Kunitson, V., Port, K., & Pedak, K. (2015). Relationship between isokinetic muscle strength and 100 meters finswimming time. J. Hum. Sport Exerc., 9(Proc1), pp.S482-S489. Finswimming is a sport where athlete uses one big monofin to produce propulsion. The purpose of this study was to describe relationship between isokinetic strength of different muscle groups and 100 meters finswimming time. Study questions was: what muscle groups have relationship with finswimming time. Methods: 17 international level monfin swimmers, 9 male (age 16,9 ±1,8 yrs., height 180,0 ± 10.0 cm., weight 76.0±6.9 kg) and 8 female finswimmers ( age 17,6 ±4,7 yrs., height 170,0 ± 10.0 cm., weight 68,6 ± 13,5 kg) performed 100 meters monofin surface swim and where also tested within a two days on isokinetic dynamometer (knee, hip and trunk extensors and flexors at angular speeds of 60°/sec ). Force data at angles from 0-90 degrees with 10 degree step were used for correlation. Results: There was a strong correlation (p<0.05) between swimming time and knee extensors (r=-0.82 at angle 50°), hip flexors (r=-0.70 at angle 10°) and trunk flexors (r =-0.77 at angle 20°) in male swimmers. Surprisingly, we did not find corresponding correlations among female finswimmers. Conclusion: Current study found relationship between strength of main muscle groups and swimming speed only in male swimmers. It is expected that strength plays a role in swimming time, but the lack of relationship in female swimmers suggests at the need to introduce a measure of swimming effectiveness instead of pure resultant time. The proposed hypothesis is further supported by the high level of competence among study participants (incl. multiple European champion, and several finalists).

Finswimming is a sport where the athlete uses one big monofin to produce the propulsion. The purpose of this study was to describe the parameters of the swimming technique among elite class finswimmers. Methods: 18 elite level monofin swimmers, 10 male (age 25.3 ±5,2 height 182,3 ± 10.9 cm., weight 88.1±4.6 kg) and 8 female finswimmers ( age 24,5 ±3,7 yrs., height 171,1 ± 10.4 cm., weight 63,9 ± 5,1 kg) performed a 15 meter monofin surface swim at full speed. Swimming was registered with a stationary GoPro Silver 3+ underwater video camera at 60 frames/second. Recordings were carried out during the 2015 Finswimming World Championship in Yantai, China and 2016 Finswimming World Championships Volos, Greece. Collected video material was analysed with Race analyser program (Estonia). Results: The average speed of male swimmers was 3.07 ± 0.21 m/s and the stroke rate 130.9 ± 15.28 kick/min. Pitching of the hands was 18±3.86 cm, amplitude of the hip movement was 20.6±8.77 cm while the movement of the ankle was 43.6 ±9,72 cm. Knee bending angle during a kick was 124.7 ±5,41 deg, hip angle at the same time was 169±5.94 deg and angle of the hip at the end of a down beat was 148.6 ±7.95 deg. Female finswimmers had an average speed of 2,68 ±0.09 m/s and a stroke rate of 118,4 ±11.3 kick/min. Pitching of the hands was 15.3 ±6.3 cm, amplitude of hip movements was 16.38 ± 4.28 cm, ankle movement was 42.38±8,16 cm. Knee bending angle during a down beat was 121,5±8,12 deg and a hip angle at the same time was 167.25±6.48 deg. Angle of the hip at the end of a down beat was 148,86±8.82 deg. Conclusion: Current study found that elite men and women sprinter finswimmers can be typified according to characteristic swimming technique parameters in two classes: "fast" sprinters utilising speed of movements (S1) and "strong" sprinters with preference toward strength (S2). Further analysis is needed for confirmation.