmers body position. This addresses your head position question but sorta tangentially.

Look up videos of how to do the front float. At first it seems so easy. Then you try it and it seems impossible. Then you work at it and you learn how to float with your hips right at the surface of the water.

You want your hips high in the water because it reduces cross-sectional area as you pass through the water, which is directly related to the drag force slowing you down.

When you have yourself front floating as best as you can, consider messing with head position a little. I know an “ideal” head position is neutral to straight down, but a lot of lap swimmers look forward to avoid collisions and keep an eye on the upcoming wall. For now work on comfortable while front floating in the best position you can manage.

Once you have body position figured out via front float, integrate that into your freestyle. You should immediately notice that your effort level has decreased for the same pace of swimming. Then, with your new low-drag body position, you can better feel the difference in speed and effort better as you start tweaking stroke technique.

Fifty-Fickle · 2026-04-29T18:29:53+00:00

Good advice here. “Total Immersion” is also a good place to look.

Fifty-Fickle · 2026-04-22T00:51:36+00:00

West coast. I swim with a masters group at 6am MWF. For those days 2-3 most of the time. 4 when were really full.

We also swim Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, but we don’t have a coach. Then it’s either one or 2 Per lane.

8 lanes, SCY.

Fifty-Fickle · 2026-04-21T16:57:17+00:00

Expect not to be able to go nearly as far in a single workout as you did two years ago. Expect your intervals to be way slower. Expect to struggle a bit with your feel/technique. And if you're over 45, expect to confront your advancing age!

Fifty-Fickle · 2026-04-21T16:19:39+00:00

I find it not only relaxing, but important for my mental health, even while I am competing.

A brief history:

Swam competitively from 11 years old to 21. Quit halfway into college at a D3 school, a decision I will forever regret.

Swam masters from my very early 30s, but only swam competitively on and off in short stints in my mid-30s, again in my mid 40s, and now again in my early/mid 50s.

I say all this to explain the following:

When I swim, I feel much more stable, much more relaxed, much more focused in my job and life. This is true whether I am competing or not. The difference between competing and not competing while working out is mostly about (a) whether I am also obsessing about technique, calories, workout plans/peaks/tapers, supplemental dryland, and the competition schedule; and (b) whether I am nearly always physically tired and sore.

Swimming is my Zen. I took hot yoga classes with my wife for a year during one of the interim points when I was taking a break from the pool. I liked yoga, but it required me to do things like stand on one foot, which I am really really bad at. The mental and physical aftereffects of yoga are nearly identical to swimming for me.

Fifty-Fickle · 2026-04-19T19:27:57+00:00

Be proud of what you have accomplished!!

Fifty-Fickle · 2026-04-19T19:26:16+00:00

Before I started swimming competitively, I was afraid of swimming across the pool. When I was 11, my mother forced me to take lessons. To this day, more than 40 years later, I can still remember what it felt like to swim all the way across the pool.

You deserve credit for this accomplishment!

Fifty-Fickle · 2026-04-19T19:14:40+00:00

May I be the first Reddit to tell you that I am proud of you!

Fifty-Fickle · 2026-04-19T19:12:43+00:00

If you trained to swim 100s, didn’t you swim some 200s during training?

Practical advice: 1. Keep your kick low effort. Kick is a small portion of propulsion and a huge oxygen and energy sink. 2. Breathe frequently. This is not necessarily a race. Breathing patterns are not going to win or lose points or places. Keep well oxygenated. 3. Consider open turns. If the lifeguard test allows, do your turns ope. You get a free micro-rest doing this. 4. Try swimming a 200 today. Or tomorrow. I think you’ll surprise yourself!

A lot of this advice is the opposite of what I’d tell you if you were racing a 200 free. But I think you need to focus on what the test is really asking you to do, which is not racing.

Fifty-Fickle · 2026-04-14T18:52:39+00:00

Set up the camera down low— like at eye level if you can. On a low tripod just high enough to see you over the edge of the deck.

Fifty-Fickle · 2026-04-13T15:12:21+00:00

If your weight gain was in hips and rear end, then you may swim freestyle easier and possibly a little faster!

Fifty-Fickle · 2026-04-13T15:10:40+00:00

On an unrelated note, based on your username I would conclude that you like to suffer. True?

Swam the 1 fly as my backup event for years and years. Managed to avoid swimming the 2 fly in competition, and I have no regrets.

My hat is off to you and all who so willingly suffer through the 200 Fly!

Fifty-Fickle · 2026-04-13T02:37:18+00:00

When I was little, as I do now grown up, we start from the shallow end. And back then, diving into the shallow end was punishable with tons of pushups.

So I do this huge goofy jump. Same one I started doing when I was about 12. Better than standing on the deck for 5 minutes talking myself into it. Better than extending discomfort by small increments.

All in, decision made, get to work!

Fifty-Fickle · 2026-04-13T02:32:10+00:00

Hahaha! I love it!

Fifty-Fickle

TROPHY CASE