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?"?
I am not sure if I am willing to go quite as far as Jazz with the LZR/B70, but I do think the benefits of tech suits are way overstated especially for athletes that are extremely fit. Has anyone tried swimming the same event at a tapered meet wearing briefs (say a relay leadoff) and then the same event in the latest tech suit? Actually, I think the opposite would be more interesting - swim the regular race in briefs when it means more and swim the relay with the tech suit to see if you could match the time. I think the math geeks just want to know what the real difference is, not the hyped difference. All the numbers say there is a difference, but how much? Wasn't that the title of the thread to begin with.
I do think Phelps would have swam virtually the same time in the 100 fly without the legskins. He would swim to win regardless of the suit. Would he have won without legskins, who knows, but I bet it would still be close. If Cavic would have finished better, he wouldn't have won the first time. Reverse the logic, why didn't Phelps wear a full LZR in the finals of the 100 fly in the Olympics? I assume because he didn't think there was an advantage to doing so. In fact, one might infer that he must think it is a disadvantage. He had an awful lot at stake ($1 million, at least) in that event to make such a stupid decision based on normal tech suit logic, right?
Tim
I am not sure if I am willing to go quite as far as Jazz with the LZR/B70, but I do think the benefits of tech suits are way overstated especially for athletes that are extremely fit. Has anyone tried swimming the same event at a tapered meet wearing briefs (say a relay leadoff) and then the same event in the latest tech suit? Actually, I think the opposite would be more interesting - swim the regular race in briefs when it means more and swim the relay with the tech suit to see if you could match the time. I think the math geeks just want to know what the real difference is, not the hyped difference. All the numbers say there is a difference, but how much? Wasn't that the title of the thread to begin with.
I do think Phelps would have swam virtually the same time in the 100 fly without the legskins. He would swim to win regardless of the suit. Would he have won without legskins, who knows, but I bet it would still be close. If Cavic would have finished better, he wouldn't have won the first time. Reverse the logic, why didn't Phelps wear a full LZR in the finals of the 100 fly in the Olympics? I assume because he didn't think there was an advantage to doing so. In fact, one might infer that he must think it is a disadvantage. He had an awful lot at stake ($1 million, at least) in that event to make such a stupid decision based on normal tech suit logic, right?
Tim
