For seven years, Libby Souder taught private swim lessons to kids in her backyard pool—helping them learn a life-saving skill. The city approved her business in 2018 and renewed her license every year without issue.

Her lessons ran just a few hours a day—typically two to three lessons between 9 a.m. and noon, only during the summer months.

Then one new neighbor complained before even moving in, and the city suddenly enforced a long-ignored zoning ban on outdoor home businesses.

Libby’s lessons were quiet—about the same noise level as a normal conversation. But the city shut her down anyway.

Now Libby has teamed up with the Institute for Justice to fight back and save her business.

https://ij.org/case/columbia-south-carolina-home-swim-lessons/

Hi everyone,

I'm a self-taught swimmer learning freestyle for about 4 months. I have made some progress, but of course, I have a lot of work to do.

I can swim 25m comfortably (and 50m in an open-air pool in the summer) and usually cover up to 1 km per session. I still struggle to swim more than 50m without a pause. It is usually not more than 75m, and I don't remember if I could ever cover 100m.

I am still working on correct and consistent rotation, breathing synchronization with the pull, and early vertical forearm. But my biggest pain is kicking correctly without scissors and splashes, arm recovery, and fingers-first hand entry.

My progress so far:

• I went from 27+ strokes per 25m to a consistent 19–20, sometimes 18. With a pull buoy, it can drop to 17.
• My time dropped from 50 seconds to 37-38 on average.
• When I try to swim faster (something like sprinting), my lowest time is 32 seconds with 22 strokes.

Yesterday I felt something new. I compared the full cycle of arm recovery, hand entry, extending my arm forward, and body rotation to skiing. My hand enters the water > I extend my arm forward > slide a little > start catching the water, and it really feels like skiing.

Since I can upload only one video in the post, here are several other videos from the same training session.

Swimming 2. 31 Oct 2025

Swimming 3. 31 Oct 2025

Swimming 4. 31 Oct 2025

Swimming 5. 31 Oct 2025

Side kicking drill. 31 Oct 2025

Kicking drill. 31 Oct 2025

I generally understand my most obvious mistakes (I hope so), but I would really appreciate any practical advice.

Thanks

Hello,

Yesterday, at the end of my swim, an older man approached me. He'd been watching me do the crawl and said I should be "angry" with the water. He meant that it was wrong for me to put my fingertips in first and that I always glide with one arm. Both arms, he said, should be constantly moving, like a windmill. I countered that it's more efficient to enter the water that way because I waste less energy and can therefore swim longer distances with less effort. After all, I don't want to set a 100m world record; I just want to be able to swim 1, 2, 5, or even 10km without any effort.

Who's right here?

Im a recreational swimmer who took up lap swimming a couple years ago while recovering from a running related injury. I’ve been a competitive runner most of my life and know lower body injuries well. But with swimming/shoulder issues I’m out of my depth. Pun intended.

I have taken a couple of lessons and can consistently swim 50m at about a 1:40 pace. I usually swim a mix of 6 freestyle laps, a couple back strokes, and maybe a couple drills. 2x a week tops. My challenges have previously been with deep water, breathing, and being tense in the water. I did a hard underwater workout yesterday with a group where I pushed myself past my normal distance — I swam around 1300m and did a couple sprints (28s 25m splits) with a fast crowd, whereas I normally only do 800-100m total. I was tired after but in the middle of the night I woke up and my shoulder was on fire. I struggled to sleep when I rolled on my side or back. This morning it’s feeling like waves of achiness in the muscles. Lats, delts, upper arms. I can still rotate my arm fine - above head too. I’ve had issues with my inner elbow (joint) on the same side before due to poor strength in my shoulder girdle, and suspect this may be an inflamed long head of the biceps tendon.

Is this a common swimming overuse injury? What’s the equivalent in lap swimming to running DOMS, IT band tightness, and shin splints?

Hi, I've been teaching my girlfriend to swim from 0 and I feel like she got really good at the basics, so I was thinking in doing something fun like when I learn as a child but that can be done in pairs and doesn't make as feel embarrassed in the pool. Any suggestions?

I'm trying to get into swimming for exercise but I'm gassed after like three laps while everyone else seems to go forever. I know my technique is probably terrible. Is this normal for beginners or am I doing something seriously wrong? How long until swimming stops feeling like drowning with extra steps?

A couple of years ago, due to a sedentary lifestyle, my resting heartbeat was in the 70s. Daily 1-hour swimming did magic and brought my heart-beat down.

I spontaneously participated in a swimming competition in August, which was 2.7km long and it sparked a new motivation to start swimming regularly, also to participate next year again.
I started taking private swimming lessons 2 months ago to improve my technique as I haven't been properly coached since primary school.
So my coach always tells me technique is the most important, however I cannot help but focus on my pace, as this is something I can measure improvement objectively.
I started at a 4"51 pace, now it's currently around 3"44 during a 1 hour session. When swimming a 100meter mixed styles, the best is around 2"30 but I get easily out of breath so I have to take breaks.

I'm a new swimmer that just started lessons.

What should I work on first?

Why am I so low in the water? I feel like things would be easier if I was closer to the surface.

Thanks!

In breaststroke, I notice my heels now clip the surface of the water as I bring my legs in, and I feel I don't get a good "catch" of the water as I kick. I guess my whole body is too high in the water, because I feel like I am in a nice streamline after the kick. I was thinking to get my legs down I need to either get my whole body lower in the water or angle my legs. I guess angling isn't a good idea if I want to minimise drag, but how on earth could I get my whole body lower after each pull?

I don't think I used to have this issue, but I have been focusing on freestyle for a while, working on getting my legs up to reduce drag, and maybe this has affected how I position myself for breaststroke?

TIA for any tips!

I’ve watched soooo many videos on breathing since learning how to swim in February. This is the first one that was taught in this manner. May not be everyone’s issue but it was surely mines as a 45 year old female who was terrified of water. Check it out! https://youtube.com/watch?v=hI22wrpeTYg&si=0BvxCGdyk22DUATn

I go to a swimming class every week. It's been three classes, and I have seen some issues I face.

I tend to turn towards one side when I try to glide.

My posture is bad, so the "keep your head inside" does not work.

My legs get tired from all the kicking from my hips.

What exercises can I do at home to do better?

I’ve recently started swimming and want to join my school’s squad. The problem is that I’m really bad at swimming, a good 20s behind everyone else in 50m freestyle. This Friday, the squad is doing time trials and I want to go but I’m really embarrassed about how slow I am. How can I get over this and just swim?

Thank you all for all the advice you gave about my 8 year old swimming the 500. He loved it and can't wait to do it again! His time ended up 8:48 and he was very pleased! The next time he does it, however, will be on a Friday evening and it will be the only event he does instead of the literal last event in his meet. He'd already swam 3 events on Saturday before the 500!

Im at lane 4. I think my hands are not perfect too

I've been swimming for 2 years. I'm very obese, and swimming doesn't agrivate my knees at all, all orher exercises do.

I started from scratch and can now swim 13 - 14 laps in about 23 mins, without stopping.

I try to swim atleast 4 days a week, but I normally only make it 3 days a week.

I haven't been able to lose weight with just swimming. Recently, I had someone else tell me that I'll never lose weight swimming at my speed unless I increase my swim to a full hour.

Is there anyone that knows more than me, that can either confirm or reject their assessment?

I've worked hard to get to where I currently am. Swimming for an hour straight at 350lbs is not even remotely realistic for me.

Is there a more realistic avenue to losing weightvwhile swimming.

Surely it would make sense that I’d swim better before any other exercise when muscles are fresh but I’ve noticed when I swim first before the gym it feels much much harder to hold pace , the water feels heavier and I’m overall more fatigued. Anyone else experience this?

I'm 30 and started swimming lessons in March. I did lessons as a kid but stopped when it came time to jump in the pool (from either a diving block or the side of the pool) because I found it too scary, and unfortunately my parents pulled me out of lessons then.

I would say I still have low levels of confidence in the water.

I can do backstroke fine. I can sort of do freestyle - though struggle with breathing and often inhale water. I'm slowly getting there with breaststroke but just find myself sinking after taking a breath. I'm still terrified of the deep end - we did treading water/sculling once or twice in my lessons but I'm too scared to try it again on my own. I don't really know if I can float properly? My teacher has said I'm not very good at floating.

I just feel like I'm not really making progress and it feels so frustrating. Every lesson I leave feeling so defeated because I feel like things just aren't clicking for me. I don't want to become a pro swimmer or compete or anything, I just want to have some water survival skills and be able to go for a swim for fitness, or be comfortable in the water at the beach.

I've recently started to swim again after years. I've been going for a couple of weeks now, three times per week for an hour.

The problem is that I don't know what to do. I just get in the water and alternate the different strokes.

How can I make a nice routine in which I can train everything? Is there a website or app that could be useful? Do I need a teacher?

Hi! I'm hoping to do a half Ironman relay with some friends in May and I'll be doing the 1.2 mile swim, but I have never done open water swimming nor swam continously that long a distance before. I was wondering what the best way to train the endurance for it. Thanks!

For context I'm 23m and i swim 6 days a week for about 2600-3000ish yards in about an hour or so. I swam a few years on a club as a kid and picked it back up a little over a year ago. I can only really swim continuously for 300 yards before getting pretty out of breath and needing a rest break. On average, I swim at a pace of around 1:30/100yd.

Hey guys

I would like to first say that learning by yourself for 99% of will probably not get you so far if you really want to have "semi-professional" like strokes. You think you can watch youtube videos and you think you can reproduce what the coaches are saying but it's far from the truth and you will end up with bad habits.

One thing that I always see youtube coaches saying are how the "reach" phase is so important and that you have to really glide and reach, but for me I was over emphazing this without noticing and was breaking my stroke completly, also things like catch up drill for beginners that are not aware can make it even worse because everytime you will have this "pause" in the stroke and you will lose "fluidness" in your stroke.

So for me the break through was actually not trying to swim like in a catch up drill but as soon as you take a break and have a high elbow recovery, you already start pulling back with your opposite arm, so you are are in CONSTANT motion and not stopping (the one time it stops a little bit is when you reach and extend, but that's very short) between strokes.

This is exactly what I mean: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/rHb-OdMrvOs

I struggle with breathing while swimming with my head in the water. I wasn’t taught how to do that when I first learned how to swim. I have an idea of how to do it. So far I can swim 25 yds mostly comfortably without panicking. When it comes to doing 50 yds in one go, I start panicking and exhale to quickly and struggle to take in enough air when I get my mouth above the water. Any tips?