I joined the many who are changing from briefs to jammers for swimming. (There are too many people I know where I swim. I was afraid that I was scaring them!!) I found the jammers not to be as comfortable, not as snug. But I noticed something. And I am wondering if this is just my imagination. It felt as though the jammers kept my legs higher in the water. (I've noted the same about my tri-suit.) I was worried that my times would be slower. But they weren't. Actually, they were a small bit faster. Do these jammers tend to keep the legs higher in the water and thus reduce the drag that the legs falling down cause?

Never thought about it... I suppose they might offer a bit more buoyancy but I would have thought it to be negligible. If they do, it would definitely help you to maintain a more streamlined body position so yes, you would be a bit faster.

I actually recently switched from *jammers* to *briefs*. I haven't made up my mind yet, but I feel more comfortable in the briefs and if nothing else I look more like a swimmer

I do think that if there is any extra buoyancy in the jammers, it is negligible compared to briefs. And certainly, when wearing a wetsuit + tri suit you'll get much more buoyancy than either jammers or briefs!

Good call

Not sure what your point is, other than that Michael Phelps sometimes wears jammers during races. I have found that far more male swimmers at my pool, which happens to be the home facility of a Big Ten university, wear briefs than jammers.

As far as swimming attire goes, I've heard that it has more to do with the material than the coverage. If you get a jammer that is made of a good water shedding material (i.e., more slick), I think current thinking is that you will actually go faster. We saw that with some of the full speed suits folks were sporting during the last summer games. On the other hand, a jammer that absorbs a ton of water would be more likely to slow you down than a brief made of the same material. I just bought new 2xu shorts, and they seem faster than my old tri shorts, and definitely hold less water than my TYR jammers. Just my 2 cents.

And I think Mr. Phelps could probably wear a 3 piece suit and still be faster than 99.9% of the guys at any pool

My point was that "looking more like a swimmer" is a pretty silly statement considering the best swimmer in the world sometimes wears jammers. Does that make him not look like a swimmer?

As for your pool...the big ten sucks

If you wanna blend in, wear these:



Seriously, most serious swimmers probably wear briefs when training because they're cheaper. If you spend 20 hours a week in the pool you'll go through a lot of suits.

One of the reasons I switched from briefs to jammers because I was going through so many briefs--about one every three months. I ordered a polyester jammer to see if I could get a longer life out of a suit.

holy crap thats alot of pool time

Being a former college swimmer myself:

If you don't want to go through so many suits, buy yourself a drag suit to wear over a speedo (brief as you all are calling it). Often times when you see career swimmers wearing drag suits, their speedos underneath are faded and largely see-through. Rinse your suits off and air dry them after every practice to get a little more life out of them.

Jammers were something that came about for competition... not so much training. Every time I see somebody training in a jammer I smirk on the inside (of course most of you probably don't care what other people think and that's fine).

The extra buoyancy you feel is natural, but only the newest pairs of jammers will add any buoyancy (the fibers hold very small amounts of air until they get wet) but it's nearly negligible. Jammers mostly came about to offer a little more area to use "slicker than skin fabrics" as well as aid in muscle compression and vibration dampening.

Yup, but not unusual. When I was in high school, I had two practices each weekday (1.5 hours AM, 2 hours PM) and a 2.5 hour Saturday practice too, for a total of 20 hours per week.

Think about it in comparison to cycling. Plenty of folks here spend well over 20 hours a week in the saddle, and nobody thinks it's unusual.

I think you might be over-estimating the number of people who log 20+ hours per week.

Where I live almost nobody is wearing briefs anymore. Guys who used to when I started swimming with them 12 years ago have gone to jammers. And a swim coach told me recently that jammers have brought more boys into the swimming ranks. I guess they were too self conscious for briefs. He indicated that the movement to jammers was to keep the sport alive, esp. for boys. I call them briefs because Speedo is a brand name. My briefs often are TYR.

What a remarkable picture of him. Now back to the subject at hand. When I first started triathlons probably 50-60 percent of male triathletes wore briefs. Now in races that I do maybe two or three are wearing briefs. Frankly, I think that the briefs are more comfortable than tri suits, but styles do change.

Why would vibratrion dampening be an issue in swimming?

Well I guess it's not so much of a vibration, but an oscillation. Any time your muscles are "sloshing" back and forth up and down or side to side that's wasted energy... basically converting the excess mechanical energy of your muscle into heat. If you wear a suit that prevents your muscles from committing unnecessary movements in the first place, you do not have this associated energy loss.

Another reason why jammers might be faster than briefs? That lycra material is more hydro-dynamic than your skin or hairy legs.

The longer I use the jammers the less I sense the extra bouyancy in the legs. Maybe it was just a matter of my imagination. I'm not sure. Frankly, I think that the briefs are more comfortable.

You are bright. You must spend some time with these issues.

I guess you're right, it's the same principle used in compression socks that completely cover your calves, I heard very good things from people who use them, however I'd look too dorky in them so I'll just have to live with the 1.18% energy loss.