Very interesting article.
I wonder, though, about his claim that the suits allow the French to win using "inferior" technique. Despite the fact that many elite sprinters have switched to straight arm freestyle, there still seems to be a stigma that it is inferior. If it's faster, it doesn't seem "inferior" to me ... Perhaps it's "superior" for sprinting, but not other distances.
His article also doesn't persuade me that swimming shouldn't continue to incorporate new products and suits.
Here is the latest on suit technology:
FINA to review all high-tech suits
Mon Dec 22, 2008 By Associated Press
The Speedo LZR suit, displayed by a host of Australian swimmers, will be analyzed by FINA in early 2009.
GENEVA (AP) -- The high-tech swim suits that helped produce more than 100 world records this year could be in for a new look.
Swimming's governing body said Monday it will take "appropriate action" when it meets March 12-14 in Dubai.
Members will get reports from a coaches' forum next month in Singapore and a Feb. 20 meeting of suit manufacturers at FINA headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland. That meeting also will feature FINA technical committee members, swimmers, coaches and sports lawyers.
"FINA is looking for the collaboration of all the partners in this area, so that final decisions can be globally accepted and fully understandable by the swimming worldwide community," the federation said in a statement.
Any change in FINA rules could be in place for the 2009 world championships in Rome from July 18-Aug. 2.
There have been 108 world records since Speedo's LZR Racer suit became available to swimmers last February. The suits were designed and tested with help from NASA. Other manufacturers followed with their own high-tech suits.
FINA was criticized for upholding the suit designs for the Beijing Olympics and not providing a clear definition of what's an acceptable suit and a "device" that enhanced performance. Opponents say the suits create changes in buoyancy levels and amount to "technological doping."
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.
USA Swimming has petitioned the governing body, requesting that suits "shall not cover the neck, extend past the shoulder, nor past the knee."
Swimming Australia joined the debate last week. It wants FINA to stop approving new suits and enforce a rule restricting swimmers to wear one suit at a time. Some competitors have worn two and three suits in races to create a more streamlined body shape and prevent the stretched material from splitting.
FINA has commissioned research from an unidentified university to examine the thickness of new suits and design a test that will determine whether they are "credible" within the sport.
You used to see the odd high-elbow swimmer in the thick of the 50; now you don’t. They used to be in the thick of the 100; now they’re rare.
This is totally made up. Most of the best sprinters today use the bent elbow style. Klim and Bousquet were doing straight arm way before the LZR. Nothing changed.
This is totally made up. Most of the best sprinters today use the bent elbow style. Klim and Bousquet were doing straight arm way before the LZR. Nothing changed.
My experience around a large club team is different. Straight arm is back in vogue, big time.
This is totally made up. Most of the best sprinters today use the bent elbow style. Klim and Bousquet were doing straight arm way before the LZR. Nothing changed.
Lezak has a nice high elbow.
I am sure if you put in less effort and have less skill you will not win. I think I can guarantee this.
Well put.
Bernard might not grind out the 200s in practice but I'd bet that he can outpace a lot of people in the weight room.
There's another option he didn't mention: someone comes in swimming fast as hell and raises the level of competition around them.
Jonty Skinner wrote a very good article discussing the challenges of coaching in the facing of changing technology with suits.
www.goswim.tv/.../swimming-in-the-next-dimension.html
The article is a little “Long Winded” but I get the author’s idea: These suits enable you to swim faster with less emphasis on effort and skill.
On this subject, there was an article on suit technology in a past issue of USMS Swimmer Magazine in which a coach at a university in Colorado (Mel Dyck I recall was his name) who said something to the effect that “……He was all for tech suits because he was able to spend less time training”. I guess his statement eloquently sums up what was in inferred the article
The next "innovation" in suits will be several layers of bubble wrap laminated between the inner and outer surfaces for increased buoyancy so the problem of maintaining body position and floatation will also be a thing of the past. :agree:
California Dolphin
I am sure if you put in less effort and have less skill you will not win. I think I can guarantee this.
Anyone can write anything and so many will believe it, as I say lots of gullible readers here.
I'm thoroughly confused by this discussion. In Jonty's article he was talking about how the new suits allowed the less efficient but more powerful "straight arm catch" versus the "high elbow catch" (emphasis mine)
It seems to me that all the discussion above concerns the straight arm or bent arm recovery. Quite a different thing altogether. Am I mistaken?
