Suiting up for practice

I saw that yesterday, and thought about asking Ande in Ask Ande whether he thought his technique had changed any in response to the suit. I'll do it here: Ande, you wear the suits quite a bit compared to folks who only suit up for the big events. Have you changed your technique in response to what you feel the suits do for your stroke? If so, how? I was happy to see some validation by Sean Hutchison of my feeling that the suits add floatation, although we all know they aren't supposed to.

You have to practice in the suits - the difference in body position is just too big. All over sudden you can take that 3r or 4th dolphin kick off the wall. Breaststroke feels totally different and the Freestyle kick does come down at a different angle. ... Also - I usually have a very even stroke count in short-course races - taking one stroke less per lap changes my turns / breathing and rythm I've never practiced in my B70 suit ... just got it before the recent Ron Johnson meet ... but I noticed the strokes per lap difference when I raced. I am going into full taper mode next week for the Colonies Zone meet at Rutgers and will be swimming every day in a 25m pool to focus on stroke count/turns/etc. I'll definitely suit-up for the fast portions of my swims. The only thing that bums me out about doing so is the "25 swims" comment Dean (B70 rep) with respect to the lifecycle of the suit.

Great interview - one of the best I have seen on floswimming. You have to practice in the suits - the difference in body position is just too big. All over sudden you can take that 3r or 4th dolphin kick off the wall. Breaststroke feels totally different and the Freestyle kick does come down at a different angle. What about the backstokers pushing the 15 m mark under water - I bet they have to take one or 2 kicks less with the suit on. Also - I usually have a very even stroke count in short-course races - taking one stroke less per lap changes my turns / breathing and rythm.

What about the backstokers pushing the 15 m mark under water - I bet they have to take one or 2 kicks less with the suit on. Excellent point. I never thought of that.

Good point; I don't know. I had a coach who used to love to have us wear cutoff jeans extensively, early in the season -- they had pockets and got really heavy. I always hated them with a passion, especially in butterfly (which he loved) because I felt like my hips sank, changing my stroke a lot. Like you, I can see the point in a more limited context, like sprints to work on power, but not for long or multiple sets. I pretty much think that tennis shoes are similar (I know CreamPuff likes them); they change my stroke too much to use all that much, except maybe on sprints. I like using tennis shoes on occasion, too. I don't use them a ton but like to use them from time to time. It makes me work a ton harder to get my hips and feet up and I feel like my legs are getting stronger and I feel like I fly after I take them off.

Do people do it because it's just part of swimming culture? I think so. My opinion is many swimmers and coaches are almost a little afraid of swimming too fast. That sounds weird, but what I mean is everyone wants to gear up for that one big meet. It's almost as though, if you do something to swim fast before the big meet you're letting the genie out of the bottle early. Like you've only got so many good fast swims in you or something.

... Overall I think it's funny that the entire swimming world is up in arms about the suits giving a few tenth of advantage when in the past swimming has changed many rules to have the same effect - Breaststroke dolphin kick - backstroke turn - breaststroke head under water. There was nobody thinking it was "changing the sport" at that time. Difference here is that they are changing the sport due to equipment, as opposed to technique. Would we feel the same about the equipment issue if it was something designed to deliver air to the swimmer so "breathing" as we know it was obsoleted and the swimmer could hold maximum form in the water?

I think so. My opinion is many swimmers and coaches are almost a little afraid of swimming too fast. That sounds weird, but what I mean is everyone wants to gear up for that one big meet. It's almost as though, if you do something to swim fast before the big meet you're letting the genie out of the bottle early. Like you've only got so many good fast swims in you or something. Wow, if I trained that way, I'd suck. I agree with ehoch. The suits are just another change. There have been eqiupment changes before. I think it's the cost of the suit for growing age groupers that bothers people the most.

I always thought that wearing a body suit was akin to shaving down. If you were to shave down for every practice, where's the benefit on race day? Good example of my point. If you shaved down every day, you'd get that same (hydrodynamic) benefit every day. I do think that part of it is psychological, however. You want to feel different on meet day and wearing a suit or shaving down does that. But the tennis analogy Hutchison uses is a good one. Maybe I'm wrong, but I doubt pro tennis players practice with small wood racquets and then switch to oversized, carbon fiber racquets for tournaments, so why should swimmers train in different suits than what they race in? Back in the old days we could say fairly confidently that suit choice wouldn't have much effect on your body position, but I don't think you can say that today. ...that said, I don't plan to wear a technical suit in workout any time soon. I really doubt it makes that much difference.

What about the backstokers pushing the 15 m mark under water - I bet they have to take one or 2 kicks less with the suit on. Also - I usually have a very even stroke count in short-course races - taking one stroke less per lap changes my turns / breathing and rythm. In practice it takes me about 20 kicks to go wall-to-wall underwater. With a B70 on, it is more like 18, as determined in the meet warmup. To be safe on the start, I usually take one fewer kicks when I wear the suit:9 instead of 10. I am not sure that it is necessary, though: with the 9 kicks it has always taken me 6 strokes to hit the first wall, and sometimes even 7 (in SCY). Those stroke counts means I've played it pretty safe, maybe too much so (5 strokes would mean I pushed it). I don't know that I completely buy everything the coach is saying, but it is probably worth throwing a good suit on in practice occasionally (particularly during taper) to settle these kind of issues. In backstroke, at least, it might prevent a DQ. The one thing that bothers me in all this is the buoyancy issue. That is basically the crux of the coache's argument that the most efficient technique may change when wearing the suit: that body position is significantly affected. FINA supposedly tests these suits and finds them to be non-buoyant, but most swimmers who wear them report that they feel more buoyant. Which is true? Until that question is answered, the rest is just hand-waving. I'd love to see some tests to show how much of a difference in "real" buoyancy (body position) these suits actually make, both passively and while swimming. Is the difference enough that the most efficient stroke changes significantly? I am not familiar with all the high tech testing toys that they can play with in the swimming world, but if they aren't looking at this sort of thing -- it seems a pretty important question to me -- what the heck ARE they doing? Maybe I'm overestimating the kinds of tools they have at their disposal.