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.
For practice and regular meets, what are your suit preferences?
For practice: I usually do a brief with a drag suit. If I'm out of shape or my quads are hurting, I'll use a jammer for the extra compression.
For regular meets: I usually do whatever the team suit is, which has varied over the years. I prefer the brief because of more flexibility.
In big competitions*:, I would use a leg skin and if I had the need to buy one today, I'd probably go with a tech jammer.
*Regionals, States, Nationals, etc
For practice I use primarily speedo endurance products. Regular meets I go for the speedo xtra-life or aqua blade.
I used to get a lot of crap for wearing a brief, but now I feel like they're making a comeback. I like to think I converted some people on my high school team. Actually, the only person who really gives me crap anymore are my friends who don't swim and my girlfriend (who does swim). She says the ugliest part of a guy is the upper outside thigh the brief doesn't cover.
So I switched to square legs recently and must say I really like them. The mothers may still be thinking portly pedo, but in my mind, I am envisioning my inner Burt Lancaster:
From Here To Eternity - Kiss scene on the beach - YouTube
Loved that style! In fact I've been looking for the square leg suits around my sporting goods stores here and have only found jammers or briefs in my size; I go back and forth... I'll use the briefs when I know it's mostly the regular lap-swim crowd, but jammers on the evenings/weekends at the Y when everyone and their great grandmother is splashing around in the free-swim area or sitting in the bleachers... for the same reasons you mention.
Very good point, Eli. Really who cares what kind of suit anyone else chooses to swim in? Even if someone wants to swim in board shorts I think they're nuts because of all the drag, but I say go for it. Getting people in the water is the important thing.
Wait, what? You guys aren't using board shorts? ;)
Former Member
Actually, it was the Michigan Fab Five that changed how college and NBA players wore their shorts in 1991. Until that time, even the great Michael Jordan still wore short shorts.
And it's a good thing that shorts are now longer instead of the ones people wore in the 80's and before.
I think you got that backwards. Jordan went baggy first. Was watching a documentary on the Fab Five the other day, and they claimed they started the trend. But in the same documentary, they said they picked up the look because MJ was doing it. But at the same time, they said they started the trend. (I know - doesn't make sense.)
Jordan went with baggy shorts because he thought he had skinny legs.
Former Member
So if the "too revealing" and "insecurity" concept is what guys are getting all hung up about -find a way to get over it already!!! :badday:
CD
I self image think is a very real issue among younger swimmers, and even people my age (21). I don't have a problem wearing a speedo publicly but I know people my age who wouldn't be caught dead in one. I'm not sure what the puritan beliefs are that you're talking about?
Very good point, Eli. Really who cares what kind of suit anyone else chooses to swim in? Even if someone wants to swim in board shorts I think they're nuts because of all the drag, but I say go for it. Getting people in the water is the important thing.
Thanks. I absolutely agree.
Former Member
EBJ190 posted:
"So you're saying that basketball shorts look like woman's skirts and are "Transvestic" yet wearing a speedo (that is reminiscent of female bikinis and panties) is not? There are such things as man purses and man leggings you know"?
EBJ190:
Men's brief ("Speedo") swimsuits were NOT reminiscent of female bikinis and panties at all. In fact, briefs for men and bikinis for women were more of a "unisex" approach to swimwear introduced way back in the 1930s when modern pools were developed. The logic of the idea was to better adapt the bathing sensation to swimming. In fact, in Brazil the old fashioned pre-90s square cut briefs are pretty much the standard today.
So if the "too revealing" and "insecurity" concept is what guys are getting all hung up about -find a way to get over it already!!! :badday:
CD
While I haven't researched this at all, let alone 60 years, and nor do I intend to- I don't think it was a puritan attitude that lead to the creation of a Jammers. I think it was adolescent boys feeling insecure about themselves. As a result, the swimwear companies capitalized on the opportunity to charge for a more expensive and less revealing alternative, while potentially drawing in more swimmers whom would not have wanted to swim otherwise. Believe me, I know beginner swimmers interested in joining teams who have not because of the requirement to wear a form fitting suit. I know experienced swimmers who have not joined teams/quit because the team required a speedo over jammers.
I heard that jammers came out of bike shorts. Triathletes were wearing bike shorts to swim anyway, so the swimwear companies decided to add a drawstring and make the padding optional.
The first time someone showed up at a masters workout in a jammer, everyone asked him where his bike was.
Former Member
i prefer wearing a brief that is a few sizes too small made of non stretchy polyester fabric so that each flip-turn exposes 1- 1 1/2 inches of butt crack to any/all spectators.
puritans be damned.
My kid's soccer practice is right next to an outdoor pool where a club or HS team practices. All the boys were wearing briefs. I was surprised by that. When I was in HS, the briefs were such a source of ridicule by the rest of the student population that I would have killed for jammers (they had not yet been invented). Due to my upbringing, I can't help but think briefs are goofy and uncool, but somehow kids these days don't have that issue? Maybe swimming is cooler, or maybe I've moved someplace where swimming is more accepted than when I grew up.
I wear jammers all the time.
Former Member
That's funny, I view jammers as goofy and uncool. Now after reading comments in this thread about how uncomfortable they are and the way they make a pull buoy slip out, I am even less inclined to wear them.
When I first started swimming as an adult, I wore baggy shorts.. the typical "lounge" swimsuits that they sell in department stores. I remember vividly the first time I wore a speedo to the pool at the Y. The feeling of exposure, nakedness, abnormality. But then, nobody really seemed to notice or care, because of course it's a pool and speedos are the norm. Once I jumped in the water and felt the extreme difference in streamline, body position, and ease in the water, I was hooked.
Now I wear all kinds of training briefs, racing briefs, drag suits, multicolored, whatever. I'm one of those people. The guy who shows up at the pool at 5 PM in the crazy multicolored brief with patterns all over it, toting a swim bag full of paddles, fins, etc, swimming IM and fly while sharing the lane in a crowded pool. (all of that actually happened today)
One time I was in Seattle "spending some time with the family" and we stopped by a park on Lake Washington. The kids were playing in the playground, my wife was relaxing in the shade, so I took the opportunity to do a quick open-water training swim in Lake Washington. Speedo brief, swim cap, goggles. Crowded swim beach in mid-summer. My kids still give me crap for that one :D
The brief will set you free!
On my son's age-group team (800+ swimmers), the boys middle school and younger almost all wear jammers. But the senior groups (HS age) seem to wear mostly briefs. I am not sure why the transition occurs.
One summer my son was 10 or 11 years old and had a moderate case of poison ivy rash on his thighs. He was complaining that his suit was making him feel miserable; when I innocently suggested that he might be more comfortable wearing wearing briefs, he gave me a now-familiar rolling of the eyes.:shakeshead:
