Tech Suits

TECH SUITS (Outcomes vs. Process)

                As coaches we want nothing more than to see your swimmer swim a best time in every race. Tech suits do provide a little extra help along the road to achieving goals, dropping time, or making a cut time. As your kids get more into the sport and you become more experienced swim parents, we want to make sure we acknowledge the downsides to these kinds of suits and the message they send to the kids.

                Tech suits emphasize time. They emphasize outcomes: “did I drop time? What place did I come in? Did I make the cut time?” As a young swimmer, having an “outcome” focus can be very discouraging when the outcome we want or expect isn't the one we get. As the kids get faster and the pressure is on to make those last few cut times, not achieving the outcome we want can sometimes be devastating. These results are inevitably going to happen with every swimmer - at some point or another they will not succeed at achieving a goal. When we get to that failure, when we realize we didn't achieve our goal, the next question that we ask our self is one of the most important questions of our swimming career.

“Outcome” focused swimmers will ask “what did I do wrong?” In other words, what was wrong with my performance in the race? In our opinion as coaches, we believe this is the wrong question to be asking at this point in time. Instead the question should be: “what should I work on at practice?” We want the kids to have a “process” focus; understanding that the outcome is a direct result of the process, not the individual performance. What you do at practice directly affects how you perform when the time comes.

                Picture a 13 year old swimmer that is trying to make a regional cut time. This swimmer has been having a bit of a hard time making the cut at the last few meets, and is starting to feel discouraged and motivation is fading. Then this swimmer gets a tech suit for the next meet, and achieves the time they set out to. They don't think about all the hard work they did or didn't do at practice. They don't think about the bad streamlines or breathing off the walls. All they think about is the cut time, and the tech suit. The tech suit here being the only difference between achieving a goal and not, sends the message to your kids that they need it in order to succeed in achieving their goals. This is not the message we want to send for obvious reasons.

                Tech suits are built around the concept of enhancing performance. They are not going to help your kids swim correctly.  Tech suits are not a substitute for learned skills through quality training. They don't tighten up streamlines, they don't keep us from lifting our head when we shouldn't, and they certainly don't make us kick our feet without putting in the effort. Tech suits are a great tool to have in the swimming toolbox, but they are not a one stop solution to achieving goals. Championship/focus meets are typically the time for utilizing a tech suit.  As a progressive, long-term developmental program we need to look at the bigger picture and utilize things like tech suits in a planned and productive manner.

At this point in time there is no tech suit restriction for HYDRA swimmers under the age of 13 (which tends to be the general rule for most programs). However as a rule of thumb, it would be in your best interest to consult with the coaches before investing in a tech suit for any swimmer regardless of age.  The coaches reserve the right to deny usage of such suits at any point in time during any team sanctioned event.