Stability of pace and turn parameters of elite long-distance swimmers

Abstract

A B S T R A C TThis study aimed to assess the stability of the performance, pace and turn parameters of elite long-distance male swimmers during an 800 m freestyle race. The sample was composed by 38 male swimmers, participating in the 800 m event at the 2016 LEN European Aquatic Championships (long course meter). The performance, and a set of pace and turn parameters were analyzed. A customized software was used to perform each race analysis. Swimmers spent 64.05 ± 0.50% and 35.95 ± 0.49% of the final race time in the clean swim and turns, respectively. In the pace parameters, the clean swim was the only one that did not differ between the first and second half of the race (1.63 ± 0.05 vs 1.62 ± 0.05 m·s −1 ), and in the turn parameters, the water break distance was also similar (5.13 ± 1.17 vs 5.06 ± 0.98 m). A significant and moderate-strong variation was verified for the performance (total race lap effect: p < 0.001, η 2 = 0.62), and a significant and moderate variation for the pace parameters (total race: p < 0.001, 0.15 ≤ η 2 ≤ 0.33), and for the turn parameters (total race: p < 0.01, 0.15 ≤ η 2 ≤ 0.33). Present data (pace and turn variation) shows that elite long-distance male swimmers do not maintain a similar pattern during an 800 m freestyle race. Future research is need to understand if this lack of pace and turn stability is the best way to enhance the performance, or if swimmers should be advised to control their pace and turn. Nevertheless, coaches are advised to help swimmers with feedback about their pace (i.e., controlling the intermediate 30 m) and turn performances (i.e., controlling the 5 m in and 15 m out), leading to a positive effect in their final race time.

Stability analysis and prediction of pacing in elite 1500 m freestyle male swimmers

“…Studies can be found in the literature about pacing in 800 m freestyle events (Lipinska et al, 2016a;Morais et al, 2019a), and 1500 m freestyle events (Lipinska et al, 2016b;Lipinska & Erdmann, 2009;Oliveira et al, 2019). Overall, they showed that parabolic pacing is generally used in freestyle events of 800 m and 1500 m, with the highest swimming speed at the beginning and end of the race.…”

“…In swimming, there are studies that video-analysed the swimmers' performances in major events such as the Olympic Games (e.g., Arellano et al, 2001;Hellard et al, 2008), World Championships (e.g., Simbaña-Escobar et al, 2018a;Veiga & Roig, 2016), and European Championships (e.g., Morais et al, 2019a). In a swimming race the performance includes the start, clean swim, turn(s), and finish (Hay & Guimaraes, 1983).…”

“…For instance, in all swimming races the first lap is conditioned by the start (Morais et al, 2019a). Therefore, the first lap should be analysed with some caution because the corresponding lap time will be positively affected by the start, and not only by the swimmer's clean swim performance (Lipinska et al, 2016b).…”

“…The clean swim performance is considered as the swim speed that is not influenced by the turn (i.e., swim speed/time achieved in the intermediate length of the swimming pool without the advantage of the wall push-off) (Hay & Guimaraes, 1983). The turn is assumed as the sum of the last 5 m of the previous lap, and the first 15 m of the current lap (Morais et al, 2019a). Indeed, it was indicated that slight improvements in turn's performances affect final performance (Mason & Portus, 2005).…”

“…This indicates if swimmers significantly change (i.e., intra-swimmer variation) their performance or other variables over the race distance (i.e., laps). To the best of our knowledge only one study reported this kind of data in elite longdistance swimmers, but for the 800 m event (Morais et al, 2019a). It was highlighted that despite being an endurance race, that is characterised by the ability of maintaining a inherent movement or pattern, the swimmers presented a low stability (i.e., significant variaiton) of the stroke mechanics variables (Morais et al, 2019a).…”