Never saw so many Jaked's

The Suit Showdown at Westwood: Skin vs Blue 70 vs Jaked Thanks for posting. One question: how often do you usually descend these sets in workout? I know that I generally get faster through many sets.

Thanks for posting. One question: how often do you usually descend these sets in workout? I know that I generally get faster through many sets. Good point. Perhaps flip the order next week and post again? That may be revealing.

Never mind the plural, how do you even pronounce Jaked? Is it Jake-Ed or Jack-Ed or Jacked or Jaked (one syllable, like past-tense of "to Jake")? I haven't heard it out loud yet, just in writing. Then again I'm still not sure I pronounce Tyr properly either. i emailed mazzy and asked him- just curious. i have heard jack-ed. i have heard a J pronounced as our Y - but who really cares? i dont mean this sarcastically. . some of the age groupers wore one this past weekend at a meet and two swear by them. so who knows? as i said before Peirsol set world record in his arena x glide. hmmm wondering if Bernard is pissed off.

Jaked the ungrateful swim suit Manufacturer. In the last couple of weeks I have referred several leads to them from people who wanted to buy Jaked suits. They have not even thanked me. I think they are jerks.

The Suit Showdown at Westwood: Skin vs Blue 70 vs Jaked About the conditions - the Westwood pool is indoors short-course meters without blocks. I did do dives from the pool deck which is about 1 foot above the waterline. The timer did take my time "feet leaving the wall" or a rolling start. I did not want to go from a push because I felt a dive may be a significant part of trying the suits because of the extended underwater. There were 3 other swimmers in the lane - so I did have some waves, but everything fine otherwise. The Contenders: Skin has been in the business for 40 years now (at least for me :) ) - skin has been battle tested for decades used to be good enough for all swim meets. Skin can only show it's full potential though once all the hair is removed. Skin HATES all the new contenders- they represent everything evil and what is wrong with technology and progress. Blue 70 - the new kid on the block is not so new anymore. Blue 70 was the new sensation last year. He came out of nowhere and took the country by storm. Blue 70 is hip and trendy - he despises anything to do with Speedo and he feels sorry for Skin for being so outdated. My version of the Blue 70 is a little older and appears just a little too big right now. Jaked - the new Italian speedster. Jaked is the Ferrari of swim suits - he fits like an Armani and performs like an Italian sports car. He looks sharp and appears to be the suit of choice for Formula 1 teams (aka top sprinters in the world). The test: 5x50 Freestyle - 1 Skin, 2 Blue 70 and 2 Jaked -- full recovery in between. It took about 5 minutes to get the BLue 70 on and about 10 minutes for the Jaked. I did get plenty of rest except for the last 50, since time was running short. The Showdown: First swim = Skin = 25.09 -- good start, I have not sprinted all that much, so I would expect a slight improvment on this time for the next few 50s in a regular set. Second Swim = Blue 70 = 24.05 -- "Skin" is in disbelief - how is this possible and how could it be legal ? 3rd Swim = Blue 70 = 23.92 -- "Skin" has left the pool in tears -- Jaked is just waiting for his chance. Blue 70 is happy to have shown his stuff - he thinks Italians should stick with food rather than speed suits. 4th Swim (after a 10 minute "battle" with the suit) = Jaked = 23.47 -- Blue 70 wants a check of the timing system. He believes the timer is on the take by the Italian Mafia -- all things Italian must be "connected". The time stands - the swim did not feel all that much different - but 0.45 !!! 5th Swim - not a full recovery = Jaked = 23.80 - felt tired coming home and had to breathe more - even without knowing the time, I would have guessed about 3/10 slower or so. The Jaked has proven to be the winner in the training run -- we will have to wait for race day now....Skin is joining the Craig Lord inquisition movement and Blue 70 is going back to the drawing board....

Chris..... If you're so convinced of the talent factor overiding the latest crazed rubber suit factor, why not just wear and old Fastskin full body Pro in all your races from now on instead of one of the new rubber wonder suits. You'll save some money..... :-) In this thread, I have been addressing Paul's statement that the Jakeds are a marked improvement over the LZR and B70s. I do think the suits make a difference, though I think the difference is less than generally believed. As an aside, I did test the FSII body suit vs (old-style) jammers in a trials/finals meet. No statistical difference despite the prevailing wisdom at the time (this was a couple years ago). I'll grant you that the B70s, LZRs and later suits are an improvement over FSIIs. Interestingly, my experience in this regard echoes the results at www.floswimming.org/.../6164-part-iv-predictive-modeling-of-swim-performances-at-the-2008-olympic-games which are well worth checking out (as is the entire blog). At the end they state "Essentially, the games in 2000 and 2004 resulted in accurately predicted performances (using the performances swum in previous years to generate the newest model). Our conclusion is that the introduction of the first and second generation of ‘hi tech’ swim suits had no measurable effect upon swim performance. Only three events (out of a possible 52) were judged to be faster than our model predicted seems to validate our approach. However, in 2008, the modeling failed with more than half (17 of 26 events) being faster than predicted using identical methods as before." I would love to see this sort of study where they analyze the effects of different suit materials and coverages (eg leggings vs full-body). And it would be great if some exercise phys types were tackling the question of cause (eg hydrodynamics, physiological effects of compression, buoyancy) in a systematic manner. Maybe they are and I don't know about it; it isn't an area that I keep up with. Mr. Stevenson, if you think the suits don't work then don't wear them. Of all the dumb statements made by the likes of Craig Lord, implying that the suit a Blue70 is no better than a training briefs is the dumbest. I think the suits do work. I just don't know that the Jaked is head and shoulders above its contemporaries, and don't like it when people point to individual swims that support this notion while ignoring others that do not. Or immediately assuming that the latest great swim must be almost entirely due to the suit (in the past, it was usually attributed to doping...in this new tech-suit era, I guess no one dopes anymore). And yes, I have no plans to buy a Jaked. the only one who has said that the Jaked has been "proven" to be the fastest suit is you. You have a tendency to marginalize other people's comments by creating strawman arguments. Dispute legitimate claims by attributing ridiculous claims to those who disagree with you... I'm not sure where the venom is coming from. From what I can tell, the opinion that the Jaked is faster than (say) the LZR is widely held. If you don't like my arguments, then refute them or ignore them, up to you.

Chris, Do you give any superiority in performance to the Jaked vs. the LZR? Nothing......... or pehaps 1 tenth per 100.... 2 tenths per 100 advantage? John, I really have no idea. I guess one way to tackle the question would be to look at data the way that Kirk did earlier but for a much larger sample size, and to break it down by stroke/distance (since it looks like those factors seem to affect the suits' enhancement). But is the Jaked really going to be with us in its present form for much longer? I'm not sure it is worth the trouble to find out how much they help. I guess I wish they (FINA, USS) would invest a little effort into investigating the effect of (a) fabric and (b) coverage of the suits, since they are talking so much about regulating both of those things. For example, if they find out that permeability makes no difference (eg it is all about compression), then let the suit manufacturers use what they want, as long as it isn't too buoyant.

- not sure how much a good taper will do -- it's been an odd season for me. I just worked on technique for a while and started lifting / more intense training 4 weeks ago. Then I popped a really fast 100 relay time out of nowhere a week ago and a good 400 time in a crappy pool last Sat .. now I don't know what and how to taper .... I saw you weren't entered at nationals...what will your big meet be this summer, if any? I'm sure you'll figure the whole taper thing out, just stay injury-free this time. :)

..... I think the suits do work. I just don't know that the Jaked is head and shoulders above its contemporaries, and don't like it when people point to individual swims that support this notion while ignoring others that do not. Chris, Do you give any superiority in performance to the Jaked vs. the LZR? Nothing......... or pehaps 1 tenth per 100.... 2 tenths per 100 advantage?

Erik, it took me 45 minutes to get the Jaked on last week. I didn't get a chance to try the same suit on a second time. If you are putting on the Jaked for a second time can you give a report on how long it takes compared with your first dressing? 45 minutes?!?! Ouch. How many swims is one supposed to get out of the Jaked?