I just started swimming, and I notice that other swimmers wear speedos. Whats the difference between wearing regular swim trunks and a speedo?
If you are talking fitness and racing gear produced by the Speedo manufacturing company, today’s products are much more wide-ranging than the skimpy American-flag suit worn by Olympian Mark Spitz in the 1970s. For the fitness or competItive swimmer, Speedo represents the gold standard of swimwear. It fits right, it is engineered for optimizing your workout or race, it is fairly durable, and it represents the latest technology for swimmers. For men, the advantages of wearing a Speedo product over a floppy pair of knee-length trunks are obvious. Whether you choose lycra-infused jammers–thigh-hugging workout trunks–or an abbreviated racing suit, you are lessening the drag of the water that can slow you down and add an uncomfortable weightiness to your workout or extra micro- seconds to your race time. A Speedo suit will stay in place during water entry, flip turns, and swimming drills. That is what it is designed to do. The difference between Speedo gear and generic swim trunks is in the fit and the technology.
A. You can always tell someone who’s new to swimming by the way they move from the locker room to the pool; they’re the ones getting in the pool as fast as they can so that no one sees them. People who are new to swimming often find swimming in a speedo intimidating, unless of course you’re from Europe or you’re a tri-geek, then walking around in a speedo is included in your daily activities. The benefits of wearing a speedo are that you’ll have less drag created from your suit when swimming, which translates into more speed with less effort during your swim training. Also, if you train in trunks, you are unable to get the full benefit of your stroke. They hinder your stroke efficiency, and then if you try to race in a speedo, your stroke will be all out of whack. Not only that but a speedo is a symbol that says you’re serious about training for swimming, or why else would you go to the pool 7/8’s naked? Sunrise Cyclery offers the coolest swim gear around from DeSoto Sport, Trico Sport
