Key parameters of the swimming start and their relationship to start performance

Abstract

The swimming start is typically broken into three sub-phases; on-block, flight, and underwater phases. While overall start performance is highly important to elite swimming, the contribution of each phase and important technical components within each phase, particularly with the new kick-start technique, has not been established. The aim of this study was to identify technical factors associated with overall start performance, with a particular focus on the underwater phase. A number of parameters were calculated from 52 starts performed by elite freestyle and butterfly swimmers. These parameters were split into above-water and underwater groupings, before factor analysis was used to reduce parameter numbers for multiple regression. For the above-water phases, 81% of variance in start performance was accounted for by take-off horizontal velocity. For the underwater water phase, 96% of variance was accounted for with time underwater in descent, time underwater in ascent and time to 10 m. Therefore, developing greater take-off horizontal velocity and focussing on the underwater phase by finding the ideal trajectory will lead to improved start performance.

Start and turn performances of elite sprinters at the 2016 European Championships in swimming

“…Studies reported differences in the passive drag gliding in the two different positions noted earlier (Marinho et al, 2009;Vilas-Boas et al, 2010). Because the Breaststroke start is restricted to one single underwater stroke, swimmers do try to optimise their underwater distance breakout by decreasing the passive drag (Marinho et al, 2009;Naemi, Easson, & Sanders, 2010;Vilas-Boas et al, 2010) and/or enhancing the water entry (Tor et al, 2015). Overall, in the starting parameters, a significant stroke effect was observed, mostly between Backstroke and the remaining swimming strokes.…”

“…Hence, the start and the turn combined account to a total of 31-32% of the time (i.e., nearly one third of a 100-m race time). Studies reported the parameters that swimmers should consider to enhance their on-block (Fischer & Kibele, 2016;Tor et al, 2015;Vantorre et al, 2010) and in-water back start (de Jesus et al, 2013;Takeda, Itoi, Takagi, & Tsubakimoto, 2014). The time at the 15-m mark (main outcome) depends significantly from the takeoff velocity, entry angle, underwater time and distance (Fischer & Kibele, 2016;Vantorre, Chollet, & Seifert, 2014).…”

“…Studies have pointed out the key-determinants of the start (Arellano, García, Gavilán, & Pardillo, 1996;Blanksby, Nicholson, & Elliott, 2002;Tor, Pease, & Ball, 2015;Vantorre et al, 2010) and turn (Lyttle, Blanksby, Elliott, & Lloyd, 1999;. The split time at the 15-m mark is significantly associated to the start performance ).…”

“…Only few studies can be found in the literature, assessing the start (e.g., Arellano et al, 1994;Veiga & Roig, 2017), and the turn (e.g., Arellano et al, 1994;. Besides that, only few provide information about what happens in intermediate stages of the total start and turn (as the underwater time and distance) (e.g., Tor et al, 2015;. This information might be important in understanding how swimmers can improve their total start and turn time.…”

“…This information might be important in understanding how swimmers can improve their total start and turn time. Moreover, there have been only a few studies reporting the contribution of the start and turn performances to the final race time (e.g., Arellano et al, 1994;Tor et al, 2015). In this sense, there is an increasing interest in understanding how starts and turns can help enhancing the performance, and how these moments can affect the overall race strategy (e.g., Tor et al, 2015;Veiga & Roig, 2017).…”