The Relationship Between Front Crawl Swimming Performance And Swimming Technique In Young Swimmers

Swimming performance is affected by several factors including swimming technique. The swimmer's technical proficiency comprises hydrodynamic variables such as hydrodynamic drag force and propelling force components. PURPOSE: To analyse in young swimmers the relationship between front crawl performance and hydrodynamic variables during leg kicking. METHODS: 36 young swimmers (16 females and 20 males) participated in this study. Their mean (standard deviation) age, body mass, height and best swimming performance in 200 m front crawl was 10.03 (0.66) years, 43.18 (8.28) kg, 1.51 (0.10) m and, 153.19 (12.57) s, respectively. All swimmers belonged to the same swimming club and were trained by the same coach for two years. Active drag during leg kicking was conducted in a 25 m swimming pool. The velocity perturbation method was used to determine active drag in front crawl kicking and in-water starts were used. The subject's performance in 200 m short course front crawl kicking was also assessed. The performance in 200 m short course front crawl event was related to active drag data (drag force, drag coefficient and power output values) and to the performance in the 200 m leg kicking using Pearson correlation coefficient. RESULTS: The 200 m performance was significantly correlated (p<0.01) with the performance in 200 m kicking (0.87), hydrodynamic drag force during leg kicking (-0.50) and with power output during kicking (-0.58). Drag coefficient values were not related to the performance in 200 m front crawl. CONCLUSIONS: In young swimmers the performance in 200 m front crawl seems to be dependent on leg kicking actions. Therefore, the swimmers who presented higher values of hydrodynamic drag force and power output during leg kicking also achieved better performances in 200 m front crawl. Moreover, the correlation between leg kicking performance and 200 m front crawl performance (r=0.87) reinforce the importance of leg kicking action to overall performance in front crawl swimming in these ages. These findings can suggest the important role of kicking actions tasks during training in young swimmers.