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 like this post.
Also, many teams have rules to prevent use/overuse of tech suits by kids such as limiting tech suit use to champs meets or banning them altogether for 12&Us.
I use whatever I happen to be training in on those rare occasions that I swim in a meet. For me these days that's a Speedo Endurance+ jammer. I suppose I ought to spring for something like a Yingfa once just to see how it goes. (I've never shaved for a meet, nor worn a cap before either. If I'm going to do one I suppose I ought to do the others as well, though my lovely wife will surely roll her eyes. :D)
Once bought, there's the "why waste it?" line of thinking too. Especially if you don't swim that many meets. After all, you can't take it with you...
I got people in my area that wear them to EVERY masters meet, not just state or local championship type meets.
OHAI :wave:
a meet with "dual meet" importance.
It took me a while to get out of that mentality. I'm glad I did.
Also most masters swimmers are competing much less frequently than kids are. They want every race to 'count.'
I don't know when my best swims will occur, and there are three different courses we compete in (plus open water!), so I try to swim as fast as I can at every meet, typically using supercompensation effect instead of a taper. Tyr Tracer Light jammers cost about $100 and last me about a year.
Come on Rob, 50% of the fun on this forum is thread hijacking. 45% of the fun is insulting Geek, and 5% of the fun is the intellectual discussion of swimming.
Why did you want to ruin it for us? Geez.
Dpends on a few factors. If you're rich and spending that kind of coin on a swimsuit for a kid doesn't bother you then there's no real downside that I can see besides maybe the envy or ridicule of others.
For me though I'd get an honest look at my kid's performances and how they rank. I'd also look at my kid's stroke and race and see where the bottlenecks and mistakes are. What's holding them back. I wouldn't be spending 200-400 bux on a suit for them until it was THE ONLY thing holding them back below say a top 20 finish at a state level. You're only talking a small percentage difference over a cheap suit. This is the way I view it as well for my own swimming.
Come on Rob, 50% of the fun on this forum is thread hijacking. 45% of the fun is insulting Geek, and 5% of the fun is the intellectual discussion of swimming.
Why did you want to ruin it for us? Geez.
:lmao:
Of course, I can laugh now that I wasn't included as part of that 45%. :agree:
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.
when I go to our Masters State meet I see a lot of folks in tech suits. And most of the folks wearing these are no closer to making it to the Olympics than little Suzy. So if it isn’t worth spending money on your kids is it worth spending the money on yourself?
I got people in my area that wear them to EVERY masters meet, not just state or local championship type meets.
I got people in my area that wear them to EVERY masters meet, not just state or local championship type meets.
It may be a modesty issue - there are some older ladies in my area who much prefer to wear the kneeskin-style suit than a tank. They aren't wearing true high priced tech suits, but rather things like Yingfas and Tyr Fusions.
Also most masters swimmers are competing much less frequently than kids are. They want every race to 'count.'
True, but I see people that don't even have anything close to masters national cuts rockin the $200 suits at what I'd consider a meet with "dual meet" importance.
These are the people that'd be buying kids tech suits as well, I'd imagine.
