Differences in Race Characteristics between World-Class Individual-Medley and Stroke-Specialist Swimmers.

Gonjo, Tomohiro; Polach, Marek; Olstad, Björn Harald; Romann, Michael; Born, Dennis (2022). Differences in Race Characteristics between World-Class Individual-Medley and Stroke-Specialist Swimmers. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(20), p. 13578. MDPI 10.3390/ijerph192013578

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The purpose of the present study was to investigate differences between world-class individual medley (IM) swimmers and stroke-specialists using race analyses. A total of eighty 200 m races (8 finalists × 2 sexes × 5 events) at the 2021 European long-course swimming championships were analysed. Eight digital video cameras recorded the races, and the video footage was manually analysed to obtain underwater distance, underwater time, and underwater speed, as well as clean-swimming speed, stroke rate, and distance per stroke. Each lap of the IM races was compared with the first, second, third, and fourth laps of butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, and freestyle races, respectively. Differences between IM swimmers and specialists in each analysed variable were assessed using an independent-sample t-test, and the effects of sex and stroke on the differences were analysed using a two-way analysis of variance with relative values (IM swimmers' score relative to the mean specialists' score) as dependent variables. Breaststroke specialists showed faster clean-swimming speed and longer distance per stroke than IM swimmers for both males (clean-swimming speed: p = 0.011; distance per stroke: p = 0.023) and females (clean-swimming speed: p = 0.003; distance per stroke: p = 0.036). For backstroke and front crawl, specialists exhibited faster underwater speeds than IM swimmers (all p < 0.001). Females showed faster relative speeds during butterfly clean-swimming segments (p < 0.001) and breaststroke underwater segments than males (p = 0.028). IM swimmers should focus especially on breaststroke training, particularly aiming to improve their distance per stroke.

Item Type:	Journal Article (Original Article)
Division/Institute:	Swiss Federal Institute of Sports Magglingen SFISM > EHSM - Leistungssport > Trainingswissenschaft
Name:	Gonjo, Tomohiro; Polach, Marek; Olstad, Björn Harald; Romann, Michael0000-0003-4139-2955 and Born, Dennis0000-0002-1058-4367
ISSN:	1660-4601
Publisher:	MDPI
Language:	English
Submitter:	Sabina Wolfensberger
Date Deposited:	03 Jul 2023 15:29
Last Modified:	03 Jul 2023 15:29
Publisher DOI:	10.3390/ijerph192013578
Related URLs:	Publication
PubMed ID:	PMC9603436
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Race analysis Swimming Elite swimmers Performance analysis Trainingswissenschaft Sport
ARBOR DOI:	10.24451/arbor.19401
URI:	https://arbor.bfh.ch/id/eprint/19401