LZR - It's Faster, but by how much ?

Former Member
Former Member
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?"?
Parents
  • I don't think the boost from the new gen suits is mental the new gen suits makes swimmers bodies more aquadynamic allowing them to move faster through the water allowing them to take their swims out faster and bring them home the 2 key components of swimming speed are the: 1) shape and characteristics of the swimmers body like the hull of a boat and 2) swimmers ability to apply power to propel themselves through the water. the times hoch posted don't lie times in just about every event dropped 1999 49.43 0.743% 2000 49.15 0.566% 2001 49.31 -0.326% 2002 49.32 -0.020% 2003 49.07 0.507% 2004 49.07 0.000% 2005 49.02 0.102% 2006 48.94 0.163% 2007 48.63 0.633% 2008 47.83 1.645% it ain't placebo, it's physics. Ande Placebo. Swimmers put up big performances in the suit because the suit makes them feel like big performers. As knelson pointed out, that doesn't mean the suit is useless, it just means that it's useful in a different way than most people think it is.
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  • I don't think the boost from the new gen suits is mental the new gen suits makes swimmers bodies more aquadynamic allowing them to move faster through the water allowing them to take their swims out faster and bring them home the 2 key components of swimming speed are the: 1) shape and characteristics of the swimmers body like the hull of a boat and 2) swimmers ability to apply power to propel themselves through the water. the times hoch posted don't lie times in just about every event dropped 1999 49.43 0.743% 2000 49.15 0.566% 2001 49.31 -0.326% 2002 49.32 -0.020% 2003 49.07 0.507% 2004 49.07 0.000% 2005 49.02 0.102% 2006 48.94 0.163% 2007 48.63 0.633% 2008 47.83 1.645% it ain't placebo, it's physics. Ande Placebo. Swimmers put up big performances in the suit because the suit makes them feel like big performers. As knelson pointed out, that doesn't mean the suit is useless, it just means that it's useful in a different way than most people think it is.
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