Thursday, March 12, 2009

Where Do You Stand On Technical Swimsuits?

Inquiring minds want to know. Vote on our poll. Your comments - both positive and negative on the new technical swimsuits - are greatly welcomed.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Here's a comparison with sailing. MIT has a dinghy they call the tech dinghy. It has a unique shape across the bottom of the boat that allow sailors when executing what is know as a roll-tack to slap the water with the bottom of the boat causing the dinghy to shoot ahead about 2 yards or so. On a day with little or no wind, competitive college sailors will repeatedly roll-tack their dinghy's straight upwind and beat sailor that are taking a normal sailing course upwind with just a few tacks. By sailing rules, it allowed. But by the spirit of the competition, they are not sailing, they are propelling their boat by a means other than wind propulsion.
The same thing is happening with the technical suits. They are an extension of flippers that start at the thigh. The reinforced shape across the chest and abdomen makes the flesh rigid as a kickboard. There is not the natural compression of the body as would be occurring during ordinary swimming. Voids across the chest where eddies would occur causing drag are modified by these suits. We might as well add webbing between the fingers and toes. Any record set using a FINA technical suit should have an asterisk next to it. It'd be twenty years of swim development before these records will be exceeded just like it took years to beat the East German's women's records.