Coaches and Sprinting

Yes Jim, I patronize NZ products – mostly their Marlborough region Sauvignon Blanc but also their swim apparel. It’s funny though, with all the talk about buoyancy (mostly by people who haven’t tried them, I’m sure), I found there was no extra buoyancy. None. Zero. Zip. In fact, I felt gypped because I expected some magic floating feeling and there was nothing. But…..it is slippery. I noticed it on the first push-off from the wall – you go further than normal. This saves a few strokes after the dive and each turn. (I’m looking forward to a short course meet) As per Ande’s recommendation, I tried the suit at a practice. On a purely subjective basis, in a set of SCM 100’s free, a rep with the suit that felt like it was swum in 1:20 was actually done 1:15 - so it seems to provide some reduction of effort. Not being one of these 9% body-fat 20-somethings, I get the benefit of the compression that you get with all full body suits (the “jiggle factor” benefit which is very big in sprints). At 6’ and 165lb, I took a size 26 – seems good so far. In all, it just seems like a logical step in technological progress but hardly a giant step. The biggest improvement for me came from a very sprint specific 50m focus but I have to say I was a bit (pleasantly) surprised with my 100m time. A 100 is the beginning of long distance for me. A purely subjective wild ass guess is that the suit itself is worth something like 0.1 secs per dive and turn and 0.3 secs per 50m swum at my pace. However the suit is one of many factors: This year’s time = Last year’s time + age time effect – new tech suit effect – sprint specific coaching effect – weights benefit +/- training effort I have room for improvement in the weights and training effort departments (at least until the age effect becomes exponential) Unlike Jim, I believe in all this but have to battle my laziness habit and actually do it (get my butt to the gym & pool). Ian. PS: Jim, haven’t you heard? – they’re building a zillion dollar wall along the border – to keep you from escaping? You won’t be able to get out. In the meanwhile, just go get a loan from one of your government-owned banks and get yourself a B70 – you will be pleased by the results (do weights too – don’t do as I don’t do, do as Fort says).

Yes Jim, I patronize NZ products – mostly their Marlborough region Sauvignon Blanc but also their swim apparel. It’s funny though, with all the talk about buoyancy (mostly by people who haven’t tried them, I’m sure), I found there was no extra buoyancy. None. Zero. Zip. In fact, I felt gypped because I expected some magic floating feeling and there was nothing. But…..it is slippery. I noticed it on the first push-off from the wall – you go further than normal. This saves a few strokes after the dive and each turn. (I’m looking forward to a short course meet) As per Ande’s recommendation, I tried the suit at a practice. On a purely subjective basis, in a set of SCM 100’s free, a rep with the suit that felt like it was swum in 1:20 was actually done 1:15 - so it seems to provide some reduction of effort. Not being one of these 9% body-fat 20-somethings, I get the benefit of the compression that you get with all full body suits (the “jiggle factor” benefit which is very big in sprints). At 6’ and 165lb, I took a size 26 – seems good so far. In all, it just seems like a logical step in technological progress but hardly a giant step. The biggest improvement for me came from a very sprint specific 50m focus but I have to say I was a bit (pleasantly) surprised with my 100m time. A 100 is the beginning of long distance for me. A purely subjective wild ass guess is that the suit itself is worth something like 0.1 secs per dive and turn and 0.3 secs per 50m swum at my pace. However the suit is one of many factors: This year’s time = Last year’s time + age time effect – new tech suit effect – sprint specific coaching effect – weights benefit +/- training effort I have room for improvement in the weights and training effort departments (at least until the age effect becomes exponential) Unlike Jim, I believe in all this but have to battle my laziness habit and actually do it (get my butt to the gym & pool). Ian. PS: Jim, haven’t you heard? – they’re building a zillion dollar wall along the border – to keep you from escaping? You won’t be able to get out. In the meanwhile, just go get a loan from one of your government-owned banks and get yourself a B70 – you will be pleased by the results (do weights too – don’t do as I don’t do, do as Fort says).