Just returned from the DAM scm meet in Dallas. The format was slightly different this year, with all events on one day, but the pool conditions were the same. Tapered and shaved and wore Aquablade jammers instead of a full body B70. My training had been solid, and I'd had no recent illnesses.
What I found was a 2 second difference per 100 in the 400. Granted this was the last event (at 11:30 am), and I had already swum the 1500 four hours earlier (which was by the way slower than my 1650 in February also wearing a B70). I plan to retaper for zones in two weeks and swim another 400 (first event of the day). Perhaps I will be able to shave a bit of time off (no pun intended).
Train harder? Train smarter? No--I believe the difference in suits is very real.
If you haven't had a chance yet to post your answer to my poll, please consider doing so. It's specifically for the 100 SCY freestyle, for men, from this season (in a jammer) to last season (in a speed suit), for comparable mid season meets.
For this particular poll, I left out women because the currently legal women's suits, though representing a significant departure from last year's legal suits, seem to me less of a change than what men are dealing with. Even if this is no the case, I thought it best not to muddy the waters with apples to oranges comparisons (even if it eventually turns out that the apples and oranges are identical fruits.)
But enough analogizing.
As of now, with 15 votes counted, about 1/3rd of men have seen no time change or actually swum faster in jammers.
The rest have seen some slowing down effects, with the bulk being somewhere between 1-2 seconds slower in the 100 free, though some have slowed even more dramatically.
You can add your own experience here: forums.usms.org/showthread.php
My prediction is that the SCY top 10 times in the 100 free will be somewhere between 1-2 seconds slower on average this year compared to last year, that is, factoring out new speed demons aging up.
What I mean is that, on average, the same person--barring any major change in training, and assuming he swims under reasonably comparable meet conditions this year compared to last year--will be expected to swim maybe 1.9 seconds slower, this based on a 100 somewhere in the 49-56 second range (I am not talking about those who go sub 40 or a lot over 1 minute because here the percentage of total time becomes more of a factor.)
This then is my official prediction! 1.9 seconds slower!
As evidence for this, consider the legendary Jack Groselle.
This year, at the Bridge the Bay
Course: SCM
Date: Nov 13-14, 2010
he posted a 57.26 (I know! This is SCM, not SCY, but it's as close as I can find to comparable elite performances.)
Last year, at 2009 GRIN Fall Classic
Course: SCM
Date: Oct 31 - Nov 1, 2009 (roughly the same time of the year)
he posted a 55.36 for the same distance.
The difference is 1.9 seconds, and I have no idea the order of events, whether he was sick this year, if he had a bad start, if one pool was "faster" than the other, or any of the other endless fudge factors we all believe are critically important in how fast we go.
The one thing I know for certain is that he wore different suits in the late fall of 2009 and 2010, and the latter suit was associated with a 1.9 second slower 100.
Granted, 1.9 seconds for Jack is a larger percentage of a 100 than it is for us slower swimmers, so it's possible we might slow down even more. But I won't gild the lily too much here. I think 1.9 is a reasonable prediction for most of us.
Anybody dare to propose an alternative?
If you haven't had a chance yet to post your answer to my poll, please consider doing so. It's specifically for the 100 SCY freestyle, for men, from this season (in a jammer) to last season (in a speed suit), for comparable mid season meets.
For this particular poll, I left out women because the currently legal women's suits, though representing a significant departure from last year's legal suits, seem to me less of a change than what men are dealing with. Even if this is no the case, I thought it best not to muddy the waters with apples to oranges comparisons (even if it eventually turns out that the apples and oranges are identical fruits.)
But enough analogizing.
As of now, with 15 votes counted, about 1/3rd of men have seen no time change or actually swum faster in jammers.
The rest have seen some slowing down effects, with the bulk being somewhere between 1-2 seconds slower in the 100 free, though some have slowed even more dramatically.
You can add your own experience here: forums.usms.org/showthread.php
My prediction is that the SCY top 10 times in the 100 free will be somewhere between 1-2 seconds slower on average this year compared to last year, that is, factoring out new speed demons aging up.
What I mean is that, on average, the same person--barring any major change in training, and assuming he swims under reasonably comparable meet conditions this year compared to last year--will be expected to swim maybe 1.9 seconds slower, this based on a 100 somewhere in the 49-56 second range (I am not talking about those who go sub 40 or a lot over 1 minute because here the percentage of total time becomes more of a factor.)
This then is my official prediction! 1.9 seconds slower!
As evidence for this, consider the legendary Jack Groselle.
This year, at the Bridge the Bay
Course: SCM
Date: Nov 13-14, 2010
he posted a 57.26 (I know! This is SCM, not SCY, but it's as close as I can find to comparable elite performances.)
Last year, at 2009 GRIN Fall Classic
Course: SCM
Date: Oct 31 - Nov 1, 2009 (roughly the same time of the year)
he posted a 55.36 for the same distance.
The difference is 1.9 seconds, and I have no idea the order of events, whether he was sick this year, if he had a bad start, if one pool was "faster" than the other, or any of the other endless fudge factors we all believe are critically important in how fast we go.
The one thing I know for certain is that he wore different suits in the late fall of 2009 and 2010, and the latter suit was associated with a 1.9 second slower 100.
Granted, 1.9 seconds for Jack is a larger percentage of a 100 than it is for us slower swimmers, so it's possible we might slow down even more. But I won't gild the lily too much here. I think 1.9 is a reasonable prediction for most of us.
Anybody dare to propose an alternative?
