Coolest swimming inventions...

Originally posted by swimlong bathing suits that fit and stay on. I remember (way back...) as an age grouper and using a shoelace to tie the shoulder straps of my suit together so they didn't slip down. And remember those cute little front panel skirts? I remember the shoe laces (very glamorous) and the "modesty panels".

Swim fins are over 400 years old. But in 1987 Dr. Marty Hull came up with the best swim invention ever (for competitive swimmers). Most swimmers can work the arms with hand paddles, but the legs were not stressed enough. Stanford worked in 1987 with the initial Zoomers and found the shorter swim fins worked the legs MUCH harder than ever expected. They kicked booty that year and during the following Olympics. I was fortunate to be friends with Marty and got an early copy of the Zoomers. The coaches at SCAQ thought I was crazy using these small fins, but that year my legs were in the best shape of my life. My freestyle was good, but my 200 breaststroke was awesome. Sine 1988 there have been many copies of the Zoomers, but the original design still works the legs the best. Dr. Marty Hull also came out with the Rack, that improved foot extension for those people who were not blessed with flexible ankles. For me the ROM strap, or Range of Motion strap help me stretch and greatly improved my streamline. Read my article on Streamlining at www.breaststroke.info/waynestretch.htm

Two of my favorites: 1) The Speedo Stroke Monitor (invented by Bill Geiser). It actually counts your stroke cycles and computes your stroke length, stroke rate, and swimming efficiency. It also has a special timer for repeated timed sets. 2) Fistgloves (invented by Scott Lemley). A fairly inexpensive tool that helps you to improve your grip on the water and your sensory awareness of what your hands are doing.

Definitely googles! I'm the biggest wuss without them and usually keep my eyes closed! :o This isn't fully swimming related, but I used to have the coolest folding frisbee that I used to take to swim meets. It was made out of nylon and had what I guess were BB's sewn around the perimeter. It was perfect when you were stuck at a meet all day or if they had trials and finals. I'd keep it in my sweat pants' pocket and it gave me and others something to pass the time with. Does anyone know what I'm talking about or, better yet, where I can get one?

Originally Posted By Swimlong bathing suits that fit and stay on. I remember (way back...) as an age grouper and using a shoelace to tie the shoulder straps of my suit together so they didn't slip down. And remember those cute little front panel skirts? I think that Jammers in particular are an excellent invention (especially when you think about the other patrons at the pool who probably do NOT want to see me strutting around the pool deck in those tight little speedos!!). Another invention we used as agegroupers many moons ago (and I haven't seen since) was a contraption consisting of a padded bench to lie on and you put your hands in these paddles hooked to a pulley so that you could simulate swimming motions on the bench (and adjust the resistance of the paddles)....I don't know what these things were called but maybe one of y'all also remembers these things......I thought they were pretty cool (especially for butterfly as a dryland exercise). What about those water current generating swim tanks.......they are much smaller than actual pools but you get in them and set the water current speed (like a swimming version of a treadmill) and you stay in one place while you swim against the moving current......I've never used one but it seems like I've seen them before on video (or t.v. perhaps?)...or maybe I just dreamed it up and I only think I've seen it before?.....(I sometimes get mixed up between realitly and fantasy?) newmastersswimmer