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?"?
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?
Not a LZR, but I compared the FSII body suit and Aquablade jammers in a trials/finals meet when I was tapered/shaved. There was no discernible difference. Four weeks later I tapered again and swam in briefs, going slightly faster in the 100 back, slightly slower in the 100 fly, and doing 10-year bests in 200 back and 500 free.
But I have heard others who have tried this and did better with the tech suits.
I will probably do something similar again with the B70 next spring.
Added: one thing I should mention...I'm fairly laid back at meets and even so, it was a little stressful for me to do an experiment like this at a rested meet. At a time when you should be focusing on your events and all that, you're worrying about which suit to wear and whether or not it affects your ability to qualify for an evening swim (the meet is fairly competitive for me). So, on the one hand, I believe that the suits should be tested under race conditions and when the stakes matter; on the other hand, it is psychologically hard to do (at least, I found it so). This just underlies some of the difficulties in actually testing the suits. The fact that it wasn't my only rested meet of the SCY season made it a little more bearable.
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?
Not a LZR, but I compared the FSII body suit and Aquablade jammers in a trials/finals meet when I was tapered/shaved. There was no discernible difference. Four weeks later I tapered again and swam in briefs, going slightly faster in the 100 back, slightly slower in the 100 fly, and doing 10-year bests in 200 back and 500 free.
But I have heard others who have tried this and did better with the tech suits.
I will probably do something similar again with the B70 next spring.
Added: one thing I should mention...I'm fairly laid back at meets and even so, it was a little stressful for me to do an experiment like this at a rested meet. At a time when you should be focusing on your events and all that, you're worrying about which suit to wear and whether or not it affects your ability to qualify for an evening swim (the meet is fairly competitive for me). So, on the one hand, I believe that the suits should be tested under race conditions and when the stakes matter; on the other hand, it is psychologically hard to do (at least, I found it so). This just underlies some of the difficulties in actually testing the suits. The fact that it wasn't my only rested meet of the SCY season made it a little more bearable.
