Jammers

[SwimTeamSpeedo]

Hi D67:

As you know, I am one volunteer coach at a local swim team. We had several years where all the experienced guys went to Jammers. We have an all comers rule, so we don't care what you wear, as long as you want to swim. The last several years the trend started to move back to briefs, I think driven by Ryan Lochte and Michael Phelps here in the USA. This year, all the second year and above guys wore briefs for the first time in years. As always, the new kids wear shorts, board shorts, or whatever... and it is cool with me.

I had a parent call me. She was upset that I "required those tiny swimsuits." Her son told her that when he asked her to let him buy a Speedo swimsuit racing brief. When I explained to her that I don't require anything, she was aghast. I then explained to her that her son was probably conforming to the peer pressure of his teammates, who apparently chose to wear racing style swimsuits this year. She replied saying "I can't believe XXXX would want to wear a swimsuit smaller than his underwear." I encouraged her to let him wear whatever he wants, the main focus was swimming and shorts were fine, or jammers, or whatever. "If he is uncomfortable in a racer swimsuit, I am fine with whatever he puts on, its about the sport," I explained.

He wore his racer style suit at the next practice.

[California Dolphin]

As I've said before, the jammer and half pants style is about some obscure concept and opinion of what constitutes morality and modesty in men's clothing.

It's rather frightening how people's thinking can be so easily biased and the "Follow the herd mentality predominates.

My approach for the past 3 years has been to ignore other people's opinions and wear short shorts in public. I've noticed that other guys are starting to do it too.

[Byron]

As to advantage and cheating I have just discovered that plastic "frog" webs for the hands are available, to be worn almost as gloves (AliExpress).
At the same time I learned something in an interesting article on technique, ie forget the old rule of keeping fingers together in the arm stroke. It seems that competition swimmers know about this - a slight parting of the fingers in fact allows the water between to create its own "web" and thus an overall better race speed is achievable.

[Swimmboy]

The 'jammer' suits have nothing to do with modesty or morality. As a long-time swim meet official, I have seen men's suit styles change with the times. I spoke with a US college male swimmer a few years ago about why the jammers were so popular. He told me it was because the jammers wrap around the thighs and give support to a swimmer's large muscles in his upper legs. This support keeps his muscles from getting tired as quickly. Also, as I've noted before, go to almost any US college swim meet during the competitive season from October-January - and you will see almost every guy in a brief suit. Only during the conference and national championship meets in February and March do most guys switch to the jammers

[Dooley67]

Thanks for the explanation Swimmboy. I had never thought of possibility that there was a quasi health/physical component to wearing jammers. But, I really do like briefs better to wear and to look at guys wearing them.

D67

[SwimTeamSpeedo]

I think that it's a mixture of both, swimmboy. At the college level it is all about time advantage, which was why in my college days it was tiny briefs downsized. At the level I coach, I think modesty is a big factor. My swimmers are not at the level where they are slicing it that close. Thankfully, we seem to be moving to a less puritan state of mind if this year is any indication.

[SwimTeamSpeedo]

I think that it's a mixture of both, swimmboy. At the college level it is all about time advantage, which was why in my college days it was tiny briefs downsized. At the level I coach, I think modesty is a big factor. My swimmers are not at the level where they are slicing it that close. Thankfully, we seem to be moving to a less puritan state of mind if this year is any indication.

Edit...not sure how this double posted...sorry

[California Dolphin]

Originally Posted by Swimmboy

The 'jammer' suits have nothing to do with modesty or morality. As a long-time swim meet official, I have seen men's suit styles change with the times. I spoke with a US college male swimmer a few years ago about why the jammers were so popular. He told me it was because the jammers wrap around the thighs and give support to a swimmer's large muscles in his upper legs. This support keeps his muscles from getting tired as quickly. Also, as I've noted before, go to almost any US college swim meet during the competitive season from October-January - and you will see almost every guy in a brief suit. Only during the conference and national championship meets in February and March do most guys switch to the jammers

I might believe the rational that jammers give more muscle support, but I don't really buy into it.

ALL men's ordinary casual "shorts" go all the way down to the knee and there's no athletic advantage to that much coverage. So I tend to believe that jammers are just another variation on the "Leg Veil" theme.

[Byron]

Re. post#16 probably not your fault - the website seems to be stubbornly refusing to accept posts recently and I made the mistake of clicking twice myself today to submit , thinking that some encouragement was needed.

[Bede735]

It's soccer shorts as well. They're so long they go down to the knees. I've been watching film coverage of the FIFA World Cup from 1954 to 1966 and they wore much shorter shorts back then. Are we to believe that people dressed less modestly in those days?