Roka Sim Shorts
Basically, it's like a pair of jammers made out of a wetsuit.
http://www.rokasports.com/collectio...-pro-short
I like to train like I'm going to swim for my next race. If it's a wetsuit race I will do 2/3 of my swimming with a pull buoy. Non-westuit and I pretty much won't use the buoy at all. The Roka shorts obviously raise your hips up but not as much as a buoy. They also allow you to do some kicking with your legs which is more difficult with the buoy.
I like 'em.
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http://www.desotosport.com/product/ST1
I have these as well although I don’t use them in the pool. I may in the future for swimming in the outdoor pool over our ‘winter’, or for doing a swim after a really hard bike or run when my legs are completely trashed. I’m not sure I 100% buy the idea of training with them regularly in the pool, I’m more of the persuasion that I’d rather work harder in the pool and save my extra advantages for raceday rather than simply getting accustomed to that advantage all of the time, but I could probably bend on that.
I primarily use these because I do at least 2 OWS in the ocean a week and the water is starting to get warm enough (upper 60s) where I feel like a sissy in my full suit. These add a little extra warmth but mostly just allow me to better keep up with everyone else I’m swimming with who does have their wetsuits, as well as add a little bit of extra safety flotation.
Swimming in these is definitely faster than wearing no suit at all, but definitely slower than my fullsuit. I would also potentially consider wearing them for something like a warm-water sprint that was right around the wetsuit cutoff. You’d definitely be slower, but with less chance of overheating, and most of all, you can get out of these things in like 2 seconds flat so you might make up most of the time you lost on a short swim in transition. You couldn't wear these things in a non-wetsuit legal race though, they are still 5mm neoprene so definitely would be illegal.
Trevor you have Al's or Bob's thing?
Bob, any big downside to the cheaper version that is like $80?
I am a 59-65 minute iron wetsuit swimmer. Like Trevor, I too have always had doubts about the usefulness of using buoy or floating devices. Horizontal body position is one of the most important things and with floats your body is not constantly trying to work on this.
So the big question for me:::: are the upper extremity force vectors really changed that much with going from naked swimming to wetsuit/buoy/floaty short swimming ??? Is this the one reason I might want to use the floaty things sometimes ???
I have the Sim shorts, Bob's thing. I like Desoto but $100 was easier on my wallet than $200. The difference between the the pro and the elite is the pro have this stretchy thinner panel on the side along the hips that they go into a bunch of theory about hip rotation. The $80 ones are uniform thickness.
I can sort of buy the theory about the Pro version, and my hip rotation (and kick) are atrocious so it is something I need to work on. But on the downside, my actual wetsuit is uniform thickness so I wouldn't have that 'advantage' on raceday if there even is one. I should have probably got the cheaper version, but I ended up just getting the more expensive version and some nutrition to get free shipping. I figured $20 is 2 beers at an airport.
Again, I'm not sure I'll ever wear these things in the pool, but if I did, the big advantage I'd see over a pull buoy is the ability to still kick, because I need a ton of work on that.