www.swimmingworldmagazine.com/.../19679.asp
The most substantial change, of course, is that suits would no longer be allowed to extend past the knee.
My personal opinion is this is sort of an arbitrary change. What really should be changed--if anything--is what types of materials are allowed and maybe testing protocol to approve a suit. I don't really think requiring suits to end at the knees would affect much.
I'm not saying I agree with the decision. Though I am not a voting member of the New England LSC board, I argued against such action. I will say that the input from the coaches was strong. They are very much hearing about this from their parents of younger swimmers.
I'm both a masters' swimmer (who recently bought a B70 and love it) and a parent of three age group swimmers (all girls, oldest is 12). Even before this newest generation of tech suits, my older daughters have been covetous of each earlier generation of tech suits. My wife and I viewed each of those opportunities as great excuses to exercise our rights as parents to "just say no," a wonderful teaching opportunity about economics and financial trade-offs, as well as an opportunity for their coaches to talk with them about all of the other things they can do at this stage of their careers that will have far more impact on their performance than a tech suit. As to whether or not Susie or Jane in the next lane has one, this is just another variant of the refrain children often give on such a wide array of things, "Everyone's got nice stuff but me." My kids learned long ago that that argument holds no water in our house.
I'm not saying I agree with the decision. Though I am not a voting member of the New England LSC board, I argued against such action. I will say that the input from the coaches was strong. They are very much hearing about this from their parents of younger swimmers.
I'm both a masters' swimmer (who recently bought a B70 and love it) and a parent of three age group swimmers (all girls, oldest is 12). Even before this newest generation of tech suits, my older daughters have been covetous of each earlier generation of tech suits. My wife and I viewed each of those opportunities as great excuses to exercise our rights as parents to "just say no," a wonderful teaching opportunity about economics and financial trade-offs, as well as an opportunity for their coaches to talk with them about all of the other things they can do at this stage of their careers that will have far more impact on their performance than a tech suit. As to whether or not Susie or Jane in the next lane has one, this is just another variant of the refrain children often give on such a wide array of things, "Everyone's got nice stuff but me." My kids learned long ago that that argument holds no water in our house.
