Professional Swim Coach Opinions regarding the Competitive Swim Start: A National Survey

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: In terms of assessing the risks of competitive racing starts in swimming, a necessary first step is to understand the perspectives and knowledge of swim instructors and coaches teaching the required skills to children. PURPOSE: The purpose of this project was to survey professional coaches regarding two related topics: 1) the skills required pSrior to teaching an athlete a competitive racing start, 2) the essential elements of a successful competitive racing start. METHODS: A coaches survey (CS) was developed in a three step process: 1st: An open-ended CS was created and given to local area swim coaches for interpretation. From the responses, modifications were made and it was then sent to 500 additional coaches. 2nd: Upon return of the open-ended CS, responses were reviewed, condensed into frequently repeated responses, categorized, and a shorter closed format of the CS was developed and reviewed by the local coaches. 3rd: The final version of the CS was then approved by the university's institutional review board, posted on the internet, and instructions to complete the survey were distributed via email to all USA Swimming registered coaches. RESULTS: The final survey resulted in 471 responses. In the coaches' opinions, there are no paradigms to assess whether or not a swimmer has the appropriate motor skills to complete a racing start safely and successfully. In addition, no consensus was reached regarding the characteristics that constitute an acceptable and safe racing start. When swimmers were hesitant to use the starting blocks, 63% of coaches encouraged them to perform a deck start. When asked if a checklist was used when teaching starts, 5% of coaches reported using a written checklist and 88 % a mental one. Of those that used a progression to teach racing starts, 65% used a personally designed progression and 15% used information provided by a professional organization (e.g., American Red Cross, YMCA). CONCLUSIONS: The information obtained from the CS suggests that teaching the racing start is an informal process. There appears to be little agreement among coaches regarding specific characteristics of the start. More importantly, the lack of use of an authoritative resource to aid in teaching racing starts to novice swimmers warrants further investigation with regard to the safety of this complex skill.