"not so drag" suit..

I've got to weigh in with Clyde on this topic. I've never understood the logic behind wearing a drag suit if your objective is to swim fast. If you want to swim fast in a meet you should swim as fast as possible in practice. A drag suit may make you feel you are working harder but I don't feel it's going to make you faster in a race. I just chalk it up as another idiosyncratic wrinkle in our swimming culture. Do road cyclists put on knobby tires or big blousey shirts to add resistance? Do runners wear big heavy boots to run? Sure they would work harder if they did these things but it wouldn't make them better at their sport. In fact, it would alter proper technique and have the opposite effect. I do know there is a growing number of coaches out there that want their swimmers training in high tech body suits as often as possible. I do think there is a time and place to add resistance to training, e.g. a power rack or stretch cords, but this is the exception, not the rule for everyday training. Just my 2 cents worth, Rich Road riders might not do those things but they will ride heavier bikes, do training rides on Trail Ridge road in Rocky Mountain NP, add a lot of resistance to the trainer, etc. Don't you lift a lot? I lift, but it definitely slows me down during the portion of my season that I'm lifting, and it affects my stroke for a while, more than a drag suit does. I see greater effects at the end of the year, though, if I stick with some kind of lifting regime. For me, wearing drag is just like doing swim-specific lifting. As a middle distance swimmer, I like to use them early in the year on A/T swims to build endurance and more strength for the ends of races. For fast swims and test sets, I'll take off the drag and throw a cap on. I don't use drag during the race pace portion of my training cycles in order to let my muscles unload a bit. It's a strategy that works well for me.

I've got to weigh in with Clyde on this topic. I've never understood the logic behind wearing a drag suit if your objective is to swim fast. If you want to swim fast in a meet you should swim as fast as possible in practice. A drag suit may make you feel you are working harder but I don't feel it's going to make you faster in a race. I just chalk it up as another idiosyncratic wrinkle in our swimming culture. Do road cyclists put on knobby tires or big blousey shirts to add resistance? Do runners wear big heavy boots to run? Sure they would work harder if they did these things but it wouldn't make them better at their sport. In fact, it would alter proper technique and have the opposite effect. I do know there is a growing number of coaches out there that want their swimmers training in high tech body suits as often as possible. I do think there is a time and place to add resistance to training, e.g. a power rack or stretch cords, but this is the exception, not the rule for everyday training. Just my 2 cents worth, Rich Road riders might not do those things but they will ride heavier bikes, do training rides on Trail Ridge road in Rocky Mountain NP, add a lot of resistance to the trainer, etc. Don't you lift a lot? I lift, but it definitely slows me down during the portion of my season that I'm lifting, and it affects my stroke for a while, more than a drag suit does. I see greater effects at the end of the year, though, if I stick with some kind of lifting regime. For me, wearing drag is just like doing swim-specific lifting. As a middle distance swimmer, I like to use them early in the year on A/T swims to build endurance and more strength for the ends of races. For fast swims and test sets, I'll take off the drag and throw a cap on. I don't use drag during the race pace portion of my training cycles in order to let my muscles unload a bit. It's a strategy that works well for me.