Why do I get cramp in my feet or calves at the end of a swim training session ? I almost never get it anywhere else, only in my feet and/or calves.
How can I stop it happening ?

For me a typical session is half an hour reasonably hard work swimming full stroke (but de-emphasised kick distance style freestyle), then 15 min kick, then 15 min sprinting reps with a big (for me....) kick. The cramp often comes on during the kick or sprinting sets

Hey, wonderful people! 🏊

I’m curious about your experiences with having a swimming buddy.

I got back into swimming last year after not having swum properly since school. I’ve reached the point where I no longer feel like a drowning sack of potatoes, can comfortably swim around 2k freestyle per session, and genuinely enjoy it. Now I’m starting to think about what’s next and how to improve.

Joining a Masters team probably isn’t the right fit for me at the moment. The local ones are either quite demanding, have busy sessions, or train at times that don’t work for my schedule.

So I’m wondering: what’s it like to have a swimming buddy, say, once a week? Can you actually help each other improve, stay motivated, work on technique, or is it mostly about having some company in the pool?

I’d love to hear your experiences, stories, or tips from people who’ve tried it. What worked well, and what didn’t?

I’m based in London and usually swim at the London Aquatics Centre, in case anyone is in a similar position.

I read posts about butterfly and lane-sharing in the past, but they're all about ettiquette. My question is a bit different. I went to my first US master swim yesterday after 15 years away from the pool. I jammed my fingers into the lane divider 3 times towards the end of the 100y sprint because (1) I was nearing the wall where my lane mate was pushing off, (2) I was so tired and couldn't control my arm recovery well, and (3) the lane dividers are massive in girth so they sit high on top of the water.

The impacts were so bad that I cannot ball up my fist this morning without significant pain. Can you share some strategies to avoid this in the future? Do people just swim more towards the middle and then do one-arm fly when passing others?

I used to swim in open water 10/12 years ago , but recently started to going to the pool as in developing a new hobby.
Here’s a little update on how it went on the third day.
Thoughts?
How am i doing?

I'm an adult learning how to swim and I'm falling very far behind the rest of the class because I can't seem to get out of back float.

The problem seems to be that in trying to get out of back float my legs are maybe too buoyant and won't come down under me. I bring my knees towards my chest, tuck my chin and do the scooping thing with my arms but legs just won’t come under me. I've tried every cue my instructor has given me and he seemed to not know how to fix it.

I would love any help and insights anyone can offer. I feel so disheartened and ashamed to go back tbh.

A very recent video suggested that using a front-quadrant catch-up stroke is optimal. In other words, not just as a drill technique.
What are the pros and cons of this for normal usage? Note: not if this is great for competitive swimming.

Today's lesson I wanted to have a go at doing flip turns. After about 5/6 goes pushing off onto my back from Front Crawl. I couldn't mentally work out how to turn onto my stomach. Kept swerving into the lane divider. And getting tangled up and dizzy.

Doesn't help when only in 1.2 mtr water!

I used to tire myself so much swimming front crawl (which surprised me because I can swim breaststroke pretty fast and for long distances) and only today realised that I've been over-kicking. Timed it to a 2-kick/stroke rhythm and swam so much more easily. Didn't realise I'd been tiring myself out and wasting energy. Keeping to the rhythm and being disciplined with that is helping a lot. Thank you to everyone who has talked about kicking here -- ended up passively absorbing a very helpful tip!