Tapering, Shaving, Pantyhose, Tech Suits? What are these things in swimming, and should my swimmer do them?
Tapering:
It’s part of the training we do with some older swimmers in preparation for some postseason meets. This doesn’t apply to younger or less experienced swimmers, as tapering does not really help them improve. Basically though, it’s progressively reducing yardage, adding speed with increased rest, over the course of 1-2 weeks. This is to prime swimmers physically and mentally for their best performance. At the end of the taper, their muscles will be better rested, yet they've been swimming faster. Swimmers need to do nothing more than show up at practice and do what the coaches ask of them.
Shaving:
- Only HS swimmers (male & female) should shave the night before Districts or CHMC, unless you are a younger female who has already started to shave normally, in which case follow the same as HS swimmers.
- If you plan on shaving for Districts, stop shaving NOW, especially the legs. Actually, if it’s late January, you probably should have stopped several weeks or months ago. Starting December is ideal for our season; the longer the time-frame the more likely it will be effective. What's more important to you, smooth legs every week or faster times at championship meets?
- Night before the meet: Shave legs, outside top of arms (NOT inside arms or hands where you grip the water, not bottom of feet), shave back & armpits, shave chest too if male.
- Go slow, don't cut yourself.
- The purpose is NOT necessarily just for the hydrodynamics of less hair, but for removing the thin layer of dead skin cells. Swimmers literally feel smoother and 20 pounds lighter in the water. This feeling comes when the under layer of skin feels the water for the first time; it definitely and consistently results in time dropped for the vast majority of swimmers who plan this out weeks to months ahead of time, and with the proper consistent training regime.
Wearing Tights/Pantyhose:
- Swimmers who shave the night before a meet should definitely wear light tights or pantyhose under their suits during warm-ups and any practices thereafter, from hips to ankles.
- Swimmers who do not shave may wear them too for 1-2 weeks prior their meet. This is NOT for drag; as a coach, I do not believe in the use of drag suits except in very limited scenarios, and this is not one of them. This IS to simulate an extra layer of skin/hair on the legs while training. AGAIN, this should ONLY be done after Madison Championships.
- The tights/pantyhose should be water permeable, thin, lightweight, and should fit snugly with few to no ripples to reduce drag, and feet should be bare (cut the feet off of pantyhose).
- Swimmers may choose to use rubber bands at the ankles to keep pantyhose from stretching.
- If they do the above, they should continue through warm-up at Districts. ONLY swim without when time to race.
Wearing tights & pantyhose and/or shaving is not required. However, some swimmers, particularly older and more experienced swimmers, do use this strategy. It does not really make a difference for younger or less experienced swimmers.
Tech Suits:
Only 13/Above may wear a tech suit. Even then, with rare exception, I recommend NOT BUYING one until a swimmer is at least a sophomore in high school and once body types start to settle in.
ONLY wear it at the end of the season Championship meets. They are limited in their effectiveness; the more you wear them the less effect they have. Wearing it before you get in end-of-season shape, wearing it before you taper, wearing it at lower level meets, undermines it's usefulness and falsely guides swimmers to believe their time drops are due to a suit, not their training. THE MORE YOU WEAR IT THE LESS EFFECTIVE IT IS. The more it stretches with each and every wear, reduces it's usefulness too. Tech suits may help a swimmer race "faster"..., but not for everyone. Tech suits (depending on the level of technology of the suit, which of course equates to higher cost) may help swimmers achieve faster times because they:
- Use water repellent material in making the suit.
- Are seamless; fabric is heat bonded, not stitched, or if there is stitching the seams run with the flow/direction of the water.
- Compress swimmers' muscles and body.
- Weaving & internal taping that connects different muscle groups to operate more efficiently (push & pull tension in certain directions).
Various tech suits do all or some of the above at different grades of quality. However, the goal of all is to:
- Reduce drag.
- Improve blood/oxygen circulation, efficiency, and economy.
- May increase stroke power and/or stroke rate.
It’s not just physical, but psychological. If a swimmer "techs" up, it's the same as "suiting up" in some professions. If a swimmer believes something makes them faster, it will. It's the equivalent of putting one's "game face" on, psychology prepping to do battle, to exert the body beyond what it's used to, but mentally overcoming the pain. Whether it's a tech suit, a favorite pair of socks, a pre-race meal, a pre-race routine, or one's "racing goggles", it's the brain telling the body to get ready, we're doing this!! So, it’s not really just the suit, but the brain.
Tech suits do have physical advantages over regular race suits; however, swimmers who can “psych-up” with or without a tech suit have huge advantages. Many swimmers spend the night before or whole day of the race being nervous, thinking of the race, with their adrenaline pumping and not sleeping well, being stressed. As a result, by the time they get to their race, they are tired. Whereas Olympic swimmers don’t start to get that adrenaline surge until 15 minutes prior to their race. Learning to manage one’s fears, anxiety, and stress, and when to release it all for best performance, will do more than a tech suit. Hence, I only recommend swimmers who’ve matured more mentally and physically, who have relatively strong strokes to begin with, and have put the time into training, are the ones who may invest in a tech suit.
An expensive tech suit may make a swimmer more hydro dynamic and compress muscles to improve the body's efficiency and explosive power. However, they are very tight and uncomfortable to be in, and most girls need a friend or two help them squeeze into them. They are literally pushing body parts into the suit so it fits as a second layer of skin. This is no joke, my use of the term literal is LITERAL. Any drag, any ripple, any looseness defeats the purpose and is just wasting money on the suit. AND if you wear it often during one season, you start to lose the benefit. So again, it’s wasting money, unless you wear it strategically.
Additionally, tech suits are a sort of placebo for some swimmers. No amount of heat bonding, drag reducing, water repelling, suit efficiency will overcome poor technique or poor training habits. Listening to the coaches, pushing yourself in practice, not making excuses, staying healthy, and showing up consistently will ALWAYS do more than a tech suit to drop times. There is no secret sauce, dedication and hard work wins!
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not anti tech-suit, but they are expensive and most swimmers should not wear them until they get to high school. Even then, a lot of high school swimmers who wear them would be better served through pushing themselves consistently harder in practice. I've seen many occasions (probably about 50%), where the swimmer did not improve their times with a tech suit. So, it's an expensive 50/50 bet. Compare that to tapering after a swimmer truly dedicated themselves to training, there is about an 80% improvement rate at no extra monetary cost, and just plain showing up to practice consistently has a 95%+ improvement rate. Endurance and good stroke technique will beat a tech suit every time. Bottom line, resist the social pressure, do not be in a rush to purchase one, unless you've been training and competing at a higher level for us.
In my experience, ironically, tech suits have had a greater effect in times dropped amongst our stronger swimmers than it has with our less developed swimmers. That is, swimmers who already qualified solidly for Districts from a normal dual meet swim, have a good shot at going to States, and possibly Nationals, seem to get more out of it than everyone else. If you are buying a tech suit to qualify for Districts, you probably want to save your money and focus more on practice. Which, of course, makes sense. If a swimmer is already streamlining off of every wall, kicking through the whole race, focused on applying the technique drills to their swimming, implementing our race strategies, and pushing themselves beyond their comfort level in practice and in racing (I don't just mean tired, I mean arms falling off tired), and tapered, the only thing left is a tech suit to find improvement. If a swimmer is missing any of those, a tech suit will not overcome it.
There is no secret sauce, dedication and hard work wins!
Hope this helps, :)
Coach Drake
