the advantage of jammers
 

I am one of those baby boomers who started swimming when the options were briefs or briefs. Now lots of guys are wearing the so-called jammers. I haven't converted yet, probably thinking that more suit can't mean faster. (I know this isn't true.) What I'm wondering about is whether the jammers last longer than the briefs. I tire of having a major league collection of briefs. I go through through three of them in about a year and a quarter. Any of you finding the jammers to last longer? I'm noting that the guys who swim next to me seem to have the same pair of jammers longer than I have the briefs. Any experience?

2 cents.

Baby Boomer here. Still wear Speedos at the pool for work outs.

Tri-shorts the rest of the time. The tri-shorts are definitely slower, maybe a second or two per 50 meter lap. The extra drag probably makes sense from a training point of view, but I like the Speedos better. The tri-shorts may be a bit heavier made than the speedos and seem to last marginally longer.

My opinion.

Tyson

I have used the three types you can get for me. Speedos, New school speedos, and jammers. I like the new school speedos best. I grew up competitive swimming, so I am used to the speedos, the jammers just feel weird

I was a swimmer in high school, of course wore speedos. I now wear 9" tri shorts. They work fine.

I like my jammers and yes, they do seem to last.

High school swimmer and use Jammers, i go through about 2-3 a year but i like them and i'm just used to them.

Hot wet speedos

depends on the material. A lycra jammer will fade just as fast as a lycra traditional speedo. There is no major advantage to jammers vs traditional. Lycra is the most popular material for training. Once you step up to higher end materials you might find some advantage (FS2's). Between the compression and the wicking material there is a difference.

You also have to look into how your body reacts to it. I know many many distance swimmers who dont like full body suits or jammers because they are not as breathable as speedos and overheat. Overheating causes a chain of events which equals crappy swimming.

training wise here is what I would recommend, a traditional speedo with a mesh drag suit. The mesh suit will last forever, even if your speedo starts to fade a bit no one will know . Then determine what you want to race in. Jammers are becoming more popular (even more so with 18 and under) because people get a little shy in speedos I guess?? Who knows.

I checked my suit today. It has 20% lycra and 80% nylon. It just seems that the guys with jammers are having better luck keeping their suits for a long time.

ok, I'll say it, the real advantage of jammers is for those of us not exactly in top form, is well, we don't gross people out when we walk around a pool area.

For those in top form, I applaud you,

For those not and still stuffing it into a mankini brief, we are lauging at you, all of us.

as a competitive swimmer: a tight jammer is fast.

I wouldnt reccommend wearing tri shorts in a pool, I go through at least 2 pairs of jammers per swim season due to the chlorine eating away at them.

Very funny. Truthfully, though, I find that I look worse, if that be possible, in the jammers. There's no hiding your gut with them.

are you compairing the wear of your suit to people you train with? Is it the same pool and do they train as much as you do?

There are many different types of filter systems and they all have different levels of chorine in the water, some will wear out a suit a lot faster then others.

edit- jammers are a waste of money if your just training in them. If your worried about your image then wear them. you have your training suits and your racind suits. In a collegiate season I would go through about 2-3 suits a year however I was training in the water around 18 hours a week.