Shave effect?

Shaving can be an amazing thing as far as cutting time. Nothing like that feel when you first dive in. I will never wear a cap. My hair grows so fast that even after one day I get the total sandpaper thing going so i reshave the head nightly for multi-day big meets. If its longer than a 2 day meet I reshave the rest also before day 3. So you shaved during taper but before the big meet? Don't "waste" the shave though by doing it too early. You dont want to get used to that feel as it should be a new, quicker feel that you don't get any other time of the year than the end of taper time for the big meet. In my opinion the shave is just as much psychological as it is physical... and not being used to that is a big part. Some guys even wear pantyhose(toes cut off and tied off around the ankle) after shaving so that they don't get that shaved feel for anything but a race. Just my advice anyway Thanks. I am doing it in 'parts' to minimize the effect in the pool. There was plenty of 'hair drag' today, just not on my legs. I just want to make sure I plan correctly at nationals and allow for enough time in the AM or PM to shave right. This nationals trip is a learning experience for me, including the shave, warm-up, warm-down, travel routine, deck routine. I seldom traveled when I swam as a kid, and I didn't have nearly as much hair(!). My head gets sharkskin after about 6 hours, so I think I will shave it each day.

Usually I am around 3 minutes. Monday, I went 2:51. Today, I was 2:36 with the usual effort level. My 200 *** warm-up was about 10 seconds faster than usual. Can shaving really improve things that much? Is some of this because I am tapering? The act of shaving can create a new feeling for the water that will allow you to move your body in a way to reduce drag. This is the benefit, not the actual reduction in drag due to the hair itself, which is probably minor. I don't think it will cut 24 seconds from your 200 or 10 seconds from your 200. If you are tapering, its that more than anything. When you put a taper together with a shave and the mental attitude that "now is the time to start swimming with purpose", you can drop some good time.

The act of shaving can create a new feeling for the water that will allow you to move your body in a way to reduce drag. This is the benefit, not the actual reduction in drag due to the hair itself, which is probably minor. I don't think it will cut 24 seconds from your 200 or 10 seconds from your 200. If you are tapering, its that more than anything. When you put a taper together with a shave and the mental attitude that "now is the time to start swimming with purpose", you can drop some good time. I disagree with the feeling being more important than the decreased drag idea.The enhanced sensation is of some utility,but the drag reduction actually accounts for most of the improvement in drag experiments.If feel was more important than drag no one would have used the late lamented tech suits as they decreased sensation.

Could be Allen. I am light in the hair department, so for me perhaps it is feel. I can tell you I definately feel the difference between a drag suit and brief!

I disagree with the feeling being more important than the decreased drag idea.The enhanced sensation is of some utility,but the drag reduction actually accounts for most of the improvement in drag experiments.If feel was more important than drag no one would have used the late lamented tech suits as they decreased sensation. I am not so sure this is correct. I saw a paper (I think cited in these forums, tho I can't find it now) where they did a study of the effect. Shaving actually DECREASED nerve stimulation (like a suit does) and this had some physiological effect that I can't quite remember, decreased lactate levels or something. The effect was definitely not mostly due to drag reduction or a psychological effect, is what I recall.

I don't have much hair to start with (short thin hair on arms and legs only) so shaving doesn't seem to help me much. I do it anyway though. I imagine someone needing a multi-phase hair removal process like my teammates would get a lot more benefit. How much seems to be debatable. From what I remember of fluid dynamics, shaving would help more with streamlining where water flow around you is more laminar. Hair will tend to disrupt the flow of water around your body and make it turbulent sooner and further forward which I suppose will break the streamline sooner. The presence of thicker heavier hair likely increases the effect. Once you start splashing around in the water you are going to initiate turbulent flow ahead of your body so I don't think shaving matters much at this point. It might help some for *** stroke during gliding. That's my best guess based upon engineering classes I took years ago. No doubt, it feels fast so I see a psychological effect. Throw in tapering along with the adrenaline surge from competition and it is hard to quantify. I used to race sailboats and this was always a concern for non-drydocked boats. All sorts of lake funk builds up over time on the hull of the boat and you allways see someone jumping in to scrub the keel off before a race. Drydocked boats allways raced faster but was it due to a better underwater surface or all the cash for other equipment that people who drydocked could afford? I raced with some owners that were very particular about skin drag. Before the boats were launched, we would run 600 grit sandpaper lengthwise down the hull. Don't know if it mattered that much but all the fast boats were doing it so we were also.

Shaving does not reduce water resistance nor eliminate the amount of friction on the skin. Dr. David Costill, the famous research/physiologist from Ball State University, reported that shaven swimmers actually have lower blood lactate levels, increased stroke lengths (distance per stroke), and improved push-offs (better streamlining). www.tuftsmarathonchallenge.com/.../Why Swimmers Shave Down!.doc forums.usms.org/attachment.php I don't have the time right now, or know enough physiology, to be able to evaluate carefully what Megerle is claiming. But it is enough to convince me that the standard answers of "reduced friction," "hypersensitivity," and/or "it's mostly psychological" may not have much actual weight of evidence behind them. Enjoy reading, do additional research and decide for yourself. But most of what is claimed on this thread (whether true or not) are purely speculative.

I did a practice shave of my legs last night, to get used to it and also figure out how long it takes me for planning purposes. Today in practice, I was faster than usual. The most obvious was in my 200 free warm-up. I dps the first 100 and then gradually speed up to about 75%. Usually I am around 3 minutes. Monday, I went 2:51. Today, I was 2:36 with the usual effort level. My 200 *** warm-up was about 10 seconds faster than usual. Can shaving really improve things that much? Is some of this because I am tapering? Also, for those guys who shave your heads, do you also wear a cap? If not, is the bald head better than a cap? Shaving can be an amazing thing as far as cutting time. Nothing like that feel when you first dive in. I will never wear a cap. My hair grows so fast that even after one day I get the total sandpaper thing going so i reshave the head nightly for multi-day big meets. If its longer than a 2 day meet I reshave the rest also before day 3. So you shaved during taper but before the big meet? Don't "waste" the shave though by doing it too early. You dont want to get used to that feel as it should be a new, quicker feel that you don't get any other time of the year than the end of taper time for the big meet. In my opinion the shave is just as much psychological as it is physical... and not being used to that is a big part. Some guys even wear pantyhose(toes cut off and tied off around the ankle) after shaving so that they don't get that shaved feel for anything but a race. Just my advice anyway

My head gets sharkskin after about 6 hours, so I think I will shave it each day. Yeah, do that :) This year is the first year I ever shaved before a meet in the morning. Usually I ALWAYS shave at about 8-9pm the night before. I got it down to an hour now for everything not covered by a jammer. The head is the quickest part surprisingly. I get that done in less than 10 min. All the women probably laugh that a leg can take 10-15 min to shave.

In my case this morning, I was not trying to go fast. I was ploddng along warming up as usual. Perhaps there was a subconscious expectation that I'd be faster. I did have a great awareness of my legs, but I was lazy kicking the warm-up as usual, as far as I know. Maybe it was more the taper effect -- I am jumping out of my skin this evening.