I decided to give the kids a place and a time to wear their now banned technical suits. So we have instituted Technical Suit Saturdays. Any suit that was at one time legal is legal to wear at our workout.
Now the workout is nothing special. The usual Saturday IM day. 6,000 yards, some kick, some fast. The rules go like this. Any suit. If you take it off, it is off for the workout. That's it.
A couple of observations.
Some loved it, some hated it. Eric had his suit off by the beginning of the first set and started speeding up. Ben had the workout of his life in just legs. No real advantage there. The kick set shooters were faster. The big observation though was the change in effort.
What I mean is this...the suits are faster. We know this. However, I still say the main drops in times were not sue solely to the suits but to what fast times do to a swimmers motivation. I watched it again in workout on Saturday. Dave Sherrier went a 25.0 on the first fast 50 free and then he got excited and motivated. He went 24's on the next 2 and by the last on in heats he was 23 flat. That is 3 seconds faster than a normal workout. Now there is not 3 seconds in a suit, but there is 3 seconds in motivation. I think the slow down this year will be as much from the negative vibe that swimmers will get by going slower times.
The most successful programs will be the ones that are able to continue to motivate their kids while their times remain steady form the year before.
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