Under Armour compression tee as good as a swim skin?

Triathlon Forum
1

I always wear an under armour compression tee in non-wetsuit swims, but I’m wondering if there’s any significant benefit to wearing a skin suit also?

2

I would say yes b/c the full length swim skin, just on your legs, will decrease the drag of your legs and possibly even provide some additional buoyancy. They say a good fitting swim skin will make you about 1:00 faster over 1500m. I don’t think your Under Armour shirt is doing you any good at all.

3

+1 I’m not sure the UA top is faster than no top, and certainly not faster than a swim skin. FWIW, I race in a UA top, and have for a decade (though all my swims are wetsuit legal).

Just do a test. Do some 200s in the pool with and without the UA top and see if it’s faster for you.

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4

my swag (scientific wild-ass guess) is that the UA shirt will be slower than skin, and skin is slower than a suit…
as Titan says, this is easily tested… try and let us know, would be interested in quantifying just how much slower.

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5

Well, went to the pool today: 200 tee, 200 skin, 200 swim skin.

No significant time difference between anything. Pool was actually quite warm today maybe 80F so once I got that swim skin off I seemed to be cruising! Tried to keep everything consistent between trials, but probably didn’t. It’s a Roka Viper swim skin, first time I used it.

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6

If you are the same speed in a swimskin as without: you are an outlier, effort level was very uneven in the tests, or the skin was a size too large. I’d say swimskins are worth ~3s/100m on average, so more than enough to be notable over 200m.

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7

I’m going to try the test again, but with longer swim, should smooth things out.

8

Funny this came up as I just experimented yesterday in the pool with an UA compression top. I’ve used one in several races over the last few years as they feel a bit more comfortable on the bike/run for me. I have wondered how they were in the water. I can’t say my lap times were slower but it just felt like it had a bit more drag compared to skin. I generally wear a swim skin in a race however. For me, I want the least amount of drag possible with at least moderate comfort, guess that’s all of us.

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9

I’m going with just the UA tee. I did a 1000 yard pool swim with the swim skin, and while I believe it was faster, it was just to constricting. I wear a DeSoto T1 two piece in wetsuit legal races, with the vest as my favorite option (long sleeve when colder), and was considering adding the swim skin over the compression tee. I have the proper fitting swim skin, but just not as comfortable as the compression shirt.