I guess we will have to argue about which pull bouy is better now - all foam versus foam with straps. The suits are/were the one cool gear thing about swimming.
Agreed. Now people can stop paying attention again and swimming's popularity can decline. At the very least, I think the coverage limitation to 1996 cut is a bit of an overreaction.
I'm happy enough to swim in briefs, which has been my usual competition gear for all but about 10% of my swims. But I think that the tech suits added some excitement and got more people talking about swimming. I personally liked seeing that.
I like the strapless pull buoy for doing balance drills (hold it in my hand extended), but I like the strap buoy for the intended use of keeping my legs up.
Swimsuit makers frustrated on eve of worlds
To be considered at the
FINA Technical Swimming Congress
23 July 2009 / 09:30 hours Rome, Italy
check out proposals for 10.7 around page 6
I can't say I will miss the tech suits personally, but I am very surprised that FINA went that far. I wonder whether it will have a big impact on the popularity of swimming or not. I think a lot of the increased popularity is attributable to one person and the media attention that surrounds him. I guess we will have to see.
In regard to the tech suit records and how long it will take for them to be broken, maybe we underestimate the importance of the person doing the swimming. All it would take is a few genetic freaks like Phelps and half the world records could be taken down by a couple swimmers. Phelps set most of his current world records in just leggings and so did Peirsol. Some of the records might be there for a long time, but my guess is that many will be broken before or during the London Olympics. What will be very interesting is to see is which athletes are able to perform at or near their tech suit best times and which won't be able to close. Maybe we should just put an asterisk on the records by swimmers that can't get close to their tech suit bests. I think we were able to overcome the steroid records fairly quickly and my bet is that swimmers will be able to surpass many of the tech suit records as well within 5 years.
I wish I could recommend a therapist or rehab center for those of you addicted to tech suits, but I am afraid it sounds like you are going to have to go cold turkey and see how it goes. I loved the post that maybe USMS won't go along with the change, but who is going to manufacture the suits only for USMS even if USMS were silly enough not to follow the FINA rules? You might want to buy up a big personal inventory of tech suits before they stop manufacturing them just in case USMS doesn't go along with FINA so you can keep your competitive edge as long as possible or maybe we could have an open division at Nationals just for fun.
I will greatly miss the discussion topic though. RIP
Tim
...but I am afraid it sounds like you are going to have to go cold turkey and see how it goes.
I am deeply worried for my teammate and good friend tdrop. This could quite possibly be the worst news he has ever had.
It will be interesting to see what happens in te International (and Masters) realm with regard to world record progression(s)...how many years will we go before we see some of these records go down? What if any impact from a marketing standpoint will slower times/fewer records have on the growth of swimming?
I'm also curious about how some swimmers (especially masters) will handle swimming times slower than they have the last few years....
