Good day ST,
Are those shorts good for someone that is currently learning/improving swim technique? Or I should just concentrate on learning how to actually have a better streamline position with legs up without using a ‘tool aid’?
Any feedback fro users will be appreciated too.
Cheers!
It seems like an expensive Pull Buoy
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First thing, I say is just learn to get into a better position. You can throw in a pull buoy for a few lengths to get the hips up to feel the position and then go back to trying to do it yourself. All the guys I see wearing these are using it for the entire workout, which in my mind defeats the entire purpose (why not just wear a wetsuit for the entire workout)? Swim with a band, no buoy, press your chest down, catch more water in the front of your stroke, hold your legs up with your lower back and core and increase cadence (at least to stay moving forward with a band). To get a feel of what you have to do, lie on the pool deck chest on deck, hands over your head in a streamline (push off the wall position) with your waist at the edge of the pool and have your legs flop down into the water (your body is shaped like an L). This is what you don’t want to swim like. Now keep your chest on the deck and lift your legs out of the water so that your legs don’t touch the water. Feel your lower back holding up your legs.
It seems like an expensive Pull Buoy
I realize that some people do swim with the buoy all the time, in which case, I think the shorts are better than the buoy because you use your legs more naturally. But for the rest of us using the buoy either sparingly, or for a few sets or never, seems like the shorts are overkill, unless you take them off at some point (always an option, but I never see anyone do that).
You’re going to get mixed responses.
You can do a mix of sim shorts and non swim shorts. It doesn’t have to be just one or the other.
IMO, I find the use of sim shorts to be helpful in regards to cleaning up upper body technique, and/or when I’m trying to regain some fitness after long layoffs from swim training when upper body strength and fitness is more a limiter than overall fitness. I had a slew of injuries from 2014-2016 and didn’t race. I had zero reason to go to the pool. Once I got back at it I struggled with upper body fatigue. I wasn’t gassed from an overall cardio perspective but my arms were jello after 15-20 minutes. I just needed more time flailing my arms around in the water. So I would do half the swim wko without sim shorts, and the second half with sim shorts so that I could really concentrate on what my upper body was doing. Once I was back in some kind of respectable shape I would maybe do half of one swim wko with the sim shorts to work on upper body technique. Let’s say I swam 6000 for the week in three workouts, I’d do about 1000 with the sim shorts.
Sim shorts can also be useful to help replicate swimming with a wetsuit. If I were doing just wetsuit races I’d probably do more sim short training.
Thank you so much Dev! I’ll make sure to try it next time I hit the pool.
What you described is exactly what I am struggling with. (the L is how I look in the water) I am currently doing masters swim only once per week and hitting the pool 1 time by myself. In yesterday session, one coach pulled me over and wanted me to work on my body position as I exert too much energy kicking (too much kicking, not bringing my thighs up and kicking to wide) along with other major issues I have to work on. (i.e. reach, pull, breathing as I hyper ventilate, …)
Even when I used the pull buoy, after 50m, my legs starts to sink. I was told that I need to find that balance using my core and targeting different muscles. We worked on some drills to make me fell and get an understanding on a good body position in the water. We also tried just floating… which result in my legs sinking right after a few seconds. Lots of works and practice from my end.
Lots of frustration on my part as I cannot even get the basic technique of floating in the water. (can’t even do the star…) I fully understand that swimming is all about technique and that if I to be a better swimmer, I need to have good technique… Right now, it is not only halting my progress (self assessment) but also not given me the confidence that I can swim 200m FR without gasping for air. That is why I thought about the swim short to help me at least get some sets done while working also on technique.
Cheers!
I picked up a pair of sim shorts a few months into my first year of tri training, mostly because I knew all my races would be wetsuit races and I felt like it made sense to simulate that in my pool training. When I started swimming in them it was a bit of a eureka moment for me in the sense that I felt like I finally got a real sense of what swimming with proper body position felt like, in a way that a pullbuoy never really did for me.
However, I also realized that training that way all the time was not helping my technique - it allowed me to achieve that body position without properly engaging my core/kick/kinetic chain. So in that sense I felt like the shorts were detrimental to my technique. I used them for a few months, just to keep that feeling of proper body position fresh in my mind, but worked on achieving that same feeling without them. At this point I haven’t used them in a couple of years, aside from the occasional pre-wetsuit-race pool session.
I used mine for almost every swim workout between Kona and Arizona, knowing that IMAZ would be wetsuit legal. Not only was I able to swim decently with fatigued legs from bike and run training, but I felt that I was getting more good strokes in.
I ended up with my second best (off my best by 20 secs) IM swim in 13 tries.
However, I also realized that training that way all the time was not helping my technique - it allowed me to achieve that body position without properly engaging my core/kick/kinetic chain.
You are right about this. Using them all the time is something I would guard against.
Buoyancy shorts have a place in a swim training plan though. You can over-load (increase drag) or under-load (wear a speed suit or SIM shorts). When should you under-load:
A great set would be:
4 rounds of 4 x 50s descend Hard/Easy by 50 - use the Buoyancy shorts for 2 of the 4 rounds.
After a race I might do a set of 100’s where I am specifically counting strokes and trying to be LONG. Get down to 13 strokes per 25M (my normal is 15/16).
I use my sim shorts occasionally. I tend to use them when i’m not fully recovered from a race to make practice a little easier for me. I also like to use them during a taper.
I don’t have a strong kick, my legs mainly are used to keep me balanced as my upper body and hips rotate. When my legs and core are fatigued like after a race my legs and hips sink causing me to be less efficient in the water. Using them helps take some stress off my shoulders by keeping my hips up which is good since I also have some shoulder issues which like to show up when i’m fatigued.
I thought about wearing them last night because I was still fatigued from the weekends cyclocross races and I did a bike trainer workout that morning. I ended up not using them and had to sit out a few 50’s when I couldnt quite make my usual interval. If I moved to a slower lane I probably would get too much rest. If I used the sim shorts I would have made every interval.
Some shorts have 5mm thickness overall, some have 3/5mm. Some are low rise as if you have the plumbers crack issue , some have longer legs than others. As stated before, feedback in this forum will vary. If you are from the camp that believes success breeds more success, then go all out for them. You can always take them off if and when your form improves.
I picked up a pair of sim shorts a few months into my first year of tri training, mostly because I knew all my races would be wetsuit races and I felt like it made sense to simulate that in my pool training. When I started swimming in them it was a bit of a eureka moment for me in the sense that I felt like I finally got a real sense of what swimming with proper body position felt like, in a way that a pullbuoy never really did for me.
However, I also realized that training that way all the time was not helping my technique - it allowed me to achieve that body position without properly engaging my core/kick/kinetic chain. So in that sense I felt like the shorts were detrimental to my technique. I used them for a few months, just to keep that feeling of proper body position fresh in my mind, but worked on achieving that same feeling without them. At this point I haven’t used them in a couple of years, aside from the occasional pre-wetsuit-race pool session.
My experience as well.
I don’t use them too often in the pool. The PB is too easy.
Where I have found them really useful is open water. Almost all of our local races are wetsuit. But smaller lakes that I train in are quite warm. Using the sim shorts simulates the wetsuit but let’s you do a hard training session without over heating, I can also put them in a backpack and run to the lake with them.
To those that swim in the pool with the shorts - how much difference do they make (per 100 meter) ?
Cheers,
WD 
Echoing what some others have said, I find them useful for 1) improving my body position for shorter stints, 2) in lieu of a pull buoy, 3) to simulate wetsuit swimming in a pool, and 4) for days where I otherwise wouldn’t be able to maintain pace with my lane. Like many things, they’re a crutch best used in moderation, but they definitely have their place in my training regimen.
To those that swim in the pool with the shorts - how much difference do they make (per 100 meter) ?
Cheers,
WD
A good 4s at least.
Personally I wouldn’t buy them. It is very hard to go back to normal bathers after wearing these and when you do go back to normal bathers it feels like crap when you swim, at least initially.
I get about 60% of the advantage of a full wetsuit with Roka sim shorts. Between wetsuit and non wetsuit OW 3800m IM swims…I’m about 5 minutes faster with a wetsuit than without.
Warning: I’m not the cool fish in ST advocating fancy sets and drills.
I swim almost all my workouts in a full wetsuit when I’m preparing for a wetsuit race. It’s just fun to swim 3800M under 50 minutes in a 50m pool. In races, I swim 3800m about 52 minutes. No drills. No sets. No masters swims. No coaches. I think in a way it actually helps me swim faster because it makes swimming more fun, so I do it more often…I would not overlook that aspect of sim shorts in your training.
Before non wetsuit races, I use a balance of sim shorts, regular trunks, and a swimskin. I find when my speed changes because of what I’m wearing, my stroke changes too, so I want to be training in the way I’ll be racing so that I’ll be ready for the faster turnover of a swimskin swim versus the slower/lower stroke rate of a wetsuit swim.
Again, if you are a new swimmer, maybe none of this is relevant to you. But it bears repeating…if you are a new swimmer and something makes it more fun and you do it more often, it will probably make you faster than all the drills and convoluted explanations of catch you’ll ever read!
Lots of frustration on my part as I cannot even get the basic technique of floating in the water. (can’t even do the star…) I fully understand that swimming is all about technique and that if I to be a better swimmer, I need to have good technique… Right now, it is not only halting my progress (self assessment) but also not given me the confidence that I can swim 200m FR without gasping for air. That is why I thought about the swim short to help me at least get some sets done while working also on technique.
Cheers!
I think floatypants have their place like others have argued, but if you can’t swim 200m free without gasping for air, there are alot of bigger problems and wearing the pants might neglect attention to the most obvious flaws in your swimming. It might lead to a massive recession in technique and confidence once you take them off. Or it might be a catalyze your swimming, I guess that’s also possible.
Thank you everyone for your inputs and feedback. I opted not to get some and keep working to improve my techniques.
Cheers! and happy shopping!!