High school swimming disqualifies advanced suits
By Thomas O'Toole, USA TODAY
High school swimmers will be banned from wearing high-tech suits under a rule announced Tuesday by the National Federation of State High School Associations.
The change, effective immediately, mirrors a recent decision by the sport's international governing body and puts more emphasis on the ability of the swimmer instead of the quality of the suit. Suits now must be of a woven/knit textile material, permeable to water and air and cannot aid buoyancy.
Boys suits can't go above the waist or below the top of the knee.
Girls suits can't go above the shoulders or below the top of the knee and can't cover the neck.
"Wow. It's a big deal," said David Marsh, coaching director and CEO at SwimMAC Carolina in Charlotte and a former coach at Auburn University. "Most purist coaches like myself are happy to hear that you are able to judge a swimmer by the performance of the athlete himself."
To emphasize his point, Marsh said all he had to do Tuesday was look around the Weyerhaeuser King County Aquatics Center in Federal Way, Wash., site of the Speedo Junior National Championships.
Many of the top high school swimmers are there, and the meet is scouted by hundreds of college coaches. He said he asked one coach if he was noting which suits the swimmers were wearing and was told yes.
High-tech suits generally prove more helpful to lower-level swimmers than Olympians. "Absolutely," said Marsh. He said college coaches need to know how much of a difference the suit makes when they "are looking at investing the amount they are investing in these high school swimmers.
"They are adding unnatural flotation to their bodies. The suit kind of covers technique flaws. It affects how you use your energy. You don't have to kick as hard. But the biggest thing might be the psychological impact of wearing them."
The ruling pertains to 250,000 swimmers at 13,000 schools nationwide.
"These high-tech suits had fundamentally altered the sport and become more similar to equipment, rather than a uniform," Becky Oakes, NFHS assistant director and liaison to the swimming and diving rules committee, said in a statement. "The rules of swimming have always prohibited the use or wearing of items that would aid in the swimmer's speed and/or buoyancy. The technical suits and styles had evolved to a point where there was little, if any, compliance with these basic rules."
Oakes added that the rule "will help guarantee fairness in competition."
According to Bruce Howard, spokesman for the national federation, state associations "in the strictest sense," don't have to follow the national rules, but they generally do. Howard said he believes that "because of the significance and nature of this rule" all the states will follow it.
Club teams such as Marsh's generally work with top high school athletes as well as Olympic-caliber swimmers. He said that puts him in a tricky position.
"Dialing back the rules in my purist sense is probably a good thing," he said. "In my efforts to coach elite swimmers, those guys are having fun in those suits."
from www.usatoday.com/.../2009-08-11-advanced-suits-ban_N.htm
Former Member
Would you have felt better if I said "and swimmers who buy them poorer (if purely from a cash flow perspective as the suits must have an a utilitarian benefit to the purchasers or they would not have bought them (assuming that the purchasers are rational and they do not feel compelled (wholly or in part) to purchase the suits in order to remain competitive))"?
That would have been awesome. I like this version much better. Thanks for taking the time to lay it out there.
In any event I agree that sentence is a bit of rabble rousing and has little to do with my principle argument, which is that tech suits have no other purpose than to make people faster and are therefore distinguishable from other improvements to our sport which have the fringe benefit of making people faster (and THEREFORE tech suits are not a legitimate innovation and it is reasonable to ban them).
This argument contains the underlying assumption that the intent to increase a swimmer's speed is sufficient justification for banning. This assumption is not shared by all. (Also: rabble rabble!)
And while we're on that topic, please explain how, given that FINA, USA-S and now high school swimming have all banned the tech suits, my statement that many people find the suits illegitimate is nonsense. If anybody's statements are "rabble rousing nonsense" I would say that yours so far qualify for that distinction much more than mine...:shakeshead:
Setting aside the ad hominem fallacy contained within, the fact that this forum has been absorbed by this topic for months indicates clearly that the common opinion is far from unanimous.
How many of us(masters) will use their tech(b70, xglide, jaked) or full body suit(fs pro, arena powerskin, tyr suits) until Jan. 1?
How many of us will start using a jammers/briefs at their next meet?
I'm going back to competing in briefs/jammers right away...I think. I'm a little worried that USMS may not make their decision as quickly as the rest of the leagues.
USMS might let it ride a little longer...but I certainly have no idea. I am ready to stop wearing the suits...it was fun but ultimately simplicity is more important to me.
what I do not know is this...if masters doesn't impose the ban for the short course season, then i'm not sure I can race in briefs/jammers if everyone else is wearing tech suits.
I didn't think I cared but I found out recently that I don't really like racing others in tech suits when I'm wearing briefs. I guess I'm still competitive enough for that to bother me.
whatever though, I'm tired of this whole suit frenzy.
I'm going back to competing in briefs/jammers right away...I think.
Ditto.
I didn't think I cared but I found out recently that I don't really like racing others in tech suits when I'm wearing briefs.
Same here again. Understatement of the century. I think I'll seed myself with my practice times as opposed to my tech suit times so as not to get blown out of the water.
There is not even a remote comparison between fins and a tech suit.
both change the way one swims. both alter your feel for the water. even legskins have that effect.
the only fair solution to this suit dilemma is to create a separate division... as stated by someone above; its really not fun to race people wearing tech suits (or wet-suits for that matter) when one is not.
Qualifing for nationals is about to get a bit tougher.
Since qualifing times are based on past years times, many won't qualify due to the fact they can't make the cut off time without the wetsuit.
Will there be more whinning?
Problem--I just want to swim faster than I otherwise could. Solution--Jaked, Arena X-Glied, Blue Seventy, Speedo LZR, etc. Fringe Benefit--Makes swimsuit companies richer and swimmers poorer. Seems illegitimate to many.
I guess the swimsuit companies found us like the tobacco companies found their target market - get them hooked some how and we'll get rich – although most suit makers I would guess don’t pull huge profits. Tech suits have become an "addiction" of sorts - they obviously work to some degree and apparently more for some, at least anecdotally. And frankly if I were at the top echelon of my age group and within striking distance of a WR, I’d consider plunking down the money, once I weighed all the cost v. benefit. Because maybe moving to a new program, or to a coached workout makes that difference – but those costs are not insignificant either.
But wasn't it always the case with suits? You got a new suit for the big meets and state’s and regional championships. I always remember that toward the end of the season we all either bought or received a new suit - for me it was a "paper" suit for the specific reason that it was a "faster" suit, and along with shaving I would be faster. Those suits were more expensive, not to the degree we see today but the premise was the same - they were specialty equipment. Maybe those old suits were far more psychological than physiological in nature. Maybe shaving, taper and the general excitement of racing in those meets made more of a difference.
Again, if the suits were in the $50 range we'd all be talking about how many we have and in what colors - not about "fairness" or the haves and have nots and we'd all be excited about WRs when ever they get broken. Maybe the real solution is to drive the cost down to that range.
Wow, look at what I started. I wasn't kidding when I said: :dedhorse:
I think it’s fair at a high school level to ban tech suits. Most high school kids can't afford a $500 suit so why would it be fair to let some compete in them and some not because they can't afford one? Or maybe one of the suit manufacture needs to step up and sponsor every one who qualifies for state and give them a tech suit so no one individual has an unfair advantage.
If master swimmers want to continue wearing tech suits, I don’t really care. I won’t be wearing one, I already spent $300 for a wet suit this year and I was not happy spending $40 on a pair of jammers to compete in. I will never spend $250 or more on a “racing” suit.
On a different note, I totally agree with Chaos: “the only fair solution to this suit dilemma is to create a separate division”. In open water swimming we have two categories, wetsuit and non-wetsuit. Why can’t we have that in swimming? Have a category for tech suits and non-tech suits. I think this makes the most scene since most people can’t agree. That way all the people that want to wear a tech suit can and we can keep the playing field “even.”
This thread is very far off track from the original post.
High school swimming in general is much more focused on leveling the playing field than USA-S swimming or FINA. In Texas the list of events is small (nothing but 100s in the strokes) and athletes are limited in the number of events they can swim. They do this so a team with a few superstars can't dominate a meet or two by swimming every event.
With the FINA changes, USA-S concurrence, and the NCAA buyin - it was a natural for high schools to act now and follow suit (!).
As a parent of a high school swimmer I am slightly disappointed my son won't get a few more swims out of his B70 (which he helped pay for). But all things considered this rule change isn't a surprise.
both change the way one swims. both alter your feel for the water. even legskins have that effect.
the only fair solution to this suit dilemma is to create a separate division... as stated by someone above; its really not fun to race people wearing tech suits (or wet-suits for that matter) when one is not.
I disagree. I find it especially fun in OW when I beat wet suiters.
