Just When The LZR Thought It Was Safe
Craig Lord
May 26, 2009
Just when the LZR-crew thought it was safe to get back in the water, blueseventy suits, the Jaked01, the arena X-Glide and other apparel that pumps performance past the natural state of the swimmer may yet be resurrected - unmodified.
After complaints from blueseventy that tests conducted by Prof Jan-Anders Manson and team in Lausanne were not sufficient to judge a suit under the terms of the Dubai Charter, new tests are being carried out and by Friday this week the world of swimming and the Rome 2009 form guide may have shifted once more. If uncertainty ruled the swimming world just two weeks ago, the relative certainty of a published list of approved suits for the rest of 2009 is set to be short-lived.
Blueseventy, omitted from the list of approved suits last week, has had a chat with FINA and has called for its suits be retested when stretched on a swimmer because the Dubai Charter mentions "when in use" in relation to the air-trapping properties of suits. When in use, suits are stretched.
A source confirmed to SwimNews that Prof Manson is now, somewhat tardily, restesting suits in a stretched position. Suit makers are confident that this time round, their surfboards will make it back into the race pool.
If they do, the credibility of the independent testing process - which between five and three months ago was made aware on several occasions from different experts of the need to test fabric in conditions that replicated those in play when a swimmer is racing - and the FINA executive will reach an all-time low.
While the retesting of unmodified suits that did not make it on to the approved list a week ago may be fair, the entire first round of the "independent testing regime" will have been a vast waste of time, money and energy. The whole point of the testing was to identify and eliminate performance enhancement. As things are, the testing process looks like a half-way house, with the LZR still in the water but the 100% and almost 100% non-textile suits gone.
If the latter make it back to the race pool, the world of swimming will know that FINA gave Prof Manson the wrong brief and charges of incompetence are likely to be legion, given the criticism already flowing from the decisions made a week ago and the lack of any decision that rids the sport of its fast-suits crisis.
A senior source said: "It looks like being a lively session at FINA on Friday. One way or another, this summer may be lost in terms of hoping that we will get back to fair sport that no-one can argue with. The good news for 2010 is that what's happened of late has made a lot of people in FINA quite angry and ready to say 'enough', suits must be textile and they must be permeable. That means that all current suits likely to be worn in Rome will have to go."
June 19 is the date by which a final list with the decisions on modified suits resubmitted for testing after having failed the first round will be complete. Only then, one month before the world championships opens in Rome, will swimmers, coaches and teams know which suit will be in fashion for the race pool for this season - and this season only (perhaps).
from www.swimnews.com/.../6885
Former Member
www.universalsports.com/ViewArticle.dbml
Report: FINA wants to 'cut the cancer out'
Thu May 28, 2009
By Swimming World Magazine
"...SwimNews.com also reported on the process by which suits will be authorized for use at the FINA World Championships. All suits to be worn by competitors will be sent in for testing the week prior to the event. After passing tests by the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, each suit will be embedded with a barcode system. Only these suits will be allowed during Worlds.
The process will also involve two separate ready rooms. The first step will check suit issues, while the second will be the standard ready room swimmers are used to."
Harvard Business School teaches a case study about Gillette from the early 1960's when they "invented" the multi-blade technology. Gillette concluded that they should just shelf the idea and continue to sell single blade razors. We had to reconstruct Gillette's numbers that lead to the conclusion that making money in a comoditized industry (all razors were the same back then) made more financial sense then starting a razor blade arms race (Gillette shelved the idea for 10 years if you care). This is what has happened to Speedo. If they had never introduced "speed" suits then noone else would have tried to climb into the niche to challenge them. A suit would have been a suit, and Speedo would have been the market leader. They would have decided advantages over the competition because their inherent size advantage. So let's just put this genie back into the bottle and go back to jammers, pre FAST skin technology. Speedo can provide their aquablade technology to everyone for free and that can be the model racing suit for everyone...
Now it seems as if the concern is who has the fastest suit. (Notice, not the fastest swimmer).
I'm soooooo sick of this bogus argument. :bitching:
There are so many, much more important factors at play in swimming performance -- from genetics to mental toughness to technique to attitude to nutrition and on and on -- that have a far greater influence than a suit. Sure, if all of these other factors were exactly equal in two swimmers, then the swimmer with the sleeker / better suit will win. But, I contend that, no matter what level of swimming you're at, when you get beat by another swimmer, the factors that allowed that person to beat you are dominated by genetics, training, technique, mental preparedness and nutrition.
You could quadruple stack me in a B70, LZR, Jaked and Arena X-Glide, but I'm still not going to beat the likes of Chris Stevenson in backstroke even if he's wearing a bulky polyester drag suit ... because (for just two reasons to start) he's got better technique and trains much harder than me. I think each of us could find a competitor we race against and easily see that, tech suit or no, we're gonna get our butts kicked because that competitor IS A BETTER SWIMMER than us (in that stroke, event, distance, etc.).
Look, if you're competing on the world stage, you're an idiot if you're not availaing yourself of the best technology throughout your training and competition programs. If you're not -- whether it be a slower suit, slacking in a workout or eating that donut when you should've had a yogurt -- then shame on you.
For us Masters, you should be using whatever technology (training, nutrition, competition, etc.) is appropriate to your goals. And, when you do get beat by someone, don't ask yourself what suit they were wearing, ask yourself what they're doing differently to beat you. I'm sure you'll make far more progress by adapting your training, technique, nutrition, etc. than by just buying the next great tech suit.
Remember when all the chat about improving your swimming speed, was focus, technique, and desire?
Now it seems as if the concern is who has the fastest suit. (Notice, not the fastest swimmer).
I wonder is this is the influence of the tri-folks.
I just conducted my own unscientific independent testing on my nearly new B-70 and the results are in. When stretched, the fabric can be permeable, but then again, it can also be not so permeable. I put a few drops of water on the inside, gave it a little stretch, and the water was absorbed, but did not pass through the fabric. I'm thinking it was absorbed by the lining fabric So inside out, not so permeable. When I repeated the process from the outside in, the water went right through the fabric. Quite permeable. I don't know for sure what this means, but to me, it seems to indicate that the suit might trap water as well as air. I'm not certain how this might provide flotation.
Also, in the company's instructions, they tell you to put the suit on, get it wet, and smush out all the air bubbles. An admission???
I just don't think that FINA can cherry pick suits based on criteria which favor one manufacturer over another, and then test them in an inconsistent, biased way. The suit wars have indeed escalated. Swimming shouldn't be about what suit you wear, but rather about talent and training. But as long as the competition is wearing the latest and greatest, I'm going to have to give up my purist ideology and join the club. The suits do make a difference, but where do you draw the line? Unless we are all required to race in the same suit, or no suit at all, there will always be the implication that someone has an advantage.
What a mess!
Unless we are all required to race in the same suit, or no suit at all, there will always be the implication that someone has an advantage.
What a mess!
yup
Even with the same suit someone would have an advantage, just from genetics. That to me is the worst argument of them all: Oh no! When you smush in all your fat you get more benefit than my skinny little self. If it is that bad, eat some donuts.
Even with the same suit someone would have an advantage, just from genetics. That to me is the worst argument of them all: Oh no! When you smush in all your fat you get more benefit than my skinny little self. If it is that bad, eat some donuts.
Even skinny aging swimmers have loose, floppy skin which is contained in a performance suit, thereby eliminating some of the disturbance in the water and creating a better streamline.
There is no end to the argument and there will be no answer to the question that is universally accepted. "Fair" just isn't the same for everyone. That's why the discussion just keeps on keepin' on.
I'm soooooo sick of this bogus argument. :bitching:
There are so many, much more important factors at play in swimming performance -- from genetics to mental toughness to technique to attitude to nutrition and on and on -- that have a far greater influence than a suit. Sure, if all of these other factors were exactly equal in two swimmers, then the swimmer with the sleeker / better suit will win. But, I contend that, no matter what level of swimming you're at, when you get beat by another swimmer, the factors that allowed that person to beat you are dominated by genetics, training, technique, mental preparedness and nutrition.
You could quadruple stack me in a B70, LZR, Jaked and Arena X-Glide, but I'm still not going to beat the likes of Chris Stevenson in backstroke even if he's wearing a bulky polyester drag suit ... because (for just two reasons to start) he's got better technique and trains much harder than me. I think each of us could find a competitor we race against and easily see that, tech suit or no, we're gonna get our butts kicked because that competitor IS A BETTER SWIMMER than us (in that stroke, event, distance, etc.).
Look, if you're competing on the world stage, you're an idiot if you're not availaing yourself of the best technology throughout your training and competition programs. If you're not -- whether it be a slower suit, slacking in a workout or eating that donut when you should've had a yogurt -- then shame on you.
For us Masters, you should be using whatever technology (training, nutrition, competition, etc.) is appropriate to your goals. And, when you do get beat by someone, don't ask yourself what suit they were wearing, ask yourself what they're doing differently to beat you. I'm sure you'll make far more progress by adapting your training, technique, nutrition, etc. than by just buying the next great tech suit.
Well said.
Looks like B70s are definitely out at USA meets effective June 1 until they appear on a subsequent approval list.
www.usaswimming.org/.../ViewNewsArticle.aspx
