I am now the Command Fitness Leader for the ship and we are in our Physical Readiness Testing cycle. I went to the pool today to observe some of my shipmates who opted to swim. It was appalling! First off, only one male wore anything more hydrodynamic than board shorts and one female wore board shorts over her swimsuit. Only 2 of the 9 that I observed actually swam freestyle for the entire 450 meters. Several took off like a shot at the word go, one swimming like Tarzan with his head out of the water, only to be breast stroking on the next length and then sidestroke/rescue swimming for the next 3 or 4 laps, with several rests at the wall.
So, needless to say, I will be putting together a little clinic/seminar on how to improve your swim time. Not that I’m a speed demon in the water, but I think I at least got the fundamentals.
At any rate, back to the original question…How much slower would a person be in board shorts versus speedo/jammers? Are there any studies to validate the difference? One guy’s shorts were so loose he had to stop at the wall with each lap to hike them back up. He should have just kept going and let them fall off…then again, maybe not.
I can’t answer your question, but I bet it’s a very significant difference.
The first IM I ever saw in person was the inagural IM Wisconsin. I stood there watching the late swimmers come in and this guy came out of the water having just missed the swim cut-off by a few minutes. He was wearing baggy clam digger style shorts that came at least to his knees(no exaggeration). Kudos to the guy for trying, but those shorts alone probably added 30minutes to his swim.
That’s a really good point. Many of these guys/gals have much bigger issues than their attire. Maybe if I can get them thinking more like a swimmer, and start by getting them to look like a swimmer, we can start to make some headway. I’m sure many of them are beyond help, or more accurately don’t really want the help. They’re happy just barely passing, but passing none the less.
I’ve done a few weeks of experimentation with board shorts for drag. My cruise pace is in the 1:20-1:25 range /100m with jammers and I was having a tough time hitting 1:30’s with the board shorts. There you go. 13% faster without the extra drag.
For a faster swimmer the difference may only be 13% but for slower swimmers with worse technique, my bet is that the effect is greater. I would even guess that board shorts would decrease the speed of slower swimmers by 25%. With swimming it always seems that slower swimmers suffer more from smaller things than do faster swimmers, all things being equal. But, I don’t any evidence to back that up.
I’d say the difference is more for a fast swimmer. A slower swimmer is already disturbing so much water through poor body position that a little more won’t make much difference.
I am now the Command Fitness Leader for the ship and we are in our Physical Readiness Testing cycle. I went to the pool today to observe some of my shipmates who opted to swim. It was appalling! First off, only one male wore anything more hydrodynamic than board shorts and one female wore board shorts over her swimsuit. Only 2 of the 9 that I observed actually swam freestyle for the entire 450 meters. Several took off like a shot at the word go, one swimming like Tarzan with his head out of the water, only to be breast stroking on the next length and then sidestroke/rescue swimming for the next 3 or 4 laps, with several rests at the wall.
So, needless to say, I will be putting together a little clinic/seminar on how to improve your swim time. Not that I’m a speed demon in the water, but I think I at least got the fundamentals.
At any rate, back to the original question…How much slower would a person be in board shorts versus speedo/jammers? Are there any studies to validate the difference? One guy’s shorts were so loose he had to stop at the wall with each lap to hike them back up. He should have just kept going and let them fall off…then again, maybe not.
It is insignificant in this group. Since this is a fitness class I think you should be emphsizing aerobic fitness and not how they look or how fast they are going. If they are fit (and have good swim fundamentals) they should be able to swim steadily and strongly for the entire distance regardless of what they are wearing.
I’ve done a few weeks of experimentation with board shorts for drag. My cruise pace is in the 1:20-1:25 range /100m with jammers and I was having a tough time hitting 1:30’s with the board shorts. There you go. 13% faster without the extra drag.
Add five seconds to these numbers and it holds true for me. I think for faster swimmers, it will be more difference, and, of course, for slower swimmers it will be less difference.