briefs, jammer, legskin, kneeskin or hineck

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? it does, but by maybe a few hundredths of a second. it's like 95% psychological.

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. I've had the opposite experience, at least for fly and free. The ankle length suit makes my feet feel higher than my knee suit did. I'm a girl, so I have no point of view on legs only, but I'd imagine that since compression has been shown to be part of the advantage, compressing more would be better.

I'm all for cheap training suits, I go for the colorful ones in the $15 grab bins at the swim center store plus we get a 10% team discount racing suits are a different story they make more of a difference than a few hundredths hineck racing suits can make a half second to on second difference per 100, more for some people so that's 49.0 to 49.50 instead of 50.0 I buy the cheapest swim wear I can. Speedo sale at Costco in Rihmond BC. Chuckie bought 2 speedo swim suits for $29.95 each. I bought my 2 Speedo at a swim pool swim shop for $15.00 each. Who cares about a few 100ths of a second. Swim a few more lengths and get faster. Let your hair grow and get Samsons strength. The hockey players have the idea don't shave for good luck.

hineck racing suits can make a half second to on second difference per 100 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

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.

it does, but by maybe a few hundredths of a second. it's like 95% psychological. I don't know how much I agree with you. I read some sort of informal study comparing the different TYR aquashift varieties, and there was a clear correlation between the size(amount of the body covered) of the suit and the speed. This was despite the fact that the tester was by his own admission getting tired.

I buy the cheapest swim wear I can. Speedo sale at Costco in Rihmond BC. Chuckie bought 2 speedo swim suits for $29.95 each. I bought my 2 Speedo at a swim pool swim shop for $15.00 each. Who cares about a few 100ths of a second. Swim a few more lengths and get faster. Let your hair grow and get Samsons strength. The hockey players have the idea don't shave for good luck.

It's sort of ironic that they've banned "Motion Lotion" but now you can wear a teflon racing skin.

Could be coincidence but I wear jammers 90% of the time, I like the compression. I've not had any issues with hamstrings or groin pulls. I switched to a brief for a workout last week and did a BR sprint...I pulled my inner thigh/glute. It was minor but it made me wonder if there is more benefit to the jammer for support. Could be coincidence and that I was sprinting BR. I've not had any issues spriting BR in my jammer though

I tried out the FS2 at workout today just to see how I liked it. It seems pretty good, but I can't say whether it made me faster or not by itself. All I can say is no weight lifting the day before, plus coffee before workout, and the FS2, made me swim faster for about the first 1000 yards, then I switched back to my normal suit and slowed way down, probably inadequate sleep taking its toll.