For those who want to debate the significance of buying high performance gear for their children.:argue:
Former Member
So if it isn’t worth spending money on your kids is it worth spending the money on yourself?
I don't have kids, so yes, it is worth spending the money on myself. Plus, these new tech suits help show off my wookish figure. That is a definite plus over the older tech suits.
I bought my kids the "tech" suits if they had 5 or more state cuts. Of course the suits back then were the Speedo Powerflow tanks and they were $80.00 if I remember correctly. Our swim team would only allow the kids to wear them in their championship meets.
Yeah, your kid will be the only one at JOs, Sectionals, Zones without the tech suit.
I was one of the only ones back in the days racing with a "regular" suit at big meets. My parents bought me my first regular cut Aquablade suit when I was 11 and made Junior Nationals. They didn't care. Both of them made it to the Olympics (not in swimming but other sports) without fancy and super expensive equipment.
My parents have never bought me another tech/racing suit than that one. I had to make the state team to get my first knee tech suit. One of the annual perks when you made the state team in Germany.
And then our coach would only allow us to race in tech suits twice a year; for Long course and Short course nationals.
Back in the days no longer exists.
That's true. But what exists now is the unfortunate mind set that you can ONLY do well with a tech suit (thanks to our commercial friends).
I'll do anything possible to teach my kids differently.
That's true. But what exists now is the unfortunate mind set that you can ONLY do well with a tech suit (thanks to our commercial friends).
I'll do anything possible to teach my kids differently.+1
I do actually feel a bit sorry for women swimmers now, though, as the current crop of tech suits and coverage still can have an non-trivial impact on their times for adults or near-adult swimmers (e.g., where suit compression matters vs. youth and material over the greater surface area matters). So, I feel sorry for women swimmers (and/or parents like myself of late teenaged swimmers) who can see a benefit from these suits and then do have to fork out $$$.
For men, when they took away the real tech suits / the full body suits and reduced men to jammers, suit technology essentially became irrelevant. Yes, there still is a slight advantage for the techest of suits, but much, much less than in the days of the wonder suits.
I still yearn for a day when they bring back the rubber, full body suits. I'll fork out money for 5 seconds on my 500! Today's jammers might buy me 5 tenths on a 500 ... at best.
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I still yearn for a day when they bring back the rubber, full body suits. I'll fork out money for 5 seconds on my 500! Today's jammers might buy me 5 tenths on a 500 ... at best.
I hated the shiny suits when they were legal because they took forever to get on,if you didn't have the right one you were at a disadvantage(Joe has a Jaked and I'm stuck with this clunky old LZR) and they were fragile(after 45 min of struggle I have on,now I'll bend over for the start,:censor: $500 gone and I'm traumatizing the timers.)
Now that they are gone I miss feeling younger(wow,I haven't done that time in 10 years) and being able to go to a non-taper meet with my slightly stretched out suit and go faster than if I'd shaved.Don't it always seem to go that you don't know what you've lost til it's gone.
For younger kids, I don't really see too much of a point--as others have said, the kids are going to drop time like crazy, whether they're wearing a tech suit or a drag suit. Once they hit 13/14 or so, I'm all for it. That's when I got my first tech suit (well, Aquablade jammers, back when they were the shiznit).
That being said, I'm one of those Masters swimmers who wears FSII jammers to every meet, so take my opinion with a grain of salt... :D
