Functional Role of Movement and Performance Variability: Adaptation of Front Crawl Swimmers to Competitive Swimming Constraints

Abstract

To study the variability in stroking parameters between and within laps and individuals during competitions, we compared and modeled the changes of speed, stroke rate, and stroke length in 32 top-level male and female swimmers over 4 laps (L1-L4) in 200-m freestyle events using video-derived 2-dimensional direct linear transformation. For the whole group, speed was greater in L1, with significant decreases across L2, L3, and L4 (1.80 ± 0.10 vs 1.73 ± 0.08; 1.69 ± 0.09; 1.66 ± 0.09 · s, P < .05). This variability was attributed to a decrease in stroke length (L2: 2.43 ± 0.19 vs L4: 2.20 ± 0.13 m, P < .05) and an increase in stroke rate (L2: 42.8 ± 2.6 vs L4: 45.4 ± 2.3 stroke · min, P < .05). The coefficient of variation and the biological coefficient of variation in speed were greater for male versus female (3.9 ± 0.7 vs 3.1 ± 0.7; 2.9 ± 1.0 vs 2.6 ± 0.7, P < .05) and higher in L1 versus L2 (3.9 ± 1.3 vs 3.1 ± 0.1; 2.9 ± 0.9 vs 2.3 ± 0.7, P < .05). Intra-lap speed values were best represented by a cubic (n = 38), then linear (n = 37) and quadratic model (n = 8). The cubic fit was more frequent for males (43.8%) than females (15.6%), suggesting greater capacity to generate higher acceleration after the turn. The various stroking parameters managements within lap suggest that each swimmer adapts his/her behavior to the race constraints.

Stability analysis and prediction of pacing in elite 1500 m freestyle male swimmers

“…Therefore, based in such differences it should be suggested that these two concepts should not be analysed as one. At least for 200 m races this rational is reinforced by the studies of Simbaña-Escobar et al (2018a) and Simbaña-Escobar et al (2018b). These authors showed that besides an inter-lap variation, an intra-lap variation also occurs.…”

Influence of stroke rate on coordination and sprint performance in elite male and female swimmers

“…For the difference between preferred (SR P ) and maximal (SR M ) stroke rates, seven of the sixteen swimmers for whom the regression models between S and SR were significant ( Figure 5) had close SR P and SR M values (difference < 3 cycle/min) (S2F, S2M, S3M, S4M, S5M, S7M, and S9M), whereas the nine others exhibited a difference ≥3 cycle/min between SR P and SR M (S3F, S5F, S7F, S8F, S1M, S6M, S8M, S10M, and S11M) ( Table 2). This difference of 3 cycle/min corresponds to the 5% SR variation regularly observed within and between laps when cycle-to-cycle analyses were performed during 100and 200-m front crawl events in international competition, (see Hellard et al 8 and Simbaña-Escobar et al 10,11 ).…”

“…9 Training swimmers to broaden their range of stroke rates and/or their range of coordination modes is nevertheless not a common concern or strategy for coaches, as they often try to stabilize a given number of strokes or a targeted time that swimmers should maintain through the lap or race. However, various stroke rates and their management have been observed within and between laps during competition 10,11 and between swimmers, 12 suggesting that several profiles of stroke rate management could lead to high swimming performances.…”

Assessment of the inter-lap stability and relationship between the race time and start, clean swim, turn and finish variables in elite male junior swimmers’ 200 m freestyle

“…Thus, the 200 m event can cater the interest of either sprinters or middle-distance swimmers. In elite swimming, it was shown that swimmers racing in these events presented a low stability, i.e., significant variance between laps (Simbaña-Escobar et al, 2018). Nonetheless, to the best of our knowledge there are no studies on elite junior counterparts racing the 200 m distance, or any other distances.…”

“…Literature reports several studies on race analysis of elite swimmers at major competitions (Morais et al, 2020;Simbaña-Escobar et al, 2018). There are studies focused on specific phases of the race such as the start (Burkett et al, 2010;Peterson Silveira et al, 2018), the swim pace (Arellano, Brown, Cappaert & Nelson, 1994;Simbaña-Escobar et al, 2018), turns (Mason et al, 2015;Veiga & Roig, 2016), and finish (Marinho et al, 2020;Suito et al, 2015), or in the combination of some of these phases (Marinho et al, 2020;Morais et al, 2019).…”