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5 Impossible Things to Explain to the Non-Swimmer

5 Impossible Things to Explain to the Non-Swimmer By Erin Himes, Swimming World College Intern Swimming is a different sport, which is why explaining things to non-swimmers can get tricky sometimes. While swimmers pretty much speak another language, here are a few of the hardest things to explain to...

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3 Habits To Immediately Adopt For Better Swim Practices

3 Habits To Adopt For Better Swim Practices Swimmers have an amazing ability to get better when they put in the correct work at practice. While most athletes use effort as a way to measure their success, they are not always using the right tools to ensure they are getting the most out of pr...

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5 Challenges a Swimmer Faces and How to Conquer Them

5 Challenges a Swimmer Faces and How to Conquer Them Anybody who is familiar with competitive swimming knows that with all of the rewards the sport offers, they come with a price. This price includes a variety of challenges that can push your body and mind to their absolute limit. Below are five of...

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What Makes the Perfect Swimmer's Body?

What Makes the Perfect Swimmer's Body? Although swimmers with a wide variety of body types have found success in the sport, most at the international level tend to look similar, sporting tall and muscular bodies - typically with long torsos, long arms and short legs. This begs the question: If you c...

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9 Strange Skills Every Swimmer Acquires Over Time

9 Strange Skills Every Swimmer Acquires Over Time The other day I saw a girl in her volleyball uniform and thought, "Huh, I wonder how different life would be if I had picked a different sport." I'd have different friends, a different husband, different skill sets, a different body, and a different ...

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16 Unspoken Swimmer Laws

Don't Violate These 16 Unspoken Swimmer Laws By Allison Peters Once, during a meet, I had a revelation. After almost being jumped on by one of my teammates during warmup, I thought to myself, “Wow, he’s really breaking a norm right now.” Then I realized the way swim meets and swim practices run are ...

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5 Things to Consider when Coming Back to the Pool

5 Things to Consider when Coming Back to the Pool It’s time for summer swim season! No matter the competition level, you might be returning to the pool after a break. Coming back to the sport after some time away can be exciting. However, we also forget some important things after coming back. Here ...

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The Coaching Phrase Manual: 10 Things Coaches Say During Practice

The Coaching Phrase Manual: 10 Things Coaches Say During Practice By Isabelle Robuck No one else compares to your favorite swim coach. Think about it now; what makes your coach the best? Most swimmers deeply relate to their coaches through shared work ethic and discipline, training style, and - most...

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An Open Letter to Summer League Swimming

An Open Letter to Summer League Swimming With the summer league season arriving in many parts of the country, we rerun this commentary from the Swimming World archive that provides tremendous perspective on the meaning of the summer campaign. By Molly Griswold The palms of your hands grip your elbow...

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An Honest Sport: 15 Truths About Swimming

15 Truths About Swimming Swimming is a sport like no other. You learn a lot about yourself throughout your years as a swimmer and the sport inherently instills valuable life lessons in you. Even when your time as a competitive swimmer is done, you still continue to learn more about the sport and hav...

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11 Things Your Swimming Coach Is Always Yelling - For Good Reason

11 Things Your Swimming Coach Is Always Yelling By Allison Peters, Swimming World College Intern We all know what it is like to have your swimming coaches yelling at the top of their lungs during practice, trying to get our attention. Here's a few things that you can improve on to reduce some of thi...

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13 Thoughts Every Swimmer Has During Practice

13 Thoughts Every Swimmer Has During Practice By Isabelle Robuck Staring at a black line for two hours can be pretty grueling sometimes. With long sets, the alone time gives our mind a chance to wander far beyond just swimming. Here are 13 thoughts that every swimmer has during practice! 1. Ouch! [c...

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How To Move On From A Bad Swim: 5 Helpful Tips

How To Move On From A Bad Swim: 5 Helpful Tips We will all have a bad race or two, or sometimes even more throughout our swimming careers, but it’s how we handle ourselves during these times that makes us stand out as athletes. After a bad race, we have two options. We can cry, be angry, blame other...

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The 10 Guaranteed Ways to Spot a Swim Parent

The 10 Guaranteed Ways to Spot a Swim Parent Many people have no problem spotting swimmers from a mile away with these telltale features: a bulky bag, messy bun filled with dead hair (for the girls), dry skin, tired eyes, goggle and cap tan lines, and the wide-eyed fear whenever the word “butterfly”...

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37 Thoughts Swimmers Have While Putting On A Racing Suit

37 Thoughts Swimmers Have While Putting On A Racing Suit We turn to the archive for this piece by former U.S. National Team member and Swimming World intern, Courtney Bartholmew. A standout at the University of Virginia, Bartholomew takes a humorous look at what runs through a swimmer's mind while d...