Have you ever wondered wetsuit is fastest –Â a sleeved or sleeveless? Is there a difference?
You might be surprised by the results of a 400 meter time trial I did recently. I was lucky enough to borrow a sleeved and sleeveless Blue Seventy Helix wetsuit from Craig Percival from Aquashop in South Melbourne.
I went to the pool, did a usual race warm-up…then two-400 meter time trials.
Test Conditions
- 400m time trial in a 50m outdoor pool
- Stroke rate of 82 (set with FINIS Tempo Trainer)
- 400m recovery between time trials
- Sleeveless trial performed first
Results
A 7 second improvement with the sleeved version was consistent with what Craig Percival from Aquashop in South Melbourne. He had a 9-second improvement over 400m with the sleeved wetsuit.
Sleeveless Wetsuit Time Trial – 4:22
In the initial 400m with the sleeveless wetsuit I swam a 4:22. The stroke rate felt harder to maintain. I don’t know if this was because it was the first time trial or because having no sleeves made a difference.
Sleeved Wetsuit Time Trial – 4:15
After some recovery I did the second time trial in the sleeved version of the wetsuit. It was easier to maintain an 82 stroke stroke rate. I wasn’t sure if it was going to be much quicker but the result was surprising.
Is Sleeved Best For Everyone?
Now does that mean that the sleeved wetsuit is best for everyone? Of course not. You see a lot of top athletes don’t wear sleeved versions of the wetsuit like Sam Sheppard that we saw in last week’s video.
It does not necessarily mean that the sleeved version of the wetsuit is the best one to go with. Yes it is generally faster, but it might not suit your stroke. You might prefer the freedom of not having sleeves.
It all comes down to your own preference.
Based purely on swim speed, it shows me that the sleeved wetsuits are usually faster than the sleeveless wetsuits. There are a lot of other factors that are come into it that are worth considering if you are looking at getting a new wetsuit.
If you enjoy tips like these, I recommend checking out Effortless Swimming Membership Program which is our online coaching program.
Where a lot of swimmers are getting very good results. Particularly those who are training for open water swims, triathlons, and pool competitions. You are able to upload your own video of your swimming there, so that I can analyse it, give you direct feedback which is personal to you.
You’ll also have access to all of our technique programs. If you want to improve your freestyle, you can go through the freestyle programs. If you want to improve your breaststroke, you can do the same with the breaststroke programs. There is also a tonne of workouts in there. Plus strength training and a lot of things which you can use specifically for what you need to improve in your swimming to take that next step.
Go to Effortless Swimming Membership Program to get online swim coaching.
I hope this helps you make a more educated decision if you are looking for a new wetsuit.
Transcript
Read the full transcript
Hi Brenton Ford here, welcome to another effortless swimming dot com update where swimming fast is easy. If you’ve ever wondered which type of wetsuit is faster, a sleeved wetsuit or a sleeveless wetsuit, you might be surprised by the results of a 400m time trial I recently did. I was lucky enough to borrow a sleeved and a sleeveless blue 70 helix wetsuit from Craig in Aquashop South Melbourne and what happened was I went to the pool, I did a usual race warm up and then I did two 400m time trials. The first one with the sleeveless wetsuit then I did some recovery, then I did the same test with a sleeved wetsuit and I had a finished tempo trainer set to 82 for both of them so I had the same stroke rate for each time trial and the results that I had surprised me quite a bit. In the initial 400 I went a 422 with the sleeveless wetsuit and I did some recovery then with the sleeved wetsuit, the one with the arms, I ended up going a 415 with the exact
same stroke count and Craig who helps run the Aquashop in South Melbourne here in Victoria, he had very some results, he had a 9 second improvement with the sleeved addition of the wetsuit. Now, does that mean that the sleeved wetsuit is best for everyone? Of course not. You see a lot of top athletes at the very top end of their field who don’t wear sleeved versions of the wetsuit. Like Sam Shepard who won the Peer to Pub in last week’s video that we saw. So it doesn’t necessarily mean that the sleeved version of the wetsuit is the best one to go with. Yes, it’s generally faster but it might not suit your stroke. You might prefer the freedom without having the sleeved so it all comes down to your own preference but based on this it shows me that the sleeved wetsuits are usually faster than the sleeveless wetsuits based purely just on swim speed but there are a lot of other factors that come into it. So that’s worth considering if you’re looking at getting a new wetsuit.
If you enjoy tips like this I recommend checking out swimprove.com which is our online coaching program where a lot of swimmers are getting very good results, particularly those that are training for open water swims, triathlons and pool competitions. You’re able to upload a video of your own swim in there so that I can analyse it, give you direct feedback which is personal to you and you also have access to all of our technique programs. So if you want to improve your freestyle you can go through the freestyle programs. If you want to improve your breaststroke you can do the same with the breaststroke programs. There’s also a ton of workouts in there plus a whole lot of strength training and a lot of things which you can use specifically to what you need to improve with your swimming to take that next step. So go to swimprove.com to check all of that out. Thanks for watching this week’s weekly update and I hope this has helped you
make a more educated decision if you’re looking for a new wetsuit.
Hi Brenton,
Thanks for a great post. How do your times compare with when you swim without a wetsuit?
Best, Chris
I’d like to follow the reasoning as to why the sleeved wetsuit may be faster, what is behind this speed difference?
@Chris – For me with a wetsuit it’s 6-9 seconds faster per 100m
Not what I’d call a “fair” trial! Maybe do it again with the sleeved suit first and sleeveless second and look at BOTH sets of times. THEN I’d be more convinced.