The effects of six beat kick technique training on swimming speed for the 50 meters freestyle

Abstract

Freestyle is one of the main swimming styles taught to swimmers. It has various techniques from stroke and breathing to limbs moving and coordinating. The legs moving technique Six Beat Kick is one of the techniques that could make an athlete swims faster. A quasi eksperiment research with pre-test and post-test program is aimed to recognise the impacts Six Beat Kick technique training on swimming speed for the 50 meters freestyle. This research is carried out in G-Sport Center Swimming Club in Padang city. The sampling method uses purposive sampling with 20 participants. The data are collected from swimming speed test on 50 meters freestyle. Prior the training, a pre-test is conducted. Then, the athletes must follow the training program for 14 times of training. Lastly, a post-test is performed. In addition, an analysis condition testing and a research hypothesis testing use data normality test and t-test with significance level of α 0,05. From the analysis condition testing, it could be assessed that the data follow a normal distribution with Lcounted 0,108 < Ltable 0,190. The hypothesis testing has a significant impact on swimming speed for 50 meters freestyle acknowledged from tcounted 22,19 > ttable 1,73. It can be concluded that Six Beat Kick technique training program could improve the swimming speed of meters freestyle.