No, this is not THAT discussion. Burn them or buy them, I am not writing to help further that discussion.
When I was first presented with the "tech" suits several years ago, I didn't have the budget to buy a full-body suit, so my first tech suit was made by cutting a Speedo Fastskin above the waist and installing a draw string. The only person to notice was Tracy Grilli, and she didn't razz me too much. I performed well in that suit in fly, back and free.
Later, when I tried a full body suit I was disappointed to find that my back and fly times were often not as good as my swims in leggings. At first, I chalked it up to my being a head case. In fact, I developed a term for these suits that didn't "perform" well. I said they had "bad mojo".
I tried tests throughout the years which seemed to confirm my belief. Then last year, I watched men's NCAA's intently to see how college swimmers "felt" about the suits. I was shocked to see that they were choosing suits in a way that confirmed my beliefs. Backstrokers wore leggings. Flyers wore leggings. Freestylers, wore full body suits. (If breaststrokers want my full report, let me know)
When I saw that, I threw out my "head case" theory and formulated a new one. I theorized that the leggings work better for back and fly either because they afford the wearer with greater mobility or they improve the swimmer's body position in the water in the way that a full body suit did not.
How could the leggings improve your body position? Well, my theory goes like this: if the suits give some sort of lift, either through buoyancy or some Bernoulli-like manner (yeah, I think that idea is unlikely), then the full body suits might not reduce drag nearly so much by lifting the whole body as the leggings do by lifting the legs alone. Or said another way, perhaps by rotating the legs up, around the center of mass, reduces drag more significantly than lifting the whole body upward.
Whatever half-cocked theory that I used as justification, I became pretty convinced that leggings have better mojo in backstroke and fly than the full body suits. In fact, my recent backstroke swims were done with the blueseventy leggings. Coincidence? Maybe. That is why I am interested in what other people have experienced.
Mike, great swims last weekend!
I think in general your observations are accurate...a lot of people find that the suits are to restrictive in fly/back. Case in point was last weekend Rich Saeger went back to leggings last minute before his 100 fly race, just couldn't get comfortable with a B70 in warm-up...but was fine in the 100 free with the B70 (46.7 by the way). But there are also some pretty impressive swims in those strokes with full bodies such as; Austin, Cavic, Randall Bal & Grevers...so no cut and dried answer.
The key I think is taking the time to "practice" and in my opinion the only cost effective way to do this is to start off with an older generation suit and work your way up so to speak. If you have never worn leggings start there, next season or if you can afford it buy an older model fastskin and swim in-season meets with both...worst thing is to have never used a suit, buying it and swimming your major meet of the season as the first time.
Mike, great swims last weekend!
I think in general your observations are accurate...a lot of people find that the suits are to restrictive in fly/back. Case in point was last weekend Rich Saeger went back to leggings last minute before his 100 fly race, just couldn't get comfortable with a B70 in warm-up...but was fine in the 100 free with the B70 (46.7 by the way). But there are also some pretty impressive swims in those strokes with full bodies such as; Austin, Cavic, Randall Bal & Grevers...so no cut and dried answer.
The key I think is taking the time to "practice" and in my opinion the only cost effective way to do this is to start off with an older generation suit and work your way up so to speak. If you have never worn leggings start there, next season or if you can afford it buy an older model fastskin and swim in-season meets with both...worst thing is to have never used a suit, buying it and swimming your major meet of the season as the first time.