After seeing a woman break 24 seconds and I think we can stop the discussion of "IF" the LZR suit is faster and start thinking "how much faster".
The previous line of suits (Fastskin and so on) were pretty similiar to a shaved swimmer. Sure - they do feel like they make you float, but overall the times seemed to move along "in line" with what I would expect to see in terms of improvements in the sport. If the previous suits would have been that much faster than shaving, you would have never seen people just using the legskins. By the way - for us Masters swimmers there was always the added benefit of keeping in all the "extra layers of skin".
So how much faster are the LZR suits ?
If I had to guess based on the results so far, I would say 0.25 to 0.30 per 50 and double that for the 100. I can see the Bernard going 48 low in the 100 and I can see Sullivan getting close or just breaking the 50 record. It makes sense that Libby Lenton would swim a 24.2 or so in the 50.
I think one of the top regular teams out there should do a test - you need a good amount of world class swimmers training together to be able to do a test. Here is the test I would propose:
8-10 swimmers
2 days of testing
4x50 on 10 minutes all out
Day 1 - swim 2 with a Fastskin2 followed by 2 with the LZR
Day 2 - swim 2 with the LZR followed by 2 with the Fastskin2
Get the averages of all 10 swimmers - maybe drop the high and low and there you go.
Why do the test ? I would HAVE to know. Swimming is a big part of your life and you just set a massive PR using this new technology - my very first question would be " How much was me and how much was the suit?"?
After seeing a woman break 24 seconds and I think we can stop the discussion of "IF" the LZR suit is faster and start thinking "how much faster".
So how much faster are the LZR suits ?
If I had to guess based on the results so far, I would say 0.25 to 0.30 per 50 and double that for the 100. I can see the Bernard going 48 low in the 100 and I can see Sullivan getting close or just breaking the 50 record. It makes sense that Libby Lenton would swim a 24.2 or so in the 50.
I think one of the top regular teams out there should do a test - you need a good amount of world class swimmers training together to be able to do a test.
Why do the test ? I would HAVE to know. Swimming is a big part of your life and you just set a massive PR using this new technology - my very first question would be " How much was me and how much was the suit?"?
I'm not sure that a test using "world class swimmers" would be directly applicable to your situation.
If you are interested in knowing "how much is you" the solution is pretty darn simple: don't wear the suit. If you just want to go as fast as you possibly can, and you think the suit would help (as you seem to), then wear the suit.
If you want to have your cake and eat it too, then why not do a similar set of tests yourself? They would be more applicable to you then having world-class swimmers do it. Bring your LZR to the pool on days you do some fast "test sets" and wear it for half of the repeats. Do it for a number of such sets and there you go.
> He tested himself for 100s with and without a racing suit ... and went about 5-8 seconds faster with it on...
I suspect that's 'cuz we average swimmers have more jiggle to control.
Skip
I suspect that's 'cuz we average swimmers have more jiggle to control.Skip
The "jiggle factor" is the only reason I can think of that such a suit would be more effective for slower swimmers. But why would the LZR be any more effective at controlling it than any other technical full body suit?
Mel Dyck found a similar performance enhancement using older suits:
meldyck.home.comcast.net/.../HowFast.htm
Former Member
The best test would not be with the worlds best swimmers. You would get an easier test with slower swimmers.
Texas men all wear the LZR at their conference meet...where they broke the US Open, NCAA & American record in the 800 free relay with a time of 6:10.55....last night the same 4 without the suits goes 6:16.54....?
You could argue they missed their taper...but overall the team is swimming fairly well and will probably finish 2nd behind Arizona tonight...
Former Member
Someone just posted on the T.I. forum about this, under the Racing and Open Water section. He tested himself for 100s with and without a racing suit - he didn't mention what brand - and went about 5-8 seconds faster with it on, an improvement of about 5% over his non-suited times. His conclusion was that it probably does even more for average swimmers than for elite ones.
Former Member
What do people think about the corset aspect of the LZR? Potentially the LZR could help people who don't maintain good body position or have weaker core muscles more than those who do. One can imagine suits having a sort of spring loading effect, aiding some of the supporting muscles or allowing some of the load to be transfered to antagonistic muscles to stretch the suit and then the suit helps the usually overloaded muscles move in the direction that produces propulsion.
Beyond jiggle control, the suits are supposed to produce a smoother body moving through the water, i.e. less form drag along with the reduced surface drag.
Someone somewhere posted about getting a significant time reduction on the streamline alone. Anyone know of any attempts at testing just that part of the race? That would reduce the complexity of dealing with whole stroke swimming significantly.
Maybe Chris needs to repeat his tests with a full body suit we aren't seeing the breakthroughs with jammers or legskins. One also wonders about possible stroke-specific effects, it seems that freestyle is getting the most benefit from the LZR, although backstroke too. Perhaps the corset is particularly advantageous with respect to twisting along the long axis?
Just some conjecture. :dunno:
I am wondering how the"corset" effect will affect the short axis strokes.I saw in the Men's 100 BR from Australia only one swimmer in the finals was wearing a full body suit(he finished 2nd) the winner was in a jammer.
