I’m in the market for a new training suit. I’m an ok swimmer (about a 23:30 open water mile). Would I benefit from using a drag suit?
I’ve read before that it would put too much stress on my shoulders. But that seems a little crazy to me. It’s not like I’m strapping a parachute to my feet.
Thanks fishes.
I always train with a drag suit and most competitive swimmers train in a drag suit. That being said it would help gain a little resistance and just make you feel that much faster on race day.
As a fishie teen I always trained with a dragsuit, but I’ve kind of gone off them now. So much of swimming is body position, and a drag suit helps make this worse, not better, so if you don’t have excellent mechanics already, I’d leave it.
As a fishie teen I always trained with a dragsuit, but I’ve kind of gone off them now. So much of swimming is body position, and a drag suit helps make this worse, not better, so if you don’t have excellent mechanics already, I’d leave it.
Does it promote dropped feet?
A normal speedo or jammer is a lot slower than a race-day wetsuit anyway, so you probably won’t get the psychological boost people talk about.
Drag suit? I’m wearing one through the winter. My body hair, or better put, the winter fur coat. It’s truly amazing the change in feeling the first time I dive in shaven. A feeling of immortality. I am better than 5 seconds faster per hundred shaven.
March is that time. The time when the hard swimming starts, just before the season opens. Until then, aerobic yardage focussing on flaw identifcation and correction.
Drag suit? I’m wearing one through the winter. My body hair, or better put, the winter fur coat. It’s truly amazing the change in feeling the first time I dive in shaven. A feeling of immortality. I am better than 5 seconds faster per hundred shaven.
Please, please, please: no pictures. I’d rather pretend it didn’t happen.
“Real” swimmers wear drag suits because:
Most triathletes won’t notice a difference. Buy a drag suit and become part of the “in” crowd at the pool.
We always layered 2-3 suits because it let you get a couple more months of use out of them when the lycra had started to go thin and revealing.
Buy a drag suit and become part of the “in” crowd at the pool.
qft
I consider myself on the fishier end of the bottom feeder → fishtwitch spectrum and would support a switch to a drag suit. I use this Speedo brand dragsuit (hyperlink after post) and I’ve really liked it. As mentioned they’re quite durable and I don’t remember personally noticing a detrimental effect on my times or position in the water, but I do a lot of technique work so maybe that would expedite adapting to the suit.
No offense to those who wear them, but my impression is that wearing a jammer swimming is like wearing a sleeveless jersey cycling. You just shouldn’t do it.
Do you wear these for all of your swims or just once a week for example? And do you wear it for the entire set or just for your technique phases?
I swim with a group of new swimmers one day a week and the sets are really not challenging…I finish far in front and find myself on the wall waiting a lot…I was thinking that wearing a drag suit during these sessions would probably help slow me down and work on strength
this isn’t sarcastic or meant in any way insulting… why would you BUY and drag suit? if you are looking for some added drag in the pool wear old jammers or speedo’s or heck wear some running shorts. but why pay $26 for something you already have?
i usually wear an old strectched out suit on top once my times start getting kinda stagnant for the year. i figure once the speed is not improving it’s time to start improving endurance at that speed. (i know kinda backwards from run and bike training)
Well, my understanding of drag suits is that they have pockets that capture water…just seemed like you could get more resistance from those suits than you could from regular shorts…just thinking.
the difference is not that significant. I alternate between a drag suit and a pair of jammers…just depends which one I happen to grab first when i reach into my bag. The drag suit is probably 1 second slower per 100 for me…maybe 2 at most.
Don’t overthink it.
I like to wear it for each session every week. I found it to be a nice compromise between a a square-cut, non-drag brief (or a speedo) and the board shorts I would wear occasionally to add drag. One option is to wear the drag suit during your warm-up and technique set and the early sets, then once the harder sets hit, you can opt to shed the drag suit and just wear a speedo you were rocking underneath.
Sounds like a drag suit could help your situation, but hey, being well ahead of the pack is a good problem to have!
I’m primarily a swimmer. I put in over a million yards with the same drag suit last year. I raced five times in a racing suit. That’s the only time I wore anything other than my drag suit all year.
I think most are overstating the drag effect. On a typical 100 repeat in workout, I’d be shocked if there was more than a one second difference in a drag suit vs. a brief.
I finish far in front and find myself on the wall waiting a lot…I was thinking that wearing a drag suit during these sessions would probably help slow me down and work on strength
Do an extra 50 per interval and work on your endurance instead.
I finish far in front and find myself on the wall waiting a lot…I was thinking that wearing a drag suit during these sessions would probably help slow me down and work on strength
Do an extra 50 per interval and work on your endurance instead.
Or just move up a lane or do IM instead of free.
To to OP, get a drag suit. It may or may not make a noticeable difference in drag but the suit will last forever. If you’re really looking for drag, when I was an age group swimmer we trained with cotton shorts (suit, shorts, suit) and I can tell you there was a big difference when you took that off. The best part was the psychological advantage at big meets. We would have the tan lines from the shorts and no one else did. When I would stand behind the blocks at Nationals I knew I’d worked harder than anyone else I was swimming against.
I just bought a drag suit. I’ll use it here and there to mix things up. Thanks everyone for your advice.