Fifteen national teams at the short-course European championships in Croatia two weeks ago signed a protest letter urging FINA to set better guidelines regulating the suits.
I wonder which suit their swimmers competed in?
I wonder which suit their swimmers competed in?
Of course they were wearing tech suits.
That report sounded grim, yet it's still hard for me to believe FINA would outright ban the LZR, B70, TYR, etc. And it makes no sense to me to permit those suits, but only to the knees. I don't disagree that better regulations for suit approval could reasonably instituted. And I approve of the limitation to one suit. But will they really try to put the genie back in the bottle? A genie that was on display at the Olympics?
If they do ban these suits, I don't think there will much coaching adaptation needed. And, Mike, de ne couler pas!
Do you really think that you have to change coaching technique for the hytech swim wear. .
I do think that if such suits are allowed and their use allows differing stroke technique over longer courses (as in Jonty's straight arm free example), then yes, coaches of swimmers destined for Olympic calibre need to think about such things.
Very interesting article.
I thought the implication was that the French were simply lazier than the americans, not necessarily inferior.
I understood Jonty to say that they work less than we do and swim with what he considers to be technically inferior technique. Yet they have somehow mastered the art of covering 50 or 100m faster than most of the competition, which he attributes in part to their early adaptation to the available technology.
I am a little perplexed as the why the suit itself would significantly change the technique that is being taught by coaches. I really feel that the growth in competitive swimming over the past 8-10 years has more to do with sponsorship money, which might have a trickle down effect on the push for more technological suits. Fact is that there are now multiple top tier swimmers making high 6 figure or even 7 figure endorsements (not counting the crazy amount Phelps is earning). I don't think these opportunities existed much more then a decade ago.
I would be curious to see what kind of endorsements existed for guys like Rowdy Gaines and Matt Biondi (in the 80's, not the Endless Pool and other gigs found in recent times).
The primary take away that I got from reading this article was not whether the French were inferior or not (Leslie, how can you say that! ;) ), what I take away from this is that the suits make coaching more of a challenging. Not only must you consider the current suits when coaching, but you also must consider the future suits.
Should I teach my 8 year olds to swim with a stroke that works well with the suits that they wear now or should I encourage them to use a stroke that will work better with the tech suits that they will wear in 8 years. I think many coaches, myself included, haven't thought much about changing strokes to fit the current suits, let alone the future suits.
The primary take away that I got from reading this article was not whether the French were inferior or not (Leslie, how can you say that! ;) ), what I take away from this is that the suits make coaching more of a challenging. Not only must you consider the current suits when coaching, but you also must consider the future suits.
Should I teach my 8 year olds to swim with a stroke that works well with the suits that they wear now or should I encourage them to use a stroke that will work better with the tech suits that they will wear in 8 years. I think many coaches, myself included, haven't thought much about changing strokes to fit the current suits, let alone the future suits.
What I took out of it was very similar; that coaching needs to adapt (or does it?) to the "future" of swimming. For me, my philosophy is to have my swimmers out of the tech suits for as long as possible (as long as they are competitive), and move on from there. When they start to enter into the National arena, then we'll look at the tech suits and how to make the minor stroke adjustments at that point (which, hopefully, won't be too many or too significant). Possibly, that is the wrong theory to have, but as the article mentioned, there is no suggestions as to where the swimming world (tech wise) is going...other than faster!
Do you really think that you have to change coaching technique for the hytech swim wear. My some of us are gullible. No suit should be allowed if made with any floating products such as neoprene even if is a brief never mind to the knees.
Very interesting article.I think the point is that the new suits reward power over endurance.It has been said that training for SCY should be different than for LCM.This article seems to be saying that we should train for LCM like for SCY.
