2010 SCM Zone Championships

James, in all fairness, I think your comment is a bit misleading in that it suggests that world records continue to fall despite the outlawing of the high tech body suits. Though this is true, it doesn't tell the whole story. With a small handful of exceptions, all the world records were set by people who aged up this year--Rich Abrahams (just turned 65) being a notable example in our mutual neck of the chronological woods. When you age up, you are competing against the previous record holders. You are not competing against yourself from the year before. Rich, for example, did a 25.80 this year, setting the WR in the 50 free. He did not swim it last year, but when he was 63, his time was 24.93. This year, he did a 58.68 for the 100; again, he did not swim it last year, but when he was 63, he did a 56.63. It is possible that two years took a toll on his speed, but judging from his times at SCY this past spring, I don't think it's terribly likely. Much more probable, from my point of view, is that the loss of the tech suit caused him to "slow down" by about 1 second per 50 and 2 seconds per 100. Jim, I'd say your analysis is pretty accurate. In '09 at the Ron Johnson meet I went a 25.1 for the 50 and a 57.3 for the 100 which may be a bit more comparable in terms of the suit effect (for me more like .7 per 50 and 1.3 for the 100). It's about the same for my LCM times. I think the lack of the tech suit has a bigger effect on my fly times. Rich

James, in all fairness, I think your comment is a bit misleading in that it suggests that world records continue to fall despite the outlawing of the high tech body suits. Though this is true, it doesn't tell the whole story. With a small handful of exceptions, all the world records were set by people who aged up this year--Rich Abrahams (just turned 65) being a notable example in our mutual neck of the chronological woods. When you age up, you are competing against the previous record holders. You are not competing against yourself from the year before. Rich, for example, did a 25.80 this year, setting the WR in the 50 free. He did not swim it last year, but when he was 63, his time was 24.93. This year, he did a 58.68 for the 100; again, he did not swim it last year, but when he was 63, he did a 56.63. It is possible that two years took a toll on his speed, but judging from his times at SCY this past spring, I don't think it's terribly likely. Much more probable, from my point of view, is that the loss of the tech suit caused him to "slow down" by about 1 second per 50 and 2 seconds per 100. Jim, I'd say your analysis is pretty accurate. In '09 at the Ron Johnson meet I went a 25.1 for the 50 and a 57.3 for the 100 which may be a bit more comparable in terms of the suit effect (for me more like .7 per 50 and 1.3 for the 100). It's about the same for my LCM times. I think the lack of the tech suit has a bigger effect on my fly times. Rich