When I started, the most advanced suit was he nylon brief. Clearly the "shiny suits" were faster, but they covered your whole body. Jammers cover such a smaller area I have to wonder how much difference the top of the line ones make vs more affordable. Has anyone done testing or any objective measure? Shaving down makes about 1 second/100 difference for me and every .01 sec can be important, but is there even .01 sec difference between good jammers and top of the line?
For me they are! Every season for the past 8 years I've gotten a different tech suit. I buy it for my shave/taper meet that season then wear it for my later season meets the following season before buying a new one the following spring. In order, I've done the Aquablade, Speedo LZR Elite, Speedo LZR Racer Elite, Speedo LZR Elite 2, TYR Avictor, Adidas Adizero XVI, and then the A3 Performance VICI for the past two seasons.
The Speedo LZR Elite was a huge upgrade over the Aquablade--I broke the LZR out for the first time at Spring Nationals that season and tried it back to back with a brand new Aquablade while warming up in the competition pool on the Wednesday before the meet started. The LZR lifted my hips and thighs in the water and was almost night and day more hydrophobic than the Aquablade. I played around with just gliding off the wall in streamline and consistently got about 4 feet further with my glide in the LZR than in the Aquablade. The improved compression also kept my thigh muscles much better controlled.
I'm sure the shave and taper also helped, but I dropped .3 in my 50 back, .5 in my 50 fly, ~:.75 in my 50 free, :1 in my 100 IM, and almost :2 in my 100 fly at Nats compared to our Zone championship meets two week before, which was unshaved/untapered and Aquabladed.
Since then I've been up and down on how the various suits have performed, hence why I've gotten a different one pretty much every year. A lot of it comes down to fit for me--I've got short, stubby legs with a big butt, so my two main judging criteria for any given suit is how much plumber's crack coverage it provides and how much the excess fabric bunches around my knees, especially on the last day of Nationals when I've worn it for 3 long days in a row. The A3 Performance VICI is the first one I've found that nearly nails both the butt coverage and leg length for me, so I've stuck with it the past two years. I've found that it doesn't quite provide as much hip lifting as some of the Speedos I've worn in the past, but it is still a night and day difference compared to my practice speedo or any of the worn suits I use at early-season meets.
Directly comparing it to a, say, $60 Speedo Endurance jammer? No clue, but I've generally been quite satisfied with the performance I've eked out of the various suits over the years.
For me they are! Every season for the past 8 years I've gotten a different tech suit. I buy it for my shave/taper meet that season then wear it for my later season meets the following season before buying a new one the following spring. In order, I've done the Aquablade, Speedo LZR Elite, Speedo LZR Racer Elite, Speedo LZR Elite 2, TYR Avictor, Adidas Adizero XVI, and then the A3 Performance VICI for the past two seasons.
The Speedo LZR Elite was a huge upgrade over the Aquablade--I broke the LZR out for the first time at Spring Nationals that season and tried it back to back with a brand new Aquablade while warming up in the competition pool on the Wednesday before the meet started. The LZR lifted my hips and thighs in the water and was almost night and day more hydrophobic than the Aquablade. I played around with just gliding off the wall in streamline and consistently got about 4 feet further with my glide in the LZR than in the Aquablade. The improved compression also kept my thigh muscles much better controlled.
I'm sure the shave and taper also helped, but I dropped .3 in my 50 back, .5 in my 50 fly, ~:.75 in my 50 free, :1 in my 100 IM, and almost :2 in my 100 fly at Nats compared to our Zone championship meets two week before, which was unshaved/untapered and Aquabladed.
Since then I've been up and down on how the various suits have performed, hence why I've gotten a different one pretty much every year. A lot of it comes down to fit for me--I've got short, stubby legs with a big butt, so my two main judging criteria for any given suit is how much plumber's crack coverage it provides and how much the excess fabric bunches around my knees, especially on the last day of Nationals when I've worn it for 3 long days in a row. The A3 Performance VICI is the first one I've found that nearly nails both the butt coverage and leg length for me, so I've stuck with it the past two years. I've found that it doesn't quite provide as much hip lifting as some of the Speedos I've worn in the past, but it is still a night and day difference compared to my practice speedo or any of the worn suits I use at early-season meets.
Directly comparing it to a, say, $60 Speedo Endurance jammer? No clue, but I've generally been quite satisfied with the performance I've eked out of the various suits over the years.
