Another Article Critical Of Tech Suits

[California Dolphin]

The debate against tech suits VS the old fashioned speedos is still raging and here’s an article from Liberty Mutual Insurance on the subject:

http://responsibility-project.libertymutual.com/blog/high-tech-swimming-is-it-cheating-#fbid=P3_f8rx7Gab

Looks like most of the responses are against the use of tech suits so there’s a glimmer of hope that FINA may be compelled to revert to the old style suits!!! :D

CD

[Swimmboy]

The tech suits have been banned for over a year now - currently, no male can wear a suit that rises above the navel or goes below the knees - so only brief or jammer-style suits are allowed. Most collegiate swimmers in the U.S. wear brief suits for regular in-season meets, and jammers for championship meets. Many high school and youth teams wear a mixture of the two styles.

[Torchwatch]

Swimming is man verses man in the water, wearing clothing should be a disadvantage so the less you wear the faster you go. The faster than skin materials (can they even be considered fabrics) are cheating because you have an advantage over the "ideal" naked man.
The objective of the racing swimsuit is modesty and team identification, minimising it reduces drag but the existance of the suit should always be negative.

Tennis raquets and bikes are technical artefacts, you cannot play tennis or cycle without them. As technology improves the athlete tends towards having the perfect raquet or bike. Since perfection can never be attained competition to achieve an improved implement will always continue.

The one grey area in my argument is sports shoes, we have become dependant on shoes, we wear them most of the time and our feet have become too soft to run and play football without them. Except in sand shoes improve our grip through tread, studs and spikes, as well as protecting our feet from sharp objects they also can be made to absorb impact shocks. The rules of athletics all impact absorption but prohibit anything that propels the runner in his next stride. The ideal running shoe gives optimum grip, optimum impact absorption and is as light as possible allowing the athlete to run naturally.

The manufacturers of running tracks are able to choose over what distance the track they are building will be fastest; sprinters perform best on a bouncy track while distance runners preffer a more stable suface (though not as hard as a road surface). Is there a way of making fast water for sprint swimmers?

[SpeedoAZ]

I wore a body suit for a short time and can say that it really does make a noticable difference in your times. It just makes sense that they are banned in competition. If not, the guys wearing them would have an advantage against guys who did not.

[SwimTeamSpeedo]

I agree with the ban, having swam in HS and college. There is not question the tech suits impact times. They are more buoyant. I race in briefs, and they are my suit of choice, even in the current age of jammers. Having said that, I did compete in tech suits for big events. The whole tech suit thing really came down to necessity. As more guys started to compete in them, you had no choice but to do the same, just to compete on an equal level. I am glad swimming is moving back towards a more simple level. On the other hand, getting in adn out of those tech suits was lots of fun...

[California Dolphin]

Just as a point of info, water can be "Made Faster" by adding a "surfactant" such as shampoo or a non toxic detergent to break surface tension.

I did some experiments with the jets in a jacuzzi tub by measuring the electric current for the pump motor with and without a surfactant. With the surfactant, the motor consumed about 20% less currant than with plain water.

The effect of breaking surface tension is actually at the interface of the water/material surface rather than by the material itself. If you want to reduce surface drag, just add a surfactant to the pool. However, the past strategy for making rules for swimming was to eliminate as many variables as possible and keeping things simple. That meant that guys could wear only briefs and not tech suits.

Sorry for the long explanation, but I'm a physics geek as well as a speedo lover. :D

[Byron]

Would you go on to explain what has been described as divers hitting a block of concrete from above and is the small water jet intended as a spot marker or to break up the surface tension of the pool - or both?