"not so drag" suit..

I'm not sure. I don' think it would work that much. Just a string around your waist. and attach the string to a bucket. works for me.

Have you just considered wearing a "dead" swimsuit OVER your tighter fitting suit? Since the lycra suits seem to die (stretch well out of shape) fairly quickly many women just wear 2 suits at one time. A tighter fitting one UNDER an older suit so that they are wearing a drag suit. Costs nothing--it was going in the garbage anyway. I'm sure males have the same problem with their lycra suits--many swimmers have drawers full of suits that aren't quite "decent" for wearing without another suit under them!

Do drag suits make that big a difference? Well that depends if you are referring to real drag suits that typically have external mesh pockets that act as tiny parachutes or nylon/polyMesh training suits which are somewhat baggy. There is a big difference between the two. The parachute drag suit is like dragging Justin’s bucket, especially off the walls and during sprints. Nylon or polymesh training suits provide slightly more resistance than lycra briefs or jammers and you need to be pretty attuned to your stroke to feel much of a difference. The big benefit of the nylon trainer is that they will far outlast lycra suits.

I wear the Kiefer mesh training suit (www.kiefer.com/.../productr.asp on top of a regular speedo-style suit, and do notice quite a difference. The training suit lasts a LONG time, and it also seems that the suit underneath lasts longer with it on too. Because of the fit of these suits, they recommend you wear another suit underneath. Sometimes toward the end of a workout, I'll take off the training suit for sprint sets or whatever, and yes, I can feel the difference. Also for meets I feel a big difference. Tim

I can feel a big difference. For practice I'll normally wear a regular suit, then 2 trainning suits over that. Adds not only drag, but also adds weight as they absorb more water. The time difference for me is substantial. For example in pratice, a 200 fr. with the training suits will be about 3-4 secnds slower than with out them.

Originally posted by msgrupp I'm sure males have the same problem with their lycra suits--many swimmers have drawers full of suits that aren't quite "decent" for wearing without another suit under them! The solution is never use a lycra suit for training. Instead use 100% nylon or polyester.

Easier said then done for females. The female nylon only suits are hard to come by. Also--females can be very picky about the fit of the suit (shoulder straps, room for "female equipment" and leg fit). What I've seen of the nylon suits or polyester is more along the line of suits for water aerobic type people rather than swimmers.

I've been swimming with a drag suit for the past few months at my masters practices but I've recently moved up to a faster lane. Now my problem is I am the only one wearing a drag suit in my lane and I am the slowest one. If I swim without a drag suit I will be leading the lane and with the drag suit I am playing catchup for the whole workout. What to do? Is there some formula of when to wear it and when to swim without? I was thinking maybe to wear it for tough workouts twice a week and swim without it on recovery days when I might be swimming by myself.

Easier said then done for females. The female nylon only suits are hard to come by. Also--females can be very picky about the fit of the suit (shoulder straps, room for "female equipment" and leg fit). What I've seen of the nylon suits or polyester is more along the line of suits for water aerobic type people rather than swimmers. Nike makes good polyester suits for women; mine lasted a year and stayed decent (elastic in legs, etc.). I also just bought a much cheaper Dolphin polyester suit, after borrowing a lifeguard's. It is more comfortable than the Nike suit, and the lifeguard said hers had lasted for years. Speedo and TYR also make polyester suits, but they don't fit me very well. These polyester suits seem to fit and look like regular suits (high leg cut, cute, especially the Nike); until I discovered them, I was forking out chunks of money every 8 weeks for a new suit. I wear a "dead" old suit over my polyester suit, but I'm not sure it creates a huge amount of drag. One day I wore a T-shirt and leggings (amazingly, our pool allowed this). *That* combination created immense drag but did me in for a few days. Also ruined a really nice pair of leggings (chlorine). Maybe just a T-shirt, if your pool will allow it. Most of the guys I train with wear two suits, one baggy, one probably dead, with either the good or bad suit on top.

I'm sorry, but I don't understand the logic of wearing a drag suit? For isn't the objective to swim fast and not slow? Doesn't swimming with all that drag teach you to swim slow? When suits wear out, they get knotted up together and used as cleaning rags to wash the car, screens, siding, etc. Wear a fast suit and practice "speed barrier training" and you'll swim faster.