Turn Fast and Win: The Importance of Acyclic Phases in Top-Elite Female Swimmers.

Dennis-Peter Born,Joris Kuger,Marek Polach,Michael Romann

doi:10.3390/sports9090122

Dennis-Peter Born, Joris Kuger + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/sports9090122

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Abstract

The aim of the study was to investigate the effect of start and turn performances on race times in top-elite female swimmers and provide benchmarks for all performance levels, all swimming strokes, and all race distances of the European Short-Course Championships (EC). The individual races (n = 798) of all female competitors (age: 20.6 ± 3.9 years, FINA points: 792 ± 78) were video-monitored for subsequent analysis of start and turn performances. Benchmarks were established across all competitors of each event based on the 10th, 25th, 50th, 75th, and 90th percentiles. Start and turn performances contributed up to 27.43% and 56.37% to total race time, respectively. Mechanistic analysis revealed that the fastest swimmers had the lowest contribution of the acyclic phases to race time. Therefore, relative to their faster race times, these swimmers were even faster during starts and turns. Multiple linear regression analysis showed large effects of turn performance on 50, 100, 200, 400, and 800 m race times (β = 0.616, 0.813, 0.988, 1.004, and 1.011, respectively), while the effect of start performance continuously decreased the longer the race distance. As turn performance may be the distinguishing factor in modern short-course races, benchmarks should be used to set goals and establish training guidelines depending on the targeted race time.

Highlights

IntroductionRecent race results show the diminishing performance gap between top-elite swimmers
From 10th to 90th percentile, race times became progressively slower, but the contribution of acyclic phases, i.e., start and turn times, increased. This was the case for all swimming strokes and race distances
The present study provides benchmarks and normative data for start and turn performance with corresponding split times for all performance levels (10th, 25th, 50th, 75th, and 90th percentiles) across the female competitors of the European Short-Course Championships

Summary

Introduction

Recent race results show the diminishing performance gap between top-elite swimmers. Only a 10th of a second separated the gold and silver medalists in the women’s 50 m freestyle final at the recent 2019 European short-course championships [1]. In search for marginal gains, sophisticated laboratory analyses have investigated kinematic and kinetic mechanisms contributing to swim races [2,3], whereas real race scenarios are used to derive benchmarks and normative data [4,5,6]. At international swimming competitions, key performance indicators can be derived from top-elite swimmers in highly standardised conditions. Environmental factors hardly affect the swimmer’s performance, as water temperature is regulated to 25–28 ◦ C, in-pool current is not allowed to exceed 1.25 m per minute, and pool length cannot vary by more than +0.010 m [7]

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