Not sure if it's the suit, the Olympic year, or a combo of both - but I do get the impression that the LZR racer is the fastest suit out there. It's not yet available, but I am sure some people will pull some strings and show up with the suit in Austin.
I think we should all agree to ban the suit from Austin and spread the word to everybody. I know it's not binding - but I think we are all "old enough" to work on the honor system.
Any thoughts ?
Former Member
Thrift store suits are fine. When I go to Mexico I have found some pretty unique swim wear at the Flea Market, DVDs with 3 movies on a DVD, 4 DVDs for $10.00 the Speedo a TYR ladies swim wear are $6.00, goggles are $3.00.
My daughter linda found a TYR full body suit for $20.00.
When Chuckie's knee operation is over on Wed we will prepare to go back for a few more months. I will check for some of the newer styles. I have bought Eduras fo my self for $5.00.
The only disadvantage with the DVDs is that they were shot inside a theater and people occassionally stand up in front of the camera man.
You are already too fast, couple that with a LZR and some juice and forget it.
I'll take one too, Kristina and Mel! I think the bodysuits are awesome, speedy and pure fun. Plus, something that would make me grow 6-8 inches would be nice. I recently told someone at a post swim meet social (when asked) that my best event was the 50 back. They laughed and thought I was kidding.
I guess I shouldn't even mention the soon to be released TYR suits which were (from what I understand) not allowed at NCAA's because they did not have enough to supply everyone who might want one.
When masters swimming starts awarding prize money and sponsorships along with implementing a drug testing program then we can start talking about more "rules" to try and create a more level playing field...in the meantime I look forward to first people i get a chance to race against who have one and I don't!
Awesome idea! I often go around wondering how I can make things more fair for my competition. :lolup:
Nothing is ever "fair" in masters competition.
Should we ban those who swim more than 4x a week? Or ban those getting weekly massages? Or ban those over 6'4"? Oops, then I couldn't meet Tall Paul.
The title of the thread is 'Should we "ban" the LZR Racer from Nationals ?' which I think could reasonably be interpreted as asking whether there should be a "rule" against using it when it isn't generally available. FINA thinks so and requires manufacturers to make their suits generally available if they are to be used in the Olympics at least. I'm not familiar with the specifics of the rule or whether it would apply at all to USMS Nationals but I think the principle is sound. I think there should be a rule/ban because it creates an unjustified and easily remedied unlevel playing field. Perhaps it is not practical to put such a rule in place at this point in time. So far you haven't clearly explained why you think unfair is okay other than that there are other things that are also unfair. By that logic we might as well get rid of the rules that try to enforce fairness, but I think not.
Lindsay you are also talking about breaking rules. There are not any rules being broken if somone wears a LZR. There are rules about the number of dolphin kicks. There are LAWS against killing people. There is no rule stating that swimmers cannot wear a suit FINA said was legal - regardless of availability.
www.nzherald.co.nz/.../story.cfm
Ban them all! Off with their heads!!!
What I find interesting in the article are the following:
-- David Pease categorically denied that there was any buoyancy advantage in these suits.
If that's the case, what is all this fuss about keeping them dry until the race? (It was advice I always ignored anyway.) Or is Pease saying this while winking at the audience, knowing that buoyant suits are against the rules?
-- Alan Thompson (head coach of the Austalian national team, who has a commercial agreement with Speedo) does not believe the suits are the main factor in the recent spate of world records. This happens to coincide with my own view, but again I wonder if he is winking at the audience.
-- Finally, my favorite: Cornel Marculescu, head of FINA, states that "there is no scientific test to say if a suit supports performance." It is unclear to me if he means that there HASN'T BEEN such a test or that such a test is not possible. But then later in the article we read about Arena's claim in the that their new suit is faster than their old one by HALF A SECOND in a 50m sprint. The advantage may be speed-dependent (ie, less at lower speeds, like Zipp wheels) but still, over a 400m swim that would be absolutely huge.
I don't consider myself a Luddite, but more and more I'm in the Jeff Commings camp...it wouldn't bother me AT ALL if they were all banned, then it would stop this endless madness.
But at least everyone's talking about suits and not PEDs, and that's a good thing, right? Hardly anyone seems to be talking about plain old fast swimming....
First of all I put "ban" in quotation marks in the title. I am well aware that we will not have a USMS rule put in place. This would have been a self-imposed guidance. Second - I think the argument here is very logical -- it's about as logical as making it mandatory for the manufacturers to make the suit available to all swimmers at Trials or the Olympics.
I would think that Masters swimming should be even more about fairness than the rest of the sport - we should know better. For what it's worth - I would be able to get one - so maybe I should ...
I don't consider myself a Luddite, but more and more I'm in the Jeff Commings camp...it wouldn't bother me AT ALL if they were all banned, then it would stop this endless madness.
If you don't think the suits are performance enhancing, then you shouldn't be bothered by the mass "madness," no? After all, you're not wasting your money and theoretically no one is gaining an advantage on you.
It'd be interesting to have one nationals with bodysuits allowed as usual and one with them banned. Of course, the latter might cause some spectator trauma. :joker:
Maybe the athletes have all been conned, but the ones I talk to sure rave about the suits. The corporate reps are just winking and avoiding making damaging legal admissions.
Why on earth would I complain about paying an additional $550 for a suit that might improve my times from previous years? Doesn't make sense to me.
If you are improving your times because of the suit you are wearing I don't see whats the point of comparing your times to what you did prior to wearing the suit? You didn't improve as a swimmer, you improved as a consumer. I can get to work faster in my Porsche than I can in my Subaru, all that proves is I drove a faster car, not that I suddenly became a better driver.
