Jammers

[SwimTeamSpeedo]

I am not a huge jammers fan personally, never liked how they grabbed my legs while swimming. I am traveling this week, and this morning at the hotel pool, which is usually empty early in the morning a guy comes in while I was doing my laps, about 30 minutes after I started. He was younger than me, really fit, slim with a tight waist and a clean chest and abs. He had on a pair of tight fitting black and red jammers that looked amazing on his lean, tall body. They molded well to his physique and outlined well some of his best attributes. We swam side by side for 45 minutes, him in those jammers and me in a red and black swirl print Tyr Durafast brief. After I finished he wrapped up and we chatted for a while. Nothing more, but he sure made those jammers look amazing.

[Bede735]

I noticed a father and son wearing jammers at the local pool last week. They looked really tight, and I can't imagine them being too comfortable.

[sebbie]

Does this mean the occasional guy in jammers will appear in forthcoming stories?

[SwimTeamSpeedo]

One never knows, Sebbie. As good as he looked, he sure would have looked better in briefs, but those jammers were nicely fitting him.

Hope all is well....

STS

[Dooley67]

I can't imagine ever wearing jammers. They look so constricting and tight in the wrong places. I'll stick with briefs.

D67

[California Dolphin]

I don't believe jammers provide any advantage for swimming or any other athletic activity and they are just another version of the men's "Half Pants".

However, I'm seeing more guys in short running shorts so the tide is changing.

[Byron]

Jammers or wrestle singlet here?
http://24.media.tumblr.com/df13d7b557cfa3356320c07b164ef912/tumblr_n5l2etzns21tyihg5o1_500.jpg

[Torchwatch]

I wear padded Lycra cycle shorts for cycling, they are more comfortable than baggy padded cycling shorts and on a long ride I want the padding.
My nephew is in a rowing club and wears rowing shorts, similar to my cycling shorts. He sits on a sliding seat as he pulls the boat along with his team.
In triathlons I wore a tri-suit, vest and cycle shorts one piece with light seat padding, for the outdoor triathlon I wore a wetsuit over it and for the indoor swim triathlon I wore speedos and slipped the tri-suit over the as I left the water. The tri-suit was ok both for cycling and running.
When I ran cross country, track and road I much preferred short slit sided running shorts to Lycra running shorts, I enjoyed the feeling of free movement, the Lycra shorts just felt wrong over longer distances.
I bought a pair of Lycra jammers and wore them once in a pool, I hated the feeling having worn speedos for the first part of the session. I found that these jammers were ok to wear around the campsite and on the beach walking to my preferred spot where I stripped down to a bikini.
I suppose that jammers made from the special fabrics that are more hydrodynamic than skin may allow you to go faster, but that seem like cheating.

[Dooley67]

My 18 year old granddaughter who is graduating this year showed me her yearbook last night. The boys swim team of which my son was a member 20 years ago were wearing jammers in the team picture and in candids from their meets. Twenty years ago they wore a team brief and a very skimpy paper suit for the state meet. I was so disappointed to see they had gone to jammers. They need to go back to speedos!!!

D67

[SwimTeamSpeedo]

Hi D67:

As you know, I am one volunteer coach at a local swim team. We had several years where all the experienced guys went to Jammers. We have an all comers rule, so we don't care what you wear, as long as you want to swim. The last several years the trend started to move back to briefs, I think driven by Ryan Lochte and Michael Phelps here in the USA. This year, all the second year and above guys wore briefs for the first time in years. As always, the new kids wear shorts, board shorts, or whatever... and it is cool with me.

I had a parent call me. She was upset that I "required those tiny swimsuits." Her son told her that when he asked her to let him buy a Speedo swimsuit racing brief. When I explained to her that I don't require anything, she was aghast. I then explained to her that her son was probably conforming to the peer pressure of his teammates, who apparently chose to wear racing style swimsuits this year. She replied saying "I can't believe XXXX would want to wear a swimsuit smaller than his underwear." I encouraged her to let him wear whatever he wants, the main focus was swimming and shorts were fine, or jammers, or whatever. "If he is uncomfortable in a racer swimsuit, I am fine with whatever he puts on, its about the sport," I explained.

He wore his racer style suit at the next practice.

[California Dolphin]

As I've said before, the jammer and half pants style is about some obscure concept and opinion of what constitutes morality and modesty in men's clothing.

It's rather frightening how people's thinking can be so easily biased and the "Follow the herd mentality predominates.

My approach for the past 3 years has been to ignore other people's opinions and wear short shorts in public. I've noticed that other guys are starting to do it too.

[Byron]

As to advantage and cheating I have just discovered that plastic "frog" webs for the hands are available, to be worn almost as gloves (AliExpress).
At the same time I learned something in an interesting article on technique, ie forget the old rule of keeping fingers together in the arm stroke. It seems that competition swimmers know about this - a slight parting of the fingers in fact allows the water between to create its own "web" and thus an overall better race speed is achievable.

[Swimmboy]

The 'jammer' suits have nothing to do with modesty or morality. As a long-time swim meet official, I have seen men's suit styles change with the times. I spoke with a US college male swimmer a few years ago about why the jammers were so popular. He told me it was because the jammers wrap around the thighs and give support to a swimmer's large muscles in his upper legs. This support keeps his muscles from getting tired as quickly. Also, as I've noted before, go to almost any US college swim meet during the competitive season from October-January - and you will see almost every guy in a brief suit. Only during the conference and national championship meets in February and March do most guys switch to the jammers

[Dooley67]

Thanks for the explanation Swimmboy. I had never thought of possibility that there was a quasi health/physical component to wearing jammers. But, I really do like briefs better to wear and to look at guys wearing them.

D67

[SwimTeamSpeedo]

I think that it's a mixture of both, swimmboy. At the college level it is all about time advantage, which was why in my college days it was tiny briefs downsized. At the level I coach, I think modesty is a big factor. My swimmers are not at the level where they are slicing it that close. Thankfully, we seem to be moving to a less puritan state of mind if this year is any indication.

[SwimTeamSpeedo]

I think that it's a mixture of both, swimmboy. At the college level it is all about time advantage, which was why in my college days it was tiny briefs downsized. At the level I coach, I think modesty is a big factor. My swimmers are not at the level where they are slicing it that close. Thankfully, we seem to be moving to a less puritan state of mind if this year is any indication.

Edit...not sure how this double posted...sorry

[California Dolphin]

The 'jammer' suits have nothing to do with modesty or morality. As a long-time swim meet official, I have seen men's suit styles change with the times. I spoke with a US college male swimmer a few years ago about why the jammers were so popular. He told me it was because the jammers wrap around the thighs and give support to a swimmer's large muscles in his upper legs. This support keeps his muscles from getting tired as quickly. Also, as I've noted before, go to almost any US college swim meet during the competitive season from October-January - and you will see almost every guy in a brief suit. Only during the conference and national championship meets in February and March do most guys switch to the jammers
I might believe the rational that jammers give more muscle support, but I don't really buy into it.

ALL men's ordinary casual "shorts" go all the way down to the knee and there's no athletic advantage to that much coverage. So I tend to believe that jammers are just another variation on the "Leg Veil" theme.

[Byron]

Re. post#16 probably not your fault - the website seems to be stubbornly refusing to accept posts recently and I made the mistake of clicking twice myself today to submit , thinking that some encouragement was needed.

[Bede735]

It's soccer shorts as well. They're so long they go down to the knees. I've been watching film coverage of the FIFA World Cup from 1954 to 1966 and they wore much shorter shorts back then. Are we to believe that people dressed less modestly in those days?

[Bede735]

It's soccer shorts as well. They're so long they go down to the knees. I've been watching film coverage of the FIFA World Cup from 1954 to 1966 and they wore much shorter shorts back then. Are we to believe that people dressed less modestly in those days?

[Byron]

You're right (see Bobby Moore 1966) and I can understand why CD gets so frustrated with all the physiological excuses (it's like tv. commercials telling us that the use a certain brand of toothpaste is "technically proven" to "protect" our teeth and give them a longer life).
I am not such a Luddite as not to understand the importance of neoprene in the development of wetsuits for example, but we shall soon be hearing that the Nike swoosh on your trainers gives you just that extra edge in athletic competition!
(and the period you refer to was of course also a time when the boy racers loved to apply go-faster stripes to their cars).

On a practical note of clothing fashion, women's dress hemlines rose during WWII simply because the extravagant use of scarce materials was to be avoided.

[California Dolphin]

On the subject of jammers, there was a bike race along the waterfront here in San Francisco and some of the competitors came in a super market.

There was a guy wearing what I call "short jammers" -IE- spandex athletic shorts that went only 1/2 way down from the knees.

There was a logo "Iron Men" on them however I don't know of that's their brand or something else.

Stay tuned.

[Bede735]

I spoke with a US college male swimmer a few years ago about why the jammers were so popular. He told me it was because the jammers wrap around the thighs and give support to a swimmer's large muscles in his upper legs. This support keeps his muscles from getting tired as quickly.
Doesn't explain why female long distance runners wear very brief shorts.

Possibly jammers would be better for swimming in cold water, to keep your legs warmer?