why do swimmers have to shave their legs?

Question

just wanting to know

Answer 1

You don't know anything about Hydrodynamics, now do you?

Answer 2

By shaving swimmers can reduce the drag caused by hair in the water. The more important reason though is that shaving removes a layer of dead skin that leaves swimmers with a tingly sensational feeling in the water. Also, if you shave your head there is way less friction coming off the wall for flip-turns. It's part mental and part physical. If you think you are going to swim faster because you shaved then you'll go faster. Not surprisingly, with the increase in new bodysuits for swimmers, less and less swimmers shave their bodies now. Hope this answers your question.

Answer 3

Shaving will make swimmers faster. Friction between the water and hair may slow the swimmer by split of a second and this in real life and a competition makes a huge difference between winning or not. Alternatively swimmers could wear full body swim suite.

Answer 4

During training, we don't shave our legs. The hair acts as a small amount of drag. Then, for big meets or competitions, we shave our legs to be more hydrodynamic and faster. Also, shaving gets rid of a layer of dead skin, so you can feel the water better.

A lot of swimming is just mental stuff, so shaving even the littlest hairs helps you psych-up for your race.

Answer 5

Not just the legs...the whole body (not EVERYWHERE, just legs, arms, chest, back....). It does two things
1) It does very slightly reduce the drag and make me "feel" as if I am going to swim better...and every bit of psychological help is a help.
2) It makes me 'feel' the water better. I can feel my rotation, I can feel the catch better, I can feel the movement better. And, when I can feel it better, I can make the slight adjustments to make myself better.
One of the people here mentions the body suit...and I think its true. Fewer people shave and taper now (they just taper) because they wear the body suits. So, the people at the National level who are 17 or 20 now...may not ever shave. The 30 year olds...may have shaved. The 35+ year olds...absolutely they shaved if they competed at the national level. But...strangly enough...50+ I don't think shaved.

Answer 6

they do?? i have been a pro swimmer now for about 9 years, and no none of u s shave our legs, some shave their heads, or wear a cap to decread the friction

Answer 7

We don't have to but we want to. At swim meets, less friction will cause us to go faster. We would also wear 2 suits at a time, during practice, to work out our muscles harder. When we would swim in the meets, we would just wear 1 suit but our body would be used to working harder so, we would go faster. Probably, not that much, though. Every little bit helps.

Answer 8

Unless you are an APE, shaving the legs is just psychological. There is very little difference in times between shaved and unshaved legs.

Answer 9

The hair causes resistance in the water and slows them down. It would only slow them down a little bit, but in a race, every fraction of a second makes a difference.

Answer 10

so they can swim faster...hairs slow the body movement through the water, underwater friction so to speak. It only takes off about 0.001 seconds on your time, but in swimming, that's what its about, that half a second does make a difference.

Answer 11

All that hair soaks up water and makes them heavy. Also, it clogs up the filters when it falls off. (Ever looked in your bathtub drain?) No, really, it's probably the friction thing.