I have noticed I get cramps in my sides if I drink a lot of water and then immediately start swimming again. I can usually prevent this by waiting a few minutes before swimming again.

What kinds of issues do you guys have and how do you overcome them? Maybe if we start a thread up, we can all learn off of each other

You shouldn't really be gulping down water, before or after. Take small sips - You can drink plenty, but slowly. Too much too fast will hurt your stomach (as seen by the cramps).

You need to take only few sips of water before or after your swim.
Your stomach might not be able to cop up with the outside pressure & it will create cramps in your stomach area.

You can prevent them if you take some potasium. Also, you can eat some bananas first, and you will see that you won't have any problems no more

i get cramps on my toes like A LOT! i just do some warm up before swimming and if ever i get cramps, i just stretch my leg and pull those cramped toes towards me.

The cramps can also be avoided by taking salt water,lime water,energy drink,fruit juice as it will keep your body energetic.

I never get cramps anymore..only when I first started.

I drink energy drink and have warm up through certain exercise to avoid cramps. Exercise is an alternative way to prevent cramps. So before starting, make sure you'll have first the warm up exercises.

I never got cramps from drinking too much water, I would just feel super full, or just crappy. Depending on what "a lot of water" is you may be experiencing low levels of sodium.
If that where the case, you would want to sip some sort of sports drink to replenish, your sodium levels.
Like everyone else said just sip on water, there is no reason to be guzzling down water.

For other cases of cramping, I've seen a lot of my swimmers take a couple tums, when they start to cramp. It seems to help, it's pretty much just a calcium pill, so it would make sense that it would work.

Your not suppose to drink the water straight down, take a little bit at a time otherwise when you go right in after drinking alot of it fast, you'll get cramps.