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?
102.14.1 Design -- The swimsuits worn for competition shall be non-transparent and conform to the current concept of the appropriate. The referee shall have authority to bar offenders from competition until they comply with this rule.
I can't believe how short-sighted FINA and USA Swimming are being with all their swim suit rule-mongering.
First nit-picking suit thickness, permeability, and presence of tiny adjunctive propellers, all of which have been deemed by The Powers-That-Be somehow unsportsman-like.
Now this!
Our only hope smashed of seeing Laura Manedou (or however you spell her name) and her lithe ilk swimming free, their svelte musculature vibrating in the azure racing tank!
How else are we supposed to learn what to do with our own core muscles if we can't watch the fastest women in the world using theirs, from upper chest thoracic stabilizers to groin sinews to ever so gingerly flapping buttocks?
FINA, you have gone too far this time in outlawing transparent swim suits!
This must not stand! This cannot stand! This shall not stand!
PS does this mean that all the old guys on our team now wearing transparent, sagging, form-fitting Lycra Speedos from which the last molecules of dye have long since given up the ghost are now in official violation? If so, perhaps I can live with the ruling after all.
Please send some FINA police to our pool immediately for enforcement.
Former Member
I still think Speedo will buy B70.
Speedo is jealous that B70 is making a suit that people are starting to like more than theirs. They have been the big dog for years, now, someone is starting to make them feel threatened
www.smh.com.au/.../1237054905754.html
Does anyone buy that she didn't know the rule?
Just the other day, I was saying it's bit odd that men have used modesty suits but not women ...
I take it FINA's ruling applies to USMS? Or is unclear as Pakman suggests?
I can't help but wonder if there isn't an inkling of xenophobia in the latest round of suit outrage. Would so many people be up in arms if, say, it was Garrett Weber-Gale who dropped a 46.9 100 meter free?
Making Sense of a Major Mess: Not an Easy Task -- April 27, 2009
I have no doubt that the times set in these suits will be beaten once the suits are banned. It may take a while, but training methods will continue to improve and swimmers will get faster because of it. Maybe at that point we will be able to better understand the influence of these suits (and other variables e.g training), when all elite swimmers are less enhanced.
How big of a deal will it be when the tech suit times are beaten? I think those performances are going to be worth the wait, and have no doubt they will happen.
Former Member
COME ON! I just threw my hat back in the ring!
:bliss:
keep the suits!
Former Member
The Jakeds are coming 485.00 USD
Former Member
COME ON! I just threw my hat back in the ring!
:bliss:
keep the suits!
I'm in the minority and voted for the first option.
Anyone got some charcoal lighter and a match? :banana:
Dolphin 2
Former Member
This is from a swimnews.com article-I wish more of the up and coming swimmers had his attitude regarding the tech suits.
"Meanwhile, make way for our 16-year-old hero of the day. Yannick Agnel, coached by Fabrice Pellerin in Nice and a French junior champion, stands tall not only because he is 2m from the soles of his feet to his crown: in Montpellier he showed up at his blocks in briefs, just missed his 200m free best, with a 1:51.02 effort and said: "I've always swum in briefs and I see no reason to change that. I wanted to show that you can do honorable times without a supersonic suit."
A sign of the times: before he stepped up to his blocks an official asked him if he would be wearing something below his bodysuit. He said he would be wearing nothing under his briefs. After his race, he said that he had no regrets even though he missed his best by about half a second. "I'm staying pure ... a wildcard for the future. There is something important at stake. When I reach a barrier, perhaps it is that that will drive me to find the missing tenths or seconds." In other words, not simply by donning the latest supersuit.
Bravo! Yannick Agnel. A boy who in speaking to L'Equipe proved himself to be more of a man than those coaches who are still happy to seek plaudits for pupils whose performances relied on a prop and more of a man than those who govern the sport of swimming and who have not yet shown that they have truly understood the crisis nor found the courage of the convictions that they ought to have - let alone come anywhere close to expressing them publicly, as they should have done in order to preserve the special nature of the sport that they are supposed to be guardians of."
