B_Doughtie wrote:
The biggest issue I think within the swim innovation is that only in the swim your "swim toys" can actually have an impact on another person. You could "punch" someone in the face with a paddle and that's going to hurt. So there's not a ton of swim toy innovation that doesn't also have an swim safety aspect that the bike or run "innovations" don't really have. I was taking one of my juniors to a regional championship DL event. She showed up without an wetsuit (I told her to bring it). I knew it was going to end badly. I quietly told her parents, and mind you this is a kid who comes out of the water top 10ish (back of FOP) in all races of that caliber....I told them "she's going to get the shit beat out of her by the wetsuit athletes....there was 73 out of 75 wearing wetsuits. She came out of thee water 69th out of 75. "It makes that much of a difference"....yes, yes it does in aggressiveness, in speed, in body position. She came out of the water with a "dazed" look that I'd never seen her have out of the water. Hell I've worked with a coach who had WTCS athlete get 2 concussions in 1 year from front pack racing.
Yeah that's a really good point. You could argue that aero bars hurt others when you crash into them, but you're also hurting yourself. Not so much the case with paddles.
The wetsuit difference is unequivocal. It's what makes me think there's room within the rules for innovation in non wetsuit swims. I ended up testing a "removable chamois" made from a 1" thick yoga mat cut to chamois shape. It's measurably faster in the pool with jammers, but also very noticeable. It looks equally like you're incredibly well endowed or accumulating diarrhea in your shorts. The question would be if you can make one that's ostensibly a chamois pad within the rules that also provides measurable benefit.
There's other things too I'd love to test. A few gels in the your swim cap 'for fueling' that make your head a bit more pointy. Some kind of suspenders that help keep your legs straight and can be loosened or removed for the bike/run. Super long fingernails that are tiny paddles. K Tape or shapes of athletic tape on your hands/forearms 'because of injury' that increase pulling drag. All of these thing may not be allowed by the rules, but if you're not pushing the limits of the rules you're not innovating hard enough.
There's all of this innovation on bikes for 1w here and there, meanwhile water is 800x denser than air and we just slap on a swimskin and hope for the best.