briefs, jammer, legskin, kneeskin or hineck

Ande, if you do that experiment, please post the results. I wonder how you could control for 1) increasing fatigue over the course of the trials--maybe don't do it on consecutive days, 2) a semi-placebo effect where you will swim with more confidence/effort to fulfill the hypothesis. I was planning on doing an experiment to test the FSII. I am tapering for a USS meet -- trials and finals -- in one week. If I am going full out in the morning, I am typically very slightly slower in the evening (I have recent data on this). I am not at all convinced that the suits make all that much difference and, in fact, I am (financially) motivated that they do not. Plus, I'm with Jeff: I really HATE the feel of these suits. So I don't think there will be a placebo effect. I will do a full shave. And I am one of those people who wears the suits in warmup just prior to the race. I need a chance to get mentally acclimated to the feel of the suit so it is not a distraction to me. I'll dry off the suits as much as possible; they do march the finalists behind the blocks, so there will be 5-10 minutes out of the water, which may be enough to restore the buoyancy, if any. Although I'll be swimming 5 events in a 3 day meet (possibly plus relays), I plan on only swimming 3 events (100/200 back, 100 fly) in the evening. So I'll wear briefs for those in the morning. (I was considering wearing jammers in the morning, but what the heck, I'll go in whole hog.) It is a fast meet and it is not at all certain that I'll make the championship heat (especially if the FS really works), so I will be very motivated in the morning. But there are 24 people swimming again at night and I am pretty sure I'll be swimming again in those 3 events even if it isn't in the champsionship heat. I have only every owned one of these things, the kneeskin FSII. It is not new: I have used it in 4 prior meets, but it looks in good shape (no seams popped or anything). So with all those caveats, we'll see what happens. My purpose is to get some ballpark figure of the effectiveness of the suits for me in the manner that I usually would use them (ie slightly used -- I will never buy a new one for every meet -- and wearing them in pre-race warmup). It is a sample of one so I am certainly not going to suggest the results are generally applicable, though I would think they would be similar to others whose body types aren't that different from mine (I am 5'10" and currently weigh 170). I'll post the results in 9-10 days.

Ande, if you do that experiment, please post the results. I wonder how you could control for 1) increasing fatigue over the course of the trials--maybe don't do it on consecutive days, 2) a semi-placebo effect where you will swim with more confidence/effort to fulfill the hypothesis. I was planning on doing an experiment to test the FSII. I am tapering for a USS meet -- trials and finals -- in one week. If I am going full out in the morning, I am typically very slightly slower in the evening (I have recent data on this). I am not at all convinced that the suits make all that much difference and, in fact, I am (financially) motivated that they do not. Plus, I'm with Jeff: I really HATE the feel of these suits. So I don't think there will be a placebo effect. I will do a full shave. And I am one of those people who wears the suits in warmup just prior to the race. I need a chance to get mentally acclimated to the feel of the suit so it is not a distraction to me. I'll dry off the suits as much as possible; they do march the finalists behind the blocks, so there will be 5-10 minutes out of the water, which may be enough to restore the buoyancy, if any. Although I'll be swimming 5 events in a 3 day meet (possibly plus relays), I plan on only swimming 3 events (100/200 back, 100 fly) in the evening. So I'll wear briefs for those in the morning. (I was considering wearing jammers in the morning, but what the heck, I'll go in whole hog.) It is a fast meet and it is not at all certain that I'll make the championship heat (especially if the FS really works), so I will be very motivated in the morning. But there are 24 people swimming again at night and I am pretty sure I'll be swimming again in those 3 events even if it isn't in the champsionship heat. I have only every owned one of these things, the kneeskin FSII. It is not new: I have used it in 4 prior meets, but it looks in good shape (no seams popped or anything). So with all those caveats, we'll see what happens. My purpose is to get some ballpark figure of the effectiveness of the suits for me in the manner that I usually would use them (ie slightly used -- I will never buy a new one for every meet -- and wearing them in pre-race warmup). It is a sample of one so I am certainly not going to suggest the results are generally applicable, though I would think they would be similar to others whose body types aren't that different from mine (I am 5'10" and currently weigh 170). I'll post the results in 9-10 days.