Articles and Videos
Cool Down for Longevity and Performance
After a challenging swim workout or a dryland session, cooling down your body and mind can help you avoid nagging aches and pains and help your body transition to recovery mode.
How to Learn Dive Starts
If you’re new to swimming or have never competed but would like to try, you might be wondering how to learn a dive start. In Masters competitions, you’re not required to dive—you can start from in the water. But learning new skills keeps everything fun and interesting. if you decide you’d like to learn to dive in, there are some things to know first.
What Swimmers Need to Know About Paddles
If you’ve considered getting paddles, you’ve undoubtedly discovered that there are a variety of different sizes, and styles.
How Can I Get Water Out of My Ears?
There are several ways you can try to drain water that’s gotten trapped in your ear canal, and generally starting with the least invasive option is best, as the inside of the ear is a delicate place that can be injured easily.
How to Get Over a Fitness Plateau
Adopting a new workout or training routine can be exciting, especially when you first get going. If you’re new to swimming, you’ll likely see results soon after you’ve established some consistency, and before long, you’re crushing goal after goal. You’ve gotten fitter and faster, and it seems there’s no limit to how much better you can get.
3 Myths About Flip Turns (and the Truths Behind Them)
Here's what you need to know about flip turns.
Three Simple Ways To Prevent Shoulder Pain When Swimming
When it comes to preventing shoulder injuries, it’s important to nail the basics first.
Coping With Cold
Winter swimming outdoors is a chilly affair. If you’re planning to keep swimming as the mercury falls, plan ahead to help ensure you’re not getting too cold and putting yourself or your training partners in danger.
FOOSH Happens
Caroline Stanistreet had to shift her competitive focus to recovery after falling on her outstretched hand.
What to Do If You're Not Feeling It
When you're in a workout and you're just not feeling it, you're likely wondering whether you should just get out or keep pushing through. Spoiler alert: Few coaches we talked to say that packing it in is your best choice.
Ask the Coach: Jacky Merianos
Swimmers need to mimic race conditions if they want to swim well in meets.
From the Center Lanes: David Zimmerman
While swimming at a pool without a pace clock, David Zimmerman had trouble gauging his pace on hard sets. He says this led him to use a FINIS Tempo Trainer “to help me figure out how fast I was going,” something that still helps him today.
Assess Your Shoulders, Hips, and Ankles to Maximize Your Time in the Water
The start of a year is a great time to assess your strengths and areas for improvement. You can use the information you collect to make meaningful adjustments to your training to help you build strength and prevent injuries over the coming year.
To Swim Better, Stop for a Minute
Regularly taking a moment or two in between all these things to ask yourself how you’re doing can help you stay connected to your workouts and your motivation—and maybe even yourself and your teammates.
What You Should Know About Reverse Total Shoulder Replacement
As swimming's popularity among older adults increases, more Masters swimmers face procedures such as reverse total shoulder arthroplasty, or RTSA, which is more commonly called reverse total shoulder replacement.
Using Yoga for Dynamic Dive Starts
Yoga helps improve your strength, flexibility, joint mobility, as well as your proprioception (awareness of your body) and vestibular system acuity (your inner ear's cue of your positioning), which are all required for a great start from the blocks.
Swimming and Sights Galore in the Pacific Northwest
Enjoy the beauty of the Pacific Northwest when the 2025 USMS Summer National Championship returns to Federal Way, Washington, Aug. 6 to 10.
Swim Fast Deep in the Heart of Texas
Enjoy fast swimming in San Antonio at the 2025 USMS Spring National Championship, which will be held at the Northside Swim Center April 24 to 27
Gold at Last
In 2012, Chris Hammer, then a member of Team USA's Paralympic track and field squad, was unhappy with his performance in London. He was a star runner at Grand Valley State University in his native Michigan, competing against able-bodied athletes. Born with a congenital condition that left him without a left hand, he grew up only competing in able-bodied sports and did well. He figured his transition into the elite paralympic running would also prove successful.
USMS Announces 2025 Open Water Nationals
U.S. Masters Swimming will have five open water national championships at three venues across the country in 2025.
