Just curious. What % would you estimate wore the "fastskin" slippery suits? What % shaved? For those of you who wore conventional swimwear did you feel at a disadvantage?
I would say that 60-70% of swimmers wore a fastskin-type swimsuit. I noticed that there were 4 main types - Speedo Aquablade(the Victor suits looked the same as a Aquablade), Arena Powerskin, Fastskins and the TYR Aquapel. Although I think that the technogy does help swimmers to swim fast, I don't think that you can attribute 100% of the performance increase due to a lower drag co-efficient. Any of the suits that I have researched had claims of reducing the drag coefficiect by 6-7% over a lycra suit. Although I don't remember the formula from my high school physics class, there is a way to calculate the amount of force that would translate to. However, it would not equal the performance increases that some people were attributing to the suits.
When people claim to drop 10-15% off of their times because of the suit, I think that they are not attributing any performance gains to their training and pre-race mental state (If you think you will be fast - you probably will be)
That said, next year I will be in a fastskin as I am sick of shaving down:)
One thing I did notice was that most breastrokers did not wear the full leg suits(around 20-30 %). Most people I talked to felt that the suit constricted the breastroke kick and that their legs seem to slip through the water. I thought this was interesting.
I would say that 60-70% of swimmers wore a fastskin-type swimsuit. I noticed that there were 4 main types - Speedo Aquablade(the Victor suits looked the same as a Aquablade), Arena Powerskin, Fastskins and the TYR Aquapel. Although I think that the technogy does help swimmers to swim fast, I don't think that you can attribute 100% of the performance increase due to a lower drag co-efficient. Any of the suits that I have researched had claims of reducing the drag coefficiect by 6-7% over a lycra suit. Although I don't remember the formula from my high school physics class, there is a way to calculate the amount of force that would translate to. However, it would not equal the performance increases that some people were attributing to the suits.
When people claim to drop 10-15% off of their times because of the suit, I think that they are not attributing any performance gains to their training and pre-race mental state (If you think you will be fast - you probably will be)
That said, next year I will be in a fastskin as I am sick of shaving down:)
One thing I did notice was that most breastrokers did not wear the full leg suits(around 20-30 %). Most people I talked to felt that the suit constricted the breastroke kick and that their legs seem to slip through the water. I thought this was interesting.
