No More Supersuits!
As of the 2009-2010 swim season all highschool and college level swim participants have been banned from using the so called "supersuits" recently developed to improve in-water preformance. The reasons behind this change are a bit contravertial between professional opinions but still the rule has been passed and will come into effect this year.
The use of technical suits began in the late 70's when hydodynamics began to play a larger and larger role in the professional swim scene. Im not 100% sure on infornmation dating pre-1990 but I believe many improvements were made between the late 70's and early 90's including the development of more stream-lined goggles and the ever popular Jammer.
Beginning in 1996 Speedo began to release a series of swim suits called the "shark-skin" or "fast-skin" series. The Aquablade made its appearance at the 1996 Atlanta Games and presented the swim world with the first Scientifically engineered suit. Since then Speedo has released many other technical suits each more complex and dynamic than the last. The suits include the FS-I, FS-II, FS-PRO and the newest version the Fastskin LZR Racer. These suits are available in many different lengths from jammers all the way up to full body high-neck suits with zippers. Although the LZR was probably the most common suit used at the professional level this year it was at fierce competition with the Blueseventy Nero Comp. This suit however was banned shortly after March 2009 when it was found to improve the bouyancy of the swimmer giving them an advantage over the competition.
This year the natioanl swim board decided to rule that all suits that do not meet certain requirements are to be banned from official School-Related events. I do not know if this new rule applies to private club swimmers but i assume it may soon. The new rules are as follows..
1) The suit must not extend below the top of the swimmer knee-cap or above the swimmers waist.
2) The suit must be permeable in both air and water.
3) The suit must be made of a fabric material (this will ban the FS-Pro and LZR Racer)
4) The suit may not affect the bouyancy or other physical attributes of the swimmer.
5) The suit may not contain any zippers or fastening devices except for a draw-string at the waist to secure it in place elastic is allowed around the legs and waist of the suit to also keep the suit on.
Those are the main new rules resticting supersuits. Essentially it means no more leggings, or bodysuits and it outlaws the use of certain materials. It also bans suits like the LZR racer on many different accounts. For one the suit is made of all-synthetic materials, the panels and main body pieces are sonically welded together forming a perfect non-seam bond. It is also designed to compress the body in certain areas allowing the swimmer to become more stream line than the natural body allows. The panels also affect the alignent and compression of body motion creating a more artificial movement through the water. Suits like the FS-Pro will also be banned due to the material. From what I've read the FS-I and II will still be usable as long as one uses the jammer version and not leggings or body-suits.
Personally I love this new rule. Now it brings the sport back to its true level. The people in your heat can no longer beat you because they can afford a half-thousand dollar suit and you cant. It all comes down to talent, hard-work and most importantly just out ballsing the people around you.
My only concern with this new rule is in how future records will be determined. In the past 12 years of the development of these type of suits records have dropped to previously un-thought about times. This year at states with the advent of the LZR racer nearly every state record was shattered! Now we call into question was it for real or was the suit really helping that much? My personal opinion is that the mental aspect of supersuits affects a swimmers preformance more than the suit itself (see more on mental swimming in my RAS article). In the next few years it will be interesting to see how close State and National champion swimmers truly preform without the benefeit of their supersuits as well as how and if the record setting system will be affected by this change.
-Sully Landino (site manager)
