I am curious to see if the banning of tech suits will affect the motivation to compete in masters swimmers who are currently used to wearing these suits.
Obviously, much is in flux right now, but let us stipulate, for the sake of argument, that men are allowed briefs or jammers, and women are allowed leg-less tank suits of the yesteryear variety. Moreover, these must be made out of "normal" textiles--nothing all that fancy. Think spandex, nylon, or polyester. Think Speedo catalogs from the 1970s.
I have gotten used to my tech-suit aided times and am pretty sure that going 2 seconds slower per 100 is going to be psychologically, well, obnoxious. I am not yet sure if it will affect my meet participation, but I gotta say that it might. It's one thing to pay a ton of money to go to a national or even regional meet in the hopes of doing somewhere close to a lifetime best. It's another thing to attend such meets when you will be most likely swimming times more in keeping with your perceived sense of decrepitude and senescence! I know it was always psychological, a small white lie I was telling myself that I was still almost as fast at 56 as I was at 19.
But once the white lie is irrevocably gone, will I want to demonstrate its absence to myself over and over again?
For the truly top elite swimmers, who are racing against each other for bragging rights at the mountaintop of their respective age group, it may make less of a difference. But for some, like me, who were competing more against our own memories of our younger selves, the change might be harder to accept.
By the way, I am one of those who freely admit that tech suits have helped my times significantly.
So far, this looks reasonably reassuring for USMS. However, I do think that there are likely to be consequences if and when we are back to the 1970s era, and these consequences may be hard to predict.
I wouldn't be surprised to find, for instance, that OW increases more in popularity relative to pool swimming. I also think that more people will swim for fitness and health as their prime motivator.
Those who say they will be more likely to compete may be fellows like Muppet, who has never worn tech suits (to my knowledge) and hence is likely to see his standings ascend.
But those who have been early adopters of the fastest suits, and have been using these pretty much nonstop since the Aquablade days--I fear that they may say they'll continue competing at the same levels. But a season or two of times much slower than they are used to doing may prove either actively discouraging or, perhaps more likely, absent of the motivation that good times had been providing (perhaps without the full extent being acknowledged.)
In my own case, for instance, I have managed to just squeak into the upper 52's in the 100 yard freestyle, and the 1:56's in the 200.
If I find it really hard to break 55 in the 100, and impossible to break 2:00 in the 200, even if everyone else in my peer group undergoes similar time adjustments, I am virtually positive it will prove a major, major bummer!
Hopefully, I will get used to it and keep going to meets. But I can definitely see cutting back on competition per se. Again, time will tell. It's kind of like the stock market. My pitiful portfolio has shrunk to even more pitiful status. It doesn't help that everybody else's has shrunk similarly (with the exception, perhaps, of the Goldman Sachs and Private Health Insurance CEO world.)
So far, this looks reasonably reassuring for USMS. However, I do think that there are likely to be consequences if and when we are back to the 1970s era, and these consequences may be hard to predict.
I wouldn't be surprised to find, for instance, that OW increases more in popularity relative to pool swimming. I also think that more people will swim for fitness and health as their prime motivator.
Those who say they will be more likely to compete may be fellows like Muppet, who has never worn tech suits (to my knowledge) and hence is likely to see his standings ascend.
But those who have been early adopters of the fastest suits, and have been using these pretty much nonstop since the Aquablade days--I fear that they may say they'll continue competing at the same levels. But a season or two of times much slower than they are used to doing may prove either actively discouraging or, perhaps more likely, absent of the motivation that good times had been providing (perhaps without the full extent being acknowledged.)
In my own case, for instance, I have managed to just squeak into the upper 52's in the 100 yard freestyle, and the 1:56's in the 200.
If I find it really hard to break 55 in the 100, and impossible to break 2:00 in the 200, even if everyone else in my peer group undergoes similar time adjustments, I am virtually positive it will prove a major, major bummer!
Hopefully, I will get used to it and keep going to meets. But I can definitely see cutting back on competition per se. Again, time will tell. It's kind of like the stock market. My pitiful portfolio has shrunk to even more pitiful status. It doesn't help that everybody else's has shrunk similarly (with the exception, perhaps, of the Goldman Sachs and Private Health Insurance CEO world.)
