We have a lot of threads about the new magic suits. People are asking, do they work? How do they work? Is it cheating? Are they ruining our sport? Is it fair? What size do I get? Will I become sweaty?
So, my apologies for starting a new thread about bodysuits in the context of masters swimming. Most of this is my personal opinion and experience, but I hope other people have similar ideas.
We have to admit that masters swimming is more laid-back than elite swimming. It's competitive, sure, but I've always seen it as a social organization above all else. There's less on the line, here. We aren't going for endorsement money, Olympic berths, or anything like that. If we want to go to the big meet, we just sign up for it. There's no need to do everything possible to qualify.
Maybe this is where I differ from other masters swimmers, but I swim for myself. I compare my performance to what I've done before and what I know I can do. I don't seriously compare my performance to other people, although I'm always down for a good gridge.
With these things in mind, I've thought about what I would gain from buying, say, a nero comp. The anecdotal evidence suggests that I could drop some time in my events. But if I only compete with myself, I really wouldn't be gaining anything at all. With a time drop comes an uncertainty: did that happen because of me, or because of the suit? If the suit makes me faster, eventually I would be able to establish a new standard of fast for myself, and compete against that. But there's no net gain for me.
My current personal scale of fast times involves wearing a first-generation jammer or legskin, and shaving. I've been on this scale since high school. Thinking about why I don't want a bodysuit has also made me think about whether I should even bother shaving for big meets. This might be where I make a personal distinction about the bodysuits that has been discussed here before in an integrity-of-the-sport context.
I experience swimming as the relationship of my body to the water. When I shave down for a meet, I'm not disrupting that relationship. I'm adapting my body to be better suited for the water, which is exactly what I'm doing when I'm training. Swimming shaved is still just swimming, to me. Swimming with a bodysuit is something else. I don't expect everyone to agree with this, and maybe it's something I could even get used to with enough time. But my current feeling is this: a suit that constricts the form of my body, makes me float, and separates me from the flow of the water is a technological intrusion into my swimming experience. It's not something I want.
I can't assume anything about why you swim, but if your reasons are like mine, it might be worthwhile to ask if the latest technology in our sport will benefit you in the same way it benefits a professional athlete.
I'll start with a disclaimer. I'm slow and don't beat too many people.
But how cool is it to jump in with a cheesy brief or jammer and beat people in expensive suits? It's like getting on you old(er) steel road bike and beating the pants off of people on their $5000 carbon bikes. Plus, I'm a cheapskate. I have a hard time shelling out cash for a new training suit, much less a tech suit!
That's fair. Provided you accept that two identically talented swimmers are still identically talented even if one wears the funny gimp outfit. One just has more money to throw on an artificial aid... it didn't make them a better swimmer. Just the one with a record gained by a suit.
There I said it...I had to.
It's a bit like when Arnie said about steroid use, he felt the top body builders would still have been the winners without the use of steroids...
Were there any swimmers setting national or world records recently that were NOT wearing technical suits?
There I said it ... I had to.
Perhaps the majority of more talented swimmers affirmatively choose to wear technical suits. The only ones I can conceivably think of that might accomplish this without fancy suits are the younger masters swimmers recently out of college. And of course SwimmieAvsFan always has to rag on me because she's a feel freak.
I really think that people who have some moral objection to tech suits probably just can't afford them, bottom line. There, I said it, someone had to.
I think about the fact that, growing up, there is no way my parents could have afforded a $300 suit, let alone a $550 suit. But they would have gone into (even more) debt to get me one. I'm sure of that. And I was (and am) no better than an average swimmer. That bums me out a little bit. I'm actually glad these suits didn't exist back then because of the difficult position it would have put my parents in. Now that I think of it, I worry about all of the parents of age groupers out there who will need to make this difficult decision too. It's pretty much a lose/lose situation.
As an adult, I can decide how to spend my money how I want. And I think most people will agree that there, as competitive as it is, there just isn't as much riding on our performances as when we were younger (forget the Olympics and sponsorship dollars--swimming gets a lot of kids into better colleges than they could have were they to stand strictly on academic merit (it did for me)). If I can't afford a nero comp or a lzr racer I can go with older technology (including VERY old technology) and just say "it's only Masters!". That'll be tougher for the youngsters...
Full disclosure, I've never swum in a body suit but bought FS Pro Jammers for local SCY championships and am seriously considering buying a blueseventy pointzero3+ for the local LCM championships (and beyond).
I completely dispute this assertion and think it depends on your personality and the team you train with. I promise you I'm not getting up at 4:30 am to go socialize. Find yourself a serious USMS team and report back. You are fast but aren't as fast as most sprinters on my team twice your age and they put in about 4-5X your yardage a week. Don't confuse your intentions with those of all adult competitive swimmers.
I think characterizing it as a social organization is pretty darn insulting. Sure there's a great social aspect but there are a lot of social groups that don't revolve around physical fitness.
Wear a bodysuit or not, I could care less. It's your money, spend it as you wish.
Glad to see we are disagreeing again, geek.
I am very serious about swimming fast, and although I don't put in a lot of yardage, I do spend something in the neighborhood of 10 to 15 hours a week training.
Which era of swimming technology are you going to allow yourself to use?
There's 1896 - 2008
you could go head to head vs
Johnny Weissmuller, Mark Spitz, Rowdy Gaines
If you want to be a purist make sure you the meet uses the right kind of blocks, pool, lane lines, and timing system
Ande, this isn't about going retro. I swim in the current era, and I like the new pool technology. You can do all sorts of fancy things to a swimming pool to make it calmer and easier to swim in, but it's still going to be just a tank of water.
Whether this 10-15 training hours a week is pool or otherwise, that's definitely much more than a social endeavor, unless you are a noodler, which I know you are not.
I might qualify as a noodler during my cool-down sets.
You're right, swimming is more than a social endeavor for me and for other serious masters swimmers. It's a personal challenge for each of us. Ande keeps track of his performance now versus when he first started masters. He does everything he can to get a fast time, and to him it makes sense to seek the latest technology. I'm presenting a different way to approach the idea of a personal athletic challenge.
When I say masters is social, I mean that we get together to cheer each other on, not to beat each other for medals and national team spots.
I think this debate is actually about body suit versus jammer/legskin, not current versus older technology.
Funny. I think I'm switching to briefs for LC Nationals.
So, there's an entirely opposite side of this argument. If you take the sport seriously, train as hard as you can given life's constraints and want to be your best, you should buy the best equipment out there to maximize your potential. Not doing so is simply cheating yourself and squandering your hard work.
When I see a really good swimmer in a some ratty grab bag suit I think "what a shame he/she won't pony up the money to really make the most of that obvious hard training."
Do you really believe this? I swim for myself, too, but I can't deny I love beating the guy next to me or my friend in a different heat. And if they are wearing the LZR or Nero and I'm wearing a nylon training suit they've got the advantage.
There's a series of photos somewhere of me wildly celebrating a second-place finish at Nationals :)
