"not so drag" suit..

I always wear two suits at practice. It is mainly because I have been doing it for many many years. I remember back in the day at my age group club some guys would wear like 5 suits for drag. They would wear suits with the fabric falling apart in some places. The best is that some guys would wear ladies stockings for drag. We always wore the ladies stockings during warm ups for whatever meet we shaved down for, and sometimes the last week of taper...Extra drag and so we wouldn't get used to the feeling of being shaved until we raced.

Wearing Ladies stockings??? That is really a drag thing to do. I used to dress up in drag on Oct 31st Halloween when I was a young boy, I even wore a wig. We always wore the ladies stockings during warm ups for whatever meet we shaved down for, and sometimes the last week of taper...Extra drag and so we wouldn't get used to the feeling of being shaved until we raced.

More drag means more work. If that is what makes the workout harder for you , then go for it.

Rick, I didn't say I thought adding resistance was a bad idea. I gave a couple of examples. Another one I like is vertical kicking with a dive brick or other weight. However, wearing a drag suit 100% of all workouts still doesn't make sense to me. Actually, I think that being shaved throughout a training season makes some sense (although way to big a pain to actually do). In college I always had my best/most productive workouts between conference championships and NCAA's when already shaved. I'm thankful I swam before someone thought of panty hose. If you want to add resistance swim harder/faster and learn to be more efficient at higher speeds when the resistance is proportionally greater and proper technique more critical. Bottom line, adding artificial resistance to what you would normally do in a race is a tool to be used appropriately. I like an earlier poster's suggestion to take off the drag suit for a faster challenge sets. That makes much more sense to me. I also think there is a "style" component to wearing these suits which speaks more to swimming culture than to well thought out training protocol. Rich

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. Do you shave for each workout? If not, why shave for a meet? Do you taper for each workout? If not, why taper for a meet? When you race a 100 free in a meet, do you do 9 100's on a fast interval right beforehand in the warmup pool? If not, why do 10 x 100 on a fast interval in workout? Practices and training and workouts are about building strength, speed, and technique so that you can perform well in competition. You wear a drag suit for the same reason that baseball players put the 'donut' on their bats when in the warmup circle. The bat feels a lot lighter in the box after that. It's the same reason water polo players often practice with artificially heavy polo balls. Makes the regulation balls feel light. -Rick

To me there is a fine line between enough and too much drag. Its an individual sport and not everyone can train the same. That being said, I just wear a speedo endurance brief with one of the Speedo perforated square drag suits on top. I can agree with the logic of wearing a race suit/single suit, etc for maybe test sets, but for training its always two suits for me. Some of the resistance training I've done in the past (late 80's, early 90's) include: Panty hose (Drag) Tights (Drag) Umbro Soccer Shorts (Drag suit) Pocket Suits (Drag Suit) Little innertubes on ankles (Pulling sets) Straps on ankles (Pulling sets) T-shirts (swimming/kicking) Running shoes (kicking sets) Weights/Bricks (vertical kicking) Stretch cords (swimming in place & 25's) Milk Buckets with weight on pulleys you pull to the ceiling while swimming

Some of the resistance training I've done in the past (late 80's, early 90's) include: Panty hose (Drag) Tights (Drag) Umbro Soccer Shorts (Drag suit) Pocket Suits (Drag Suit) Little innertubes on ankles (Pulling sets) Straps on ankles (Pulling sets) T-shirts (swimming/kicking) Running shoes (kicking sets) Weights/Bricks (vertical kicking) Stretch cords (swimming in place & 25's) Milk Buckets with weight on pulleys you pull to the ceiling while swimming Zounds! So you should perhaps be very knowledgeable, at least for yourself. Did using all this drag make you a stronger swimmer? And now that you don't use all this drag, are you significantly slower, allowing ever-so-slightly for the passing of time?

An earlier post asked (rhetorically, I think) if cyclists trained on knobby tires or runners trained in combat boots for "drag." I can't speak to what cyclists do, but having lived with runners almost all my life, I can tell you that they all reserved their ultra light race day "flats" strictly for racing and ran in heavier more durable trainers almost all the time during training. Maybe that's no longer true though.....

I think for some of the swimmers a "drag suit" may primarily be a financial/decency issue to get more use from suits that are going see-thru and have rips. The loose nylon "drag" suits live forever but need a better-fitting suit underneath.

Zounds! So you should perhaps be very knowledgeable, at least for yourself. Did using all this drag make you a stronger swimmer? And now that you don't use all this drag, are you significantly slower, allowing ever-so-slightly for the passing of time? Partly. Its all worked in as "part" of a total program. Coming out of HS I was a 15:44 1500 Freestyler, so a big YES to the part about being significantly slower now. I don't train like a world class distance swimmer and couldn't if I wanted to anyways these days. To me Masters swimming is all about doing what YOU can do in the time that YOU have to train. We are all older now and have lots of responsibilities, families, etc. Even if I won the lottery and hard the time to train HARD all the time, I don't think I'd really want to train like that again. :)