Blog Posts

Discover the hidden cardiovascular risks active adults face, including Patent Foramen Ovale (PFO), and how to recognize subtle stroke warning signs during workouts. Learn why physical fitness does not guarantee immunity from vascular events and how …

Stuck training at a single unchanging speed week after week? The masters swimming gray zone is the silent killer of race-pace progression. This deep dive explores why your lap times have flatlined and how to systematically introduce new gears into y…

Masters swimmers often struggle with frustration when their current lap times do not match their younger personal records. By letting go of old benchmarks, giving your body grace through aging, and shifting your focus from volume-heavy yardage to pu…

Protecting your knees and hips as a Masters breaststroker requires more than just in-water recovery time. By establishing a mandatory 20-minute pre-swim dryland mobility routine focusing on foam rolling, hip activation, and dynamic stretching, adult…

Race-day panic attacks and sudden air hunger can derail even the most experienced collegiate and Masters swimmers, transforming a physical competition into an overwhelming psychological battle. Understanding how to manage mid-race anxiety, recognize…

Just turning 65 years old myself, I’ve been thinking a lot about what it means to be a "super ager" in the water. We all face that creeping doubt as the years go by—wondering if our fastest days are behind us, or if it's too late to get back into…

Welcome back, Mojo Makers! If you are anything like most swimmers, you probably measure a good workout by the sheer volume of sweat—or rather, chlorine—you leave behind on the pool deck. We are culturally conditioned to believe that more is always b…

Welcome back to the Champions Mojo blog, where we dive deeper into the strategies, mindset shifts, and biomechanical secrets that help you swim faster, feel stronger, and protect your body for the long haul. If you have ever felt a nagging ache in t…

Every swimmer knows the feeling. You dive in, settle into your race, and somewhere around the halfway point it finally feels like your body has caught up with what your mind has been asking it to do all along. The problem is that by then, you've al…

Most people assume the highest level of success brings the greatest satisfaction. Win the Olympic gold medal. Make the national team. Reach the goal you've been chasing for years. Then you'll finally enjoy the sport. Ryan Held's experience suggests…

What if the invitation that changed your life came in the form of someone just asking you to show up and cheer? That's how Andy Kroupa found his way back to competitive swimming after nearly 20 years away. His friends needed support at a Key West r…

One of the biggest misconceptions about Masters swimming is that you have to be fast enough to join. Maybe you've looked at a practice schedule and wondered if you'd be able to keep up. Maybe you've been away from the sport for years and assumed ev…

Most swimmers spend years staring at officials from behind the blocks without ever considering what it's like to stand on the other side of the whistle. For many people, becoming an official sounds intimidating. You have to learn the rules. You mig…

Everyone wants to know the secret to aging well. Athletes chase it through training. Researchers chase it through science. The wellness industry chases it through supplements, treatments, and the latest longevity trends. Yet despite all the noise, …

The same laws that govern Olympic records govern your next personal best. The scale is different, but the rules are identical. After hundreds of conversations with champions — Olympic gold medalists, NCAA title holders, masters record breakers — a …

We talk about culture constantly in sports. Championship culture. Team culture. Positive culture. But if you asked most people to really define it in a way that tells you what to do differently at tomorrow's practice, many would struggle.  Greg Cli…

A lot of people think a comeback starts with motivation. A big goal, a burst of confidence, or a sudden desire to “get back to where they used to be.” But most lasting comebacks are built on something much quieter than motivation. They’re built on h…

What if the hardest thing you ever did had nothing to do with the water? In this gripping and deeply moving episode, we sit down with Steve "Moby" Leitch, an elite endurance athlete who is one swim away from completing the Oceans Seven Challenge wh…

What if you treated your body like a gift instead of something to fix? In this powerful and energizing episode, we sit down after practice with Stephanie Havelka, a true water woman whose journey spans competitive swimming, Kona Ironman, outrigger …

What if the key to performing under pressure isn’t pushing harder, but learning to control the moment between what happens and how you react? We recently sat down with Chris Harris, known as “The Warrior Maker.” Chris has spent decades training Nav…

After years of pushing the limits in endurance sport, sometimes the body asks for something different. For Jane Esahak-Gage, that moment came in 2019 when a broken ankle forced her to stop running and cycling. After 17 years of Ironman triathlon tra…

Some swimmers follow the textbook. Others rewrite it. At the 2026 Winter Masters Distance Invitational in Oro Valley, Arizona, Doug Springer did exactly that. At 80 years old, he’s still racing, still training, still working, and recently added fo…

Stand behind the blocks long enough and you will hear it. The voice that asks if you’re ready.The voice that reminds you of your last bad race.The voice that wonders if today is the day you come up short. It doesn’t matter if you’re a first-year M…

There’s something surreal about leaving a night shift filled with flashing lights and urgent decisions, then walking straight onto a quiet pool deck at sunrise. One world runs on adrenaline. The other runs on repetition and rhythm. Che’Rel Haywood …