Guys: Your Preference: Brief vs. Jammer

I believe the term "Jammer" originated from title of the goalkeeper in a movie called "Rollerball". His role was to "Jam" or prevent the ball from making a score and his uniform also featured tight down-to-the-knee shorts. CD That makes as much sense as anything.I have tried to find the origin of the word jammer without success.(My spellcheck doesn't think it is a word.)Any other theories as to the origin?

I always thought it came from the surfing scene. When i surfed back in the 60s, one of the popular brands of board shorts was made by a company called JAMS. The name became synonymous with the bright patterns, hawaiian styled, knee length boardshorts. From wiki: " Jams is a line of clothing produced by Jams World. Jams shorts, a popular clothing item in the 1960s and 1980s, were closely associated with the surf scenes in California and Hawaii. Company founder Dave Rochlen was a surfer, originally in Santa Monica, California, then in Hawaii. Inspired by his own desire to find more comfortable surfing attire, combined with a Life Magazine article showing Russians looking comfortable attending the beach in bathrobes, Rochlen bought some brightly-colored floral fabric and asked his wife Keanuenue to make a short, baggy pajama with a sewn-up fly and cut-off at the knee. With this vision, they created the first pair of Jams on December 25, 1964. Rochlen quit his job as a systems analyst and started his new company Surf Line Hawaii, Ltd. to make and sell his new creation. Soon after his first commercial pairs of Jams hit the Makaha Beach in Hawaii, Life magazine ran a two-page spread on Rochlen and a group of his surfing buddies in the June 1965 issue. After the article, the Jams line was sold in places like Bloomingdales, Macy's, and Lord & Taylor. The Jams look was baggy and bohemian, with wild prints and clashing pinks and greens. It was a clear departure from the more subtle color combinations and detailing of existing boardshorts." I wear jammers for both practice and racing. Think im to old to be wandering around the pool deck in a speedo anymore.

So, in the time I've been a member of this forum I have never seen a debate about this, though I feel it could have be rehashed a thousand times. I'd guess I've seen this topic at least 2-3x a year since I've been a member of the USMS forums. I've been wearing a brief w/drag suit to swim for as long as I can remember. If I'm feeling especially tired, have fried legs (from biking or running), I'll sometimes just go with just a brief. If I do a fast swim during the set, I sometimes take off the drag suit. I own exactly 1 swim jammer, and it is a Yingfa that I bought last year for $25. I've worn it twice, and it isn't something I'd want to wear any longer than I have to. For meets, I'll either wear that jammer and also have a Speedo Fastskin brief (got it on clearance for $15 I think). I don't swim in meets often enough that either make that much of a difference.

Practice: If I'm going to pull, I wear square briefs/drag suits. I can never seem to keep a buoy on with jammers. If I'm doing quality work, Yingfa or other old racing jammers. Meets: In-season: Yingfa jammers Big meets: TYR Tracer Light jammers ... that is, until one of the suit companies decides to start sponsoring middle-aged guys like me and gives me free top of the line suitage A jammer is what I bought when starting to swim again last summer. On pulling sets, I have to jam the buoy back between my legs every other turn. Perhaps that's the reason for the name.

Member PB replies and calls himself "fair play for d-people". As everyone posting is an Active member or a Very Active member what is this strange title supposed to denote?

Now, college aged kids that I see are practicing 50/50 jammer/speedo That's interesting because I've never seen a college swimmer train in a jammer. But you're closer in age to that demographic than me, so I'll have to take your word for it!

I've honestly only ever used a jammer coupled with a drag suit for practices.. But as far as meets, I used body suits. Just a personal preference.. I'm not going to argue that a full body suit is better cause that would start a completely different discussion; it is just what it more comfortable for me.

I graduated HS in 2009. When I went to public high school, 98% of people wore jammers 100% of the time. There was 1 team in my division that competed in speedos. When I switched to private school, I would say 75% of teams competed in briefs. Now, college aged kids that I see are practicing 50/50 jammer/speedo, and competing nearly 100% in speedo. I just feel like square legs are more of a fashion thing and less functional than a Speedo or Jammer. Speedo > flexibility. Jammer > smooth surface area = faster (very debatable, but lets just say this is true hypothetically). Square leg... offers neither. I've never worn one so I can't really make any claims about them. I do know that this weekend when I went to buy a new suit at a sports shop, there were hardly any Jammers, some briefs, and a lot of square legs. That makes me feel like no body is buying the square legs compared to the other suits. That said, I did see a couple old guys wearing them today but I've never seen them used in competition. One time my friend and I made a bet with our girlfriends. We lost and had to wear speedos to the beach. I've never gotten so many scowling looks in my life. Though I did receive some nice stare up/downs + eye contact by some attractive girls... and some guys (:bolt:). Briefs are not socially acceptable to lay people in America. Once you realize that everyone else is wearing some skin tight garment that can give a representation of one's package size, you will realize speedos aren't that bad and in my opinion, offer a better swimming experience. They're also so much cheaper and last longer. They also scare the Jammer competition. They are a symbol of self confidence. hahah

I have seen only a couple people in my age group (younger) wearing square leg suits. I see mostly middle aged men wearing them, but still, in very, very few numbers. I'm the only one that wears a square leg suit for practice on my (USA Swimming) team. My experience is they get popular with guys after college. On my team the younger kids wear jammers and the older kids wear briefs. The cutoff seems to be high school. Once they get to high school jammers aren't "cool" to use for practice anymore, I guess :)

On pulling sets, I have to jam the buoy back between my legs every other turn. Perhaps that's the reason for the name. Excellent point! I wonder why no one has yet invented jammers with a strip of velcro on the inner thighs to be marketed in tandem with proprietary pull buoys coated with the other velcro substance. Maybe because the swimming gods understand how addictive the pull buoy crutch can become and don't want to provide another excuse to those who overuse these fiendish items. "I'd like to swim normally, but I can't take this pull buoy off! It's stuck! The velcro won't let go."