Ban the tech suits?

Interesting article by John Leonard about the FINA meeting regarding suits: http://www.swimmingcoach.org/ Here's one thing I have an issue with: Let's be realistic here. Every suit manufacturer is in it for the bucks--fast or otherwise. Agreed, not that there's anything inherently wrong with that. I also take some issue with his declaration that athletes are generally against the suit. If this poll is any indication, that clearly isn't true at the masters level. I don't think it is true at the age group level either; I've had a number of age groupers comment to me how much they love their B70. Heck, if it were really true, then no one would be buying/wearing them. But this is what really bothered me: What has NOT been addressed so far? The most critical is the issue of “compression”. While it is unclear what role if any, compression has on physiological effectiveness of muscle cells, what is completely clear to any athlete and most coaches, is that compression is very effective in limiting and reducing the amount of “body fatigue and body line failure” in the last ¼ of races. A simple study of the 110 world record splits in 2008, shows over 70% with dramatic improvements in the 4th quarter of the race in contrast with previous (non-tech suits) world records. Simply put, the suits are holding the body line together and reducing resistance when the normal body fatigues, “sags” and loses its ability to hold the correct low resistance position in the latter stages of the race. Now here, we have the classic example. We know this is true, but we cannot prove it in any way that is going to stand up in court. I'm sick of statements that we "know" are true but cannot prove. Please; the whole "court of law" thing is meant to cast aspersions on the supposedly shady characters of the (non-Speedo) suit manufacturers. I for one would not at all blame them for suing to protect their livelihood from flimsy evidence. The list is long of things that were once "known" but fell apart on closer examination. I can't really comment on his so-called evidence because he doesn't give details -- what are "dramatic" improvements, exactly? How unlikely is the 70% figure, wouldn't we expect at least 50% of improvements anyway? And his explanation is hand-wavy mumbo-jumbo. What muscles are being compressed here? Not the arms or shoulders, clearly. And when I put on my B70 today, I noticed that the lats are almost entirely free (ie, not compressed). That leaves legs -- quads mostly -- as the major propulsive muscle group that are compressed. So WRT this phenomenon, I guess that jammers are just as good as full body suits, right? So what exactly would be done about it? No jammers, briefs only? I just don't think that will ever happen, nor do I think it should. How about women's suits...they can't be too tight, because (horrors) things might get too compressed? I'm not going there...:)

Interesting article by John Leonard about the FINA meeting regarding suits: http://www.swimmingcoach.org/ Here's one thing I have an issue with: Let's be realistic here. Every suit manufacturer is in it for the bucks--fast or otherwise. Agreed, not that there's anything inherently wrong with that. I also take some issue with his declaration that athletes are generally against the suit. If this poll is any indication, that clearly isn't true at the masters level. I don't think it is true at the age group level either; I've had a number of age groupers comment to me how much they love their B70. Heck, if it were really true, then no one would be buying/wearing them. But this is what really bothered me: What has NOT been addressed so far? The most critical is the issue of “compression”. While it is unclear what role if any, compression has on physiological effectiveness of muscle cells, what is completely clear to any athlete and most coaches, is that compression is very effective in limiting and reducing the amount of “body fatigue and body line failure” in the last ¼ of races. A simple study of the 110 world record splits in 2008, shows over 70% with dramatic improvements in the 4th quarter of the race in contrast with previous (non-tech suits) world records. Simply put, the suits are holding the body line together and reducing resistance when the normal body fatigues, “sags” and loses its ability to hold the correct low resistance position in the latter stages of the race. Now here, we have the classic example. We know this is true, but we cannot prove it in any way that is going to stand up in court. I'm sick of statements that we "know" are true but cannot prove. Please; the whole "court of law" thing is meant to cast aspersions on the supposedly shady characters of the (non-Speedo) suit manufacturers. I for one would not at all blame them for suing to protect their livelihood from flimsy evidence. The list is long of things that were once "known" but fell apart on closer examination. I can't really comment on his so-called evidence because he doesn't give details -- what are "dramatic" improvements, exactly? How unlikely is the 70% figure, wouldn't we expect at least 50% of improvements anyway? And his explanation is hand-wavy mumbo-jumbo. What muscles are being compressed here? Not the arms or shoulders, clearly. And when I put on my B70 today, I noticed that the lats are almost entirely free (ie, not compressed). That leaves legs -- quads mostly -- as the major propulsive muscle group that are compressed. So WRT this phenomenon, I guess that jammers are just as good as full body suits, right? So what exactly would be done about it? No jammers, briefs only? I just don't think that will ever happen, nor do I think it should. How about women's suits...they can't be too tight, because (horrors) things might get too compressed? I'm not going there...:)