Bottoni A, Gianfelici A, Tamburri R, Faina M. Talent selection criteria for olympic distance triathlon. J. Hum. Sport Exerc. Vol. 6, No. 2, pp. 293-304, 2011. Talent Selection allows to optimize the resources available for sporting talent in order to design the best strategy to achieve top level sporting results. Because of the unknown aspects of the performance model in Olympic triathlon the TS variables and their relationship with a future performance are far-off from being identified in order to make a talent prospective study possible. Currently most triathlon federations evaluate only the juvenile performance expressed in time trials test on swimming and running. The aim of the present study was to find the most appropriate variables for the Talent Selection in Olympic Triathlon, verifying those widely used by means of a retrospective research about particular juvenile features recognized in top world triathlon athletes. The variables are considered as input variables of a Talent selection model based on Fuzzy Logic that overcome the limits of traditional models based on cut-off selection. The present findings indicate that the exclusive evaluation of juvenile running and swimming performance in order to select triathlon talent is not appropriate. Diagnosis criteria should include several other variables that should also take into account mental ability, speed of abilities development, utilization of endogenous and exogenous resources, load and stress tolerance as several leading countries have done recently.

Bottoni A, Lanotte N, Boatto P, Bifaretti S, Bonifazi M. Technical skill differences in stroke propulsion between high level athletes in triathlon and top level swimmers. J. Hum. Sport Exerc. Vol. 6, No. 2, pp. 351-362, 2011. In the latest decades the arm propulsion mechanism in human swimming has been an issue of great interest for researchers. The availability of new devices which can easily measure the stroke propulsion by means of a non invasive gauge allows the study of technical skills in real swimming, without artificial and distorting conditions like in a swimming flume or in tethered swimming. Performance in swimming is a crucial factor in another sport such as Olympic Triathlon, however we saw that the triathlon athletes presented shortfalls and differences with respect to expert swimmer, particularly in mean pressure and resultant momentum, but not maximum pressure. Each athlete showed a distinctive shape of the pressure curve, but triathletes present a greater variability in the pressure pattern than competitive swimmers, as is the case of novice vs. expert swimmers observed in previous studies. The possibility of pointing out some differences in stroke propulsion between top level swimmers and high level athletes in triathlon could give some useful indications for coaches in planning triathlon training.

No abstract

No abstract