Abstract
The aim of this study was to assess the: (i) gender; (ii) performance and; (iii) gender versus performance interactions in young swimmers’ anthropometric, kinematic and energetic variables. One hundred and thirty six young swimmers (62 boys: 12.76 ± 0.72 years old at Tanner stages 1–2 by self-evaluation; and 64 girls: 11.89 ± 0.93 years old at Tanner stages 1–2 by self-evaluation) were evaluated. Performance, anthropometrics, kinematics and energetic variables were selected. There was a non-significant gender effect on performance, body mass, height, arm span, trunk transverse surface area, stroke length, speed fluctuation, swimming velocity, propulsive efficiency, stroke index and critical velocity. A significant gender effect was found for foot surface area, hand surface area and stroke frequency. A significant sports level effect was verified for all variables, except for stroke frequency, speed fluctuation and propulsive efficiency. Overall, swimmers in quartile 1 (the ones with highest sports level) had higher anthropometric dimensions, better stroke mechanics and energetics. These traits decrease consistently throughout following quartiles up to the fourth one (i.e. swimmers with the lowest sports level). There was a non-significant interaction between gender and sports level for all variables. Our main conclusions were as follows: (i) there are non-significant differences in performance, anthropometrics, kinematics and energetics between boys and girls; (ii) swimmers with best performance are taller, have higher surface areas and better stroke mechanics; (iii) there are non-significant interactions between sports level and gender for anthropometrics, kinematics and energetics.
Highlights
Technical training (Barbosa et al, 2010a) and endurance training (Marinho et al, 2009) are two major determinants of young swimmers’ performance
Young swimmers’ training and competition should be monitored on a regular basis in order to design appropriate training sets and enhance performance (Marinho et al, 2011) as currently occurs in adult/elite counterparts (Komar et al, 2012). It seems that anthropometrics are highly related with young swimmers’ performance
Stroke index (SI) was the variable having the highest association with performance
Summary
Technical training (Barbosa et al, 2010a) and endurance training (Marinho et al, 2009) are two major determinants of young swimmers’ performance. Young swimmers’ training and competition should be monitored on a regular basis in order to design appropriate training sets and enhance performance (Marinho et al, 2011) as currently occurs in adult/elite counterparts (Komar et al, 2012). It seems that anthropometrics are highly related with young swimmers’ performance. 5 – Research Centre in Sports, Health and Human Development, Vila Real, Portugal. Authors submitted their contribution of the article to the editorial board. Accepted for printing in Journal of Human Kinetics vol 39/2013 on December 2013
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