briefs, jammer, legskin, kneeskin or hineck

I've tried the FS1 kneeskin and the FS1 that goes all the way down to the ankles. I haven't noticed too much difference one way or the other in my times, but I prefer the kneeskin just because I like the feel of the water on my shins/calves. My breaststroke is horrible, but I think having the lower legs exposed may help me "grip" the water a little better on breaststroke kicks. I probably felt the most sense of increased glide/reduced drag with the kneeskin Aquablade, which has been discontinued, but I really liked this for distance swims because it was so light. The FSPro and LZR are supposed to be light like the Aquablade--but they are both way too expensive for me. (When I interviewed Dara Torres recently, I asked her repeatedly for any used FSPros she might not need anymore. She claimed they'd be too small for me, but I secretly think she concluded I was a freakish fetishist of some sort. Not so! Just poor!) I am a big believer that whatever technical suit you wear, one of the main considerations is to keep it dry until the race. I see guys warming up in these suits and it seems crazy to lose whatever short-lived buoyancy they do provide before becoming thoroughly soaked. Maybe everybody on these forums who has benefited from Ande's considerable generosity in advice should chip in $1 and you can buy yourself a LZR! Put me down for a buck the next time our paths cross! Good luck, and thanks for your great advice over the years.

Do you think there is a chance of water pooling and accumulating between the suit and body at the low back area during backstroke with the hi neck? Also, might it restrict a strong backstroke SDK? I would say that if one is ripped with little body fat, than no need to wear anything from the waist up. I think reducing drag and giving compression to reduce muscle vibration in the legs is something that can be resolved in the legs only suit. I am carrying some extra weight, so I think for me there is an advantage in the hi neck.

I havent worn knee skin or hi neck. I still think briefs are nice to swim in, but i dont want to be losing any advantages if others are getting some and also kind of like the extra coverage. When i wore my FS II legskins i felt like it took some of the feel away and provided some level of buoyancy over my aquablade jammer, but i did swim good times so i guess its hard to argue with results. But all in all unless i have lots of extra $ to spend or its a really big meet i'd prob just stick with any jammer.

It's all a personal preference. Wearing a technical suit does not make you faster because it reduces drag. You go faster because of how you "feel" from that reduced drag. It makes you feel faster, so you try harder and go faster. The reduced drag really does nothing by itself. So you need to find out what makes you feel the best. We can't tell you that. Most people would tell you that you need to wear a jammer for ***, but that may not be the case for YOU cause you might like something else better. For example, cause alex hetland uses a hineck for ***.

For me, what I would do is take the price of the suit and divide it by the number of seconds I could possibly save over the life of the suit. (Similar to my comparison of the time it takes to shave down -v- the time savings that gives). I've heard most of these suits only get ~5 meets, maybe 5 events per meet, and we'll give a generous 2 second saving per event. That gives you a max 50 sec savings (5 x 5 x 2). For a $200 suit, the cost is $4 per second. Of course if the benefit is 1/2 second per event, that cost is far higher ($16), or if the life of the suit isn't up to my estimates. Is $4 per second worth it to you? Only you have that answer. Personally, I can think of at least 100 things I'd rather do if I had $200 burning a hole in my pocket. To the question, is $4 per second worth it to me, no, not at the moment. Other sports get much pricier than swimming. One time on a triathlon forum, someone asked if anyone could help him rationalize the expense of a pair of Zipp wheels. Zipps save you about 3 minutes over 112 miles (the ironman bike distance). I told him I'd gladly do it for my standard motivational speaker rate of $500 per minute. It wasn't an unfair rate, since he apparently had $1500 lying around and wanted to blow it on something...

Wearing a technical suit does not make you faster because it reduces drag. You go faster because of how you "feel" from that reduced drag. It makes you feel faster, so you try harder and go faster. The reduced drag really does nothing by itself. I think you're wrong about this. I think there is both a psychological and a physical component. How can reduced drag not make you faster?

Hi Chris, I guestimated the amounts, using my workout times with and without plus conversations with swimmers and coaches "more for some people" the type of people who benefit more than others are: 1) people with jiggly fat and loose skin, fastskins hold it in and create a better surface for the body to slide through the water, let's call it the "aqua girdle" effect 2) poor kickers the leg skin provides some floatation which allows better body position with less effort one week I might do an experiment drag suit vs training suit vs jammers vs leg skin vs hi neck where I'd do the same warm up each day then do: 3 fast 25 frees for time with the same rest between each to see where my times fall for each type of suit pretty soon I also hope to test: 1) 25 bk with 4 SDKs 2) 25 bk with 8 SDK's 3) 25 bk with 12 SDK's & 2) 25 SDK from a back start to see how the times fall Ande, I'm curious: where did you get this range of numbers? And what factors determine if it is "more for some people?" I would assume (but may be wrong) that if hineck's make this kind of difference, the range would be hineck > kneeskin > legskin > jammers. (I'm also curious if the effect scales linearly with distance or not. Science-geek musings, I guess.) I have a friend -- Ryan Bradley, a very fast and fit masters swimmer -- who used FS jammers in the morning trials of a meet and (borrowed) FS legskins in the evening finals. He said he did not feel any difference between the two. Some of his times improved from the morning, some did not. Chris

drag suit vs training suit vs jammers vs leg skin vs hi neck What's the difference between a drag suit and a training suit? And is there a reason why a traditional speedo suit isn't listed, or is that covered under one of the other categories? When I first saw guys wearing jammers, I'd wonder where their bike was, and I still call them bike shorts. Very rarely do we have any guys wearing anything but a regular speedo or drag suits at our practices. As someone mentioned in another thread regarding doing fly kicks, some things should be left to the professionals. If swimming was my life and I did it for my job, I'd want the best equipment I could afford (or my employer/sponsor could) to give me an edge (kinda like my company gives me a good computer, crackberry, and all the other tools I need to do my job successfully). And I'd want the same for those who represent our country in the sport. But for the average sports enthusiast, the costs of equipment can get prohibitively expensive. Not every golfer buys the best clubs for thousands of $$$ (when an ok set is ~$200), and not every swimmer should have to buy gear on that same scale.

I just got a fs2 legskin from swimoutlet.com where they are on clearance. I may put it on the last :15 or :30 of practice tomorrow to see how I like it. I know that these things have a limited life so of course I'm not going to wear it all the time. If I like it maybe I'll stock up at this price. Oh by the way, swimoutlet has them cheaper than amazon.com for the model that is on clearance at least. I'm an amazon.com employee so shame on me for pointing this out. www.swimoutlet.com/.../10092.htm But, they seem to be going fast. There was a mix-up with the sizes they had in stock, which they were helpful in clearing up and I ended up getting the right size (34) anyway. They only seem to have a couple sizes left at this time (22 and 36) Also, swimoutlet.com is a seller on amazon.com if you wanted to go that route. You buy it on amazon.com and swimoutlet.com ships it to you. www.amazon.com/b

What's the difference between a drag suit and a training suit? And is there a reason why a traditional speedo suit isn't listed, or is that covered under one of the other categories? My drag suit is nylon mesh. I couldn't wear it alone without violating the pool's rules about being decently clothed. I wear it over my training suit, sometimes. An interval that I can make easily without it is very difficult with it. (By the way, guys, if you really want to experience drag you ought to try a "ladies" drag suit. The torso part is very draggy. Also, there is the obvious pun.)