Swim Life

For any swimmer who's grown up in a pool, there are few things that feel as nostalgic as the wafty scent of chlorine or the echo of splashing water in an indoor pool. Most swimmers have been to more pools than they can count. Your home pool, a few in your local area you regularly go to for meets, an...

Commentary: Swimming Will Always Be There There is a moment, quiet and often unexpected, when it hits you: you’re done.  Maybe it comes after your final race, when the adrenaline fades and the crowd noise dissolves into something distant. Maybe it arrives a few days later, when you wake up and reali...

Why Great Ideas Often Start in the Water By Jordan Fargo The other day, I couldn’t help but have a flashback to my time on my college’s club swim team. It was nearly 9 p.m. by the time we finished practice. After a long, 20-minute walk through Cornell’s huge, gorgeous campus, you’d think that I’d be...

The Heart of the Sport: Why Swimming Needs More NCAA Energy  Watching the NCAA Championships is something else entirely. Even from thousands of miles away, the energy is unmistakable. You see swimmers cheering for teammates they just raced against, celebrating every personal best, lining up on the b...

Most “what’s in my bag” videos consist of a wallet, a pair of sunglasses, a few chapsticks or lip glosses, maybe a travel-size container of hand sanitizer, a phone and a wad of old receipts. For swimmers, the “what’s in my bag” trend looks a little different. A wet towel, a damp suit, an old granola...

When Vision Disrupts Training If you start a season with perfectly clear goggles and find them fogging a few weeks later, you’re not alone. Anti-fog treatments perform well at first, but they rarely last under the daily demands swimmers place on them. It is a frustration shared at every level of the...

The Local Ecosystem: How B2B Partnerships Can Double Your Swim Club Membership By Milan Leposa Most local swim clubs waste a significant portion of their budget on traditional marketing. They print flyers, run Facebook ads, and hope parents stumble upon their website. In sports management, however,....

Guest Editorial: The Pool as a Place of Peace By Jordan Fargo Every August, I can’t help but remember all of the times my dad would wake up nice and early to drive me to Sunday morning swim practice for my club team. He’d make me a piece of toast, butter it, and leave it on the kitchen counter with ...

Reframing Nostalgia - Something Worth Missing  Every February and March, as conference championship season unfolds across the country, I find myself pulled back in time.  This time of year, my computer is working overtime with the number of tabs open. The livestreams are playing, the psych sheets ar...

Akron Clinches Fifth Straight Mid-American Conference Championship Akron University claimed victory at the Mid-American Conference Championships last weekend. Finishing with 771 points, the Zips were more than 200 points ahead of their closest competition, which was Ohio. Ball State, Miami, and Buf....

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 ...

Bryant and UMBC Capture Team Titles at America East Championships The America East Conference crowned two new team champions over the weekend at its conference championships. On the women’s side, Bryant University secured the title with a margin of more than 100 points over second-place New Hampshir...

5 Skills that Benefit Swimmers in the Workplace Although there are many skills swimmers develop in the pool that benefit them athletically, many of those lessons extend past the competition pool. From early-morning practices to long seasons of dedication to balancing academics, swimming instills hab...

Fear. One simple word, yet one of the most complex and personal emotions we experience. It shows up in obvious ways: Fear of snakes, fear of heights. But for athletes, it often runs much deeper. Fear of failure. Fear of judgment. Fear of what comes after the so-called failure, when the results are p...

5 Ways to Ensure Your Body is Rested While Traveling to Your Championship Meet Championship meet season is here! It's the time of year when excitement is high and all your hard work and training are behind you (for now). But traveling to a big meet—whether it’s across the country or just down the ro...

Motivational Monday: Positive Affirmations for Swimmers Breathe in, breathe out. The moment has arrived. All swimmers know the feeling of having a big race in front of them. You stand behind the blocks, anxiously adjusting your cap and goggles. You count down the heats in front of you until it’s fin...

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...

An Explanation Of How Tech Suits Benefit Swimmers When it comes time to race, many swimmers, especially those racing in high-level competitions, wear specialized knee-length swimsuits known as tech suits. They're everywhere in the swimming world. But how do tech suits work? And do they actually make...

10 Things 'Swammers' Miss About the Sport There’s something about swimming that never really leaves you. Even after the early mornings end and the goggles are packed away for good, the sport lingers in muscle memory, daily routines and nostalgia. For former swimmers or “swammers,” as some like to sa...

A Letter To My Club Coach  Dear Coach,  I used to think gratitude was something you expressed at the end, after the final practice, after the last meet, after the chapter was closed. But swimming doesn’t really work that way.  Neither does your impact.  You were there long before the success, long b...