I am going to buy my 12 year old daughter a high performance swimsuit for christmas. Price is not an issue. Any recommendations on what is the best suit out there right now?
I do not care for TYR but I know a lot of folks who like them.
I am very pleased with my TYR suit (ap12). I was somewhat afraid at first of GM quality, but that is not the case.
I don't understand why this question gets such an impassioned response.A parent wants to get a child what she wants for Christmas.It is expensive and won't last long,but it is also useful and supports a healthy activity.
We still have a couple of Furbys that I drove all over town to get that lasted about 3 days before the novelty wore off.Does that mean I was a bad parent.
I let my youngest child play more video games than was recommended and spend lots of time with her computer,now she is a double major in computer science and computer engineering with a minor in math and has a sponsor that pays her to go to video game tournaments.
I have seen pushy parents who live vicariously through their kids,that is not good for the kids,but I think assuming that about someone ,simply because of their choice of Christmas gift is a little much.
As a female, I'm not sure what the guys are talking about when they say "speedo endurance" as a "tech" suitI was parsing words a bit as the poster asked for a high performance suit. I find endurance suits to be exceptionally high performance.
...I swam an end of the year SCM meet this past weekend in my YingFa, doing two events--the 400 and 200 IM's--I ordinarily never swim. I swam faster in the 400 IM than I did five years ago in a TYR body suit at Rutgers, and if Event Rankings is to be believed, I have the #2 time in the event right now in my age group. I also improved my 200 IM time by two seconds (when converted to yards), this after only about a half hour or less rest following the 400 IM...My point exactly.
I just watched a bunch of 12/u's kill some swims this weekend in ratted out lycra suits.
Where did you see Jim swim this weekend?
I've written about Tech Suits in Swim Faster Faster
There's generations of tech suits, the most recent ones are expensive & might be better. I'd consider performance versus price. Plus a 12 year old is likely to grow more and that expensive suit might not fit her 6 months from now.
I suggest getting the suit a few weeks before her championship meet. You should be able to get a better price on a lightly used suit from another swimmer or off eBay. Getting a new expensive suit for a 12 year old might be something that could wait a few years.
Several years ago, back when full body tech suits were still legal, I met a 14 year old kid, who went 1:54 in the 200 IM, with a 31 split on breastroke.
I asked him, What kind of suit did you wear?"
He said, "A jammer my dad got me when I was 12."
My daughter competed the entire high school season in a regular suit and wore the knee skin at the championship meets last month. Interestingly a majority (90%) of the girls wore them as well. ($120 is a reasonable price for an Arena kneeskin.)
A reasonable compromise: buy her a Yingfa.
+1! That was my "reasonable compromise" for myself and I love my Yingfa (even though I'm still :censor: about having to wear a size 3XL, even though I'm 5'71/2", weigh 123 lbs., and wear size 4 jeans)!
I am going to buy my 12 year old daughter a high performance swimsuit for christmas. Price is not an issue. Any recommendations on what is the best suit out there right now?
Arena Carbon Pro. It's good and healthy that she looks to improve in all areas of swimming, even at a young age.
Thought I'd stumbled upon the 'Unsolicited Advice' thread for a moment there.....
