Arm stroke: a comparative analysis between competitive swimming and water polo athletes

Abstract

Water polo is a team sport and efforts of high intensity are made in less duration, where the players must swim, hyperextension, takes and send the ball with moments of rest or low intensity, where the players conduct battles against their opponents throughout contacts type (Smith, 1998; Wakayoshi, 1992). “Water polo consists of high intensity bursts of sprinting, interspersed with short periods of low to moderate intensity swimming”. (Hohmann & Frase, 1992). In this perspective, swimming condition is obviously an important aspect of training for Water Polo. In swimming, conditioning training assumes a consistent role to achieve the better goals (Raiola et al., 2011). The arm stroke used in water polo is a lot shorter and quicker and is used primarily to protect the ball. The aim of this study is to demonstrate that training for water polo athletes is most proficiency when the sport activity is played always by the athletes with the ball, as the ball-handling does not adversely affect the timing. The hypothesis is that the ball-handling does not affect significantly swimming times swim in water polo athletes of high level. The purpose of the present study is to verify the incidence of ball handling in swimming intensity in water polo, in order to obtain useful indication in coaching. The research method is integrated and consists of action research for coach contribution by training and evaluation, and theoretical-argumentative to deduce a framework in which define the data processing. Eleven well-trained competitive athletes were recruited and asked to swim 5 x 20-m, one time with ball, and one time without ball.