It looks like the Nationals in Puerto Rico were a lot of fun. The reports by Rob Butcher were great, the weather looked good, everyone said they had a great time.... but, let's face it, the swimming was slow. There were only 8 world records by men and 7 by women. I am not a stats guy, but I think that is the lowest number of world records at a Nationals LCM meet since I started Masters swimming in 2002.
We know why. We decided to disallow the old tech suits. They help us swim faster. Purists say that is why they were disallowed. No advantage should come to us from our "equipment" seems to be the mentality. Why not? If we applied the same mentality to Track and Field they would not use cleats, would run on cinder (or dirt), pole vaulters would be using bamboo or steel poles, etc. etc. The purist argument strikes me as lame.
How did this happen? After the Worlds (was it last year?) and Biedermann soundly beat Phelps in the 200 free Bowman began talking about holding Phelps out of meets as long as the Jaked and B70 type suits were allowed (he didn't seem to mind when Phelps had the latest tech suit in his LZR at the Olympics....). Lots of folks were fretting over all the new world records. People were paying a lot of attention to swimming. This was bad? I guess it seemed so to some and FINA (we don't really know all the pressures/threats that were brought to bear) decided to ban the "rubberized" tech suits and not allow men to cover their upper body.
Now, the older we get the more loose skin we have and the more resistance we create with our "flabs" in the water. Younger, elite swimmers may not have quite the same problem. US Masters Swimming could have decided that while FINA and US Swimming disallow the old tech suits, we Masters will allow them. What would happen? Actually, from time to time, we would have elite swimmmers drop in to compete in a Masters meet--for fun--to see how fast they could go in a full body tech suit. And that would be entertaining and exciting; plus, we'd still be swimming fast.
The argument that they cost too much is weak since all the suit companies selling the new legal racing jammers charge almost as much for jammers as they did for an entire body suit!
I think it's good for our sport that swimmers can age up and aim to break a world record. Sure, it's an "age-group" record but it feels good and it makes for an exciting meet when this is happening. This is much less likely now.
I love to swim and look forward to competing again but, to me, it just never made sense to disallow the equipment that let us swim faster. We will have to make do with the situation right now but let's not pretend we are swimming faster. We're not.
Chris knows far more about this sport than I and he is a hellofalot better swimmer, so I should probably defer to his opinion to "man up."
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On a practical note, especially for really hairy guys, wearing a full body suit meant they didn't have to shave and go through the stubble trouble when it grows back. Of course, no one "has" to shave.
Last time I checked, you had a few of those world records yourself - anyone who can come back to swimming after 30 years and do what you have done is entitled to an opinion.
I have heard from a lot of swimmers that the biggest benefit of the long suits is not having to shave. I really never considered shaving for a master's meet until Indianapolis nationals. It seemed kind of silly for grown men to shave for a competition of limited importance. But, I did and was able to achieve my goals. (I did buy a blue70 on the last day of the meet and wore it for my 100 fly)
I don't think I will shave again until my next goal meet - which will probably be at my next age group change - maybe Torino in 2013. In the mean time, maybe FINA and USMS will modify the rules and make shaving unnecessary.
Chris knows far more about this sport than I and he is a hellofalot better swimmer, so I should probably defer to his opinion to "man up."
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On a practical note, especially for really hairy guys, wearing a full body suit meant they didn't have to shave and go through the stubble trouble when it grows back. Of course, no one "has" to shave.
Last time I checked, you had a few of those world records yourself - anyone who can come back to swimming after 30 years and do what you have done is entitled to an opinion.
I have heard from a lot of swimmers that the biggest benefit of the long suits is not having to shave. I really never considered shaving for a master's meet until Indianapolis nationals. It seemed kind of silly for grown men to shave for a competition of limited importance. But, I did and was able to achieve my goals. (I did buy a blue70 on the last day of the meet and wore it for my 100 fly)
I don't think I will shave again until my next goal meet - which will probably be at my next age group change - maybe Torino in 2013. In the mean time, maybe FINA and USMS will modify the rules and make shaving unnecessary.
