Should I buy my kid a tech suit?

There are plenty of downsides. First, especially with girls, we know they drop time like it is free until about 13 or so. Then, things happen and time drops can be few and far between. Suiting your under 12 up is double pointless since they are going to drop time anyway and they will equate that to the suit. When they hit 13/14 and they don the suit and nothing happens, what will they think? Probably the biggest benefit of the suits is compression and 12 year olds don't need that generally. By 13/14 I do think suits are important, combined with the right championship meet prep. I suppose you could "wear out" the mental factor of wearing the suit by wearing it all the time. Teenage swimmer girls are generally headcases anyway in my experiences, let alone adolescent teenage girls. So, I do agree with you on the gradual loss of mental motivation of simply putting the tech suit on when you already wear it all the time for those athletes. (i see this in masters meets too at every meet). BUT, it is still purely psychological. It seems to me that a strong minded athelete would still perform the same in spite of this. I suppose its arguable that no athlete under 12 is mentally strong... in which case I'd have to say they don't need a tech suit even if you're really really rich and can put them in a new one every day.

There are plenty of downsides. First, especially with girls, we know they drop time like it is free until about 13 or so. Then, things happen and time drops can be few and far between. Suiting your under 12 up is double pointless since they are going to drop time anyway and they will equate that to the suit. When they hit 13/14 and they don the suit and nothing happens, what will they think? Probably the biggest benefit of the suits is compression and 12 year olds don't need that generally. By 13/14 I do think suits are important, combined with the right championship meet prep. I suppose you could "wear out" the mental factor of wearing the suit by wearing it all the time. Teenage swimmer girls are generally headcases anyway in my experiences, let alone adolescent teenage girls. So, I do agree with you on the gradual loss of mental motivation of simply putting the tech suit on when you already wear it all the time for those athletes. (i see this in masters meets too at every meet). BUT, it is still purely psychological. It seems to me that a strong minded athelete would still perform the same in spite of this. I suppose its arguable that no athlete under 12 is mentally strong... in which case I'd have to say they don't need a tech suit even if you're really really rich and can put them in a new one every day.