Shaving

Question
How much does shaving the hair off of your body help a
competative swimmer?  Swim cap vs. no swim cap? The new one
piece swim suits that cover much of the body called 'skins,' are
they helpful?

Answer
Hi Kevin. My name is Lanny Schaffer and you asked a great question! My competitive days go back to the 1976 Olympics when the East German Women swimmrs shower up in the first "skin" suit all steroided out. I'm going to answer your question mostly from the scientific perspective but I can't help but throw in some answers based on my own experience.

1) Shaving. Yes shaving the body (especially for men ) reduces drag in the water. Plain skin has less drag than skin with hair on it.(I would strongly consider one of the body suits we'll talk about shortly over full shaving-it's just so much easier and faster). Time gains from shaving are very minimal (we're probably talking 100ths to a couple of tenths). Most of it is psychological. Our mens team at Kansas University used to have a huge shaving party the night before Big 8's (head, body everything). Again, there is a strong psychological component here.

2) Caps. Caps again reduce drag in the head area. The materials used in caps today have the lowest drag. For men with short hair the actual time improvements are minimal but it beats shaving your head (the cap has less drag than a shaved head). From a personal perspective I also got a slight feeling of buoyancy from wearing a cap. Finally, your goggles will stay on better when you dive in with a cap.

4) The new body "skins". The research is still inconclusive on these mainly because most of the research is being sponsored and funded by the manufacturers-this can lead to very biased results and we as scientists can't use them:

Fact:The material these suits are made of has the least drag of any material used to date. This is a plus for wearing these suits.
Fact: These materials have less drag than skin. Another plus
Fact: There are no conclusive studies that can say exactly how much time thay will take off your swim but it would appear we are looking a small (100ths to up to a second maybe). Another plus
Fact: It is common practice for swimmers to buy their racing suits at leasy one size smaller than their work out suit. You want them tight so they "squeeze you in". This makes you more streamlined all over. Another plus for a body suit.
Fact: The psyhological effects are huge

If it were me going to the Olympic Trials again you can bet bet I'd be in a body skin (exactly what type or design I couldn't say) because at that level even a 100th of a second makes a difference.

That's where your decision comes in. Do you want to spend a ton of money on a suit that will improve your performance but probably not drastically? If so go for it?

If you have anymore questions write me at All Experts or e-mail me at [email protected]... Lanny