I am just back from the SPMA meet where all the top finisher were wearing the latest generation tech suits,mostly B-70s(or were named Jeff Commings.)I have here to for been in favor of the suits,but now I am not so sure.First,they eliminate the old bench marks.I went my fastest 100m BR in 5 yr in my LZR,but it was only .3 sec faster than I did untapered 5 wk earlier in my first swim in the LZR.So was my swim good or not,I'm not sure.Also,instead of focusing on technique or pace I found myself ruminating over aspects of the suits,how many more swims did the suit have,is it the right size,was the reason I didn't get better results from my B-70 because it was too big?etc.The B-70 has somewhat mitigated the "too expensive,not durable" problem,but for how long.
Lets say a company comes up with a suit that is much faster,say 4 sec/100.Further that it is very expensive(say $1000) lasts 4 swims and is very hard to make so that quantities are always limited and the fastest way to get one is to bid up to $3000 on ebay. Now lets say your nemesis has one,or that getting one is your best chance to get TT or AA or a ZR or WR,or that your child is close to making JO cuts,or finally beating his/her nemesis etc. Is it worth it and where does it stop?
Former Member
Paul I see your point but for me, bikes and skis have always been a mesh of man and machine, if you will grant me the skis as being a machine.
As I said before I only really care if it's going to come down to you and me head to head and being basically equal. Outside of that, it is another world to me.
I find it a little difficult to justify this kind of expense even though I hope to be competitive at the higher levels. My greater concern is the effect it is undoubtedly having on the sport. In my hometown, the local college has no men's program. The largest local age group team is about 90% female. This hasn't seemed to change much even since Phelps-mania. There are so many other options for boys that I have to believe that this added expense will make swimming a less attractive option for parents and their athletes.
I would rather have part of a new titanium hard-tail mountain bike than a tech suit, so I'll continue to go slow in my brief. Especially in gridges with le Stud!
Jokes aside though TJ how would you feel if our narrow, narrow, 200 BR had been decided with me in a FS1...it wouldn't be the same.
would those who support a complete separate division for wetsuit wearers in open water also support a complete separate division for old school speedo wearers in pool competition?
thats the question i would like to know the answer to.
(guess how i voted)
Of course, Paul, if you're game, I think we need to get you to join me, Utsch and Dickson to take on any team (of 40-somethings) in a 4 x 800 relay! There's a 3K-ish race I could get into.
Do you really think anyone wants to hang around and watch a bunch of old geezers take up the pool for 30 minutes?
;)
Or an hour in my case!
would those who support a complete separate division for wetsuit wearers in open water also support a complete separate division for old school speedo wearers in pool competition?
Yes!
Swimming, particularly for boys, is just not as popular as other sports. This is all the more reason to keep it as inexpensive as possible. Also, college swimming programs having to increase their budget to purchase these suits is not a good thing when there is already a battle to save men's programs.
I say ban the suits everywhere except for masters where we grown-ups just want to have a few toys of our own.
I really believe that besides the obvious difference the suits have made, there is a secondary performance boost -- people can go very fast in season.
Old-school thinking was that you can simply not swim fast times unless you are shaved and tapered. This philosophy was almost a self-fullfilling phrophecy. We used to keep rankings for shaved and unshaved. The suits have changed that -- you can "shave" or put on a suit at any time. You can see the difference in some of college in season meets - people go amazing in season times. Different way of thinking -- swimming fast at any time -- all you want is more ...
I think this is a significantly bigger difference than the "top end" performance gains. The disadvantage is that maybe you don't tend to drop as much time at the end-of-the season meets. But I haven't had enough seasons to check this.
At the very least, we swimming-challenged types should be allowed to take latex molds of Michael Phelps' feet and have these turned into "feet fins" we can wear in meets to equalize the cruelties of DNA inheritance.
Ditto for Ian Thorpe latex "hand paddles" and, eventually one can only pray, John Dillinger latex "Fifth Extremity" equalization technology.
I have yet to try one of the fastest suits, i.e., a B70 (which sounds like it has some "closed cell" foam properties, which makes it float a bit, a la a wet suit-lite), but I have swum in Aquablades, FS1s, a FSPro that got stolen after the first day, and most recently a Tyr Aquapel.
The latter is actually really cheap now, on sale for less than $60, and I must say I like it as much as the old Aquablade from yesteryear, which I profoundly wish they still made.
Gotta tell you I was proud of you stepping up like that for that 400IM knowing that you tend to stick with the shorter stuff. Be careful or you may start preferring it.
Here's to ya :chug:
Thanks, Jim!
On the entry form for the CZ meet, they said you could put down your yards time and they would convert it to meters for you. So I put a somewhat optimistic 400 yards time for the IM. They didn't convert it.
The same thing happened with the 100 IM.
I could have used latex Phelps-feet (TM) fins for both events!
I was able to switch the heat for the 400 from the fastest (where I would have delayed the timeline) to the slowest (where I raced a fellow who finished around the 17 minute mark.)
I opted not to switch for the 100 because I figured an 8 second delay wouldn't throw the whole meet off too badly!
Thanks for the encouragement, Jim. You did some absolutely blistering times this year. Do you think the B70 helped?
