As I approach 50 years of age - I too am, and always have been VERY self conscious about my body and I do not see any issue with allowing Masters swimmers the option of a full-body suit or not - as long as they are textile. I personally don't believe the full body textile suits give ANY (or at least very little) advantage other than a mental aspect of faster swimming, but as an ever aging athlete (which we all are), I would prefer to cover up a bit more than when I was younger. In fact if I could afford to wear a full-body suit in practice, I would (not really, but it sounded good).
I don't agree with the statement that if USMS has different suit rulings that it would create a scenario that we are a beer league of swimming. I think as long as we create rulings that prohibit the same materials as what FINA is proposing then we are still keeping the intent of the law intact. But I would at least like to see USMS change their rulings back to being able to wear two suits in competition, I personally get a rush when I get a good time wearing drag suits in competition.
I guess I don't get the cover-up issue because you can only cover-up for a short period of time and the last thing I am thinking about during the race or when I am around the blocks is how I am looking.
Beer league is a little harsh, but it would be something different than it is now and there would be potential for USMS to evolve to something very odd. If USMS uses the textile definition for suit guidelines, then maybe that is a good compromise and puts USMS back to 2007. However, I would think most people on this board would like everything available to them in the last year and a half to be legal for USMS. It would definitely be interesting to see if it would be good or bad for USMS. I wonder if the USMS by-laws provide for much flexibility for the organization to adopt rules vastly different than other swimming governing bodies? If they do, I would really like them to consider allowing flip turns for any stroke especially those transition turns in the IM.
Tim
As I approach 50 years of age - I too am, and always have been VERY self conscious about my body and I do not see any issue with allowing Masters swimmers the option of a full-body suit or not - as long as they are textile. I personally don't believe the full body textile suits give ANY (or at least very little) advantage other than a mental aspect of faster swimming, but as an ever aging athlete (which we all are), I would prefer to cover up a bit more than when I was younger. In fact if I could afford to wear a full-body suit in practice, I would (not really, but it sounded good).
I don't agree with the statement that if USMS has different suit rulings that it would create a scenario that we are a beer league of swimming. I think as long as we create rulings that prohibit the same materials as what FINA is proposing then we are still keeping the intent of the law intact. But I would at least like to see USMS change their rulings back to being able to wear two suits in competition, I personally get a rush when I get a good time wearing drag suits in competition.
I guess I don't get the cover-up issue because you can only cover-up for a short period of time and the last thing I am thinking about during the race or when I am around the blocks is how I am looking.
Beer league is a little harsh, but it would be something different than it is now and there would be potential for USMS to evolve to something very odd. If USMS uses the textile definition for suit guidelines, then maybe that is a good compromise and puts USMS back to 2007. However, I would think most people on this board would like everything available to them in the last year and a half to be legal for USMS. It would definitely be interesting to see if it would be good or bad for USMS. I wonder if the USMS by-laws provide for much flexibility for the organization to adopt rules vastly different than other swimming governing bodies? If they do, I would really like them to consider allowing flip turns for any stroke especially those transition turns in the IM.
Tim
