| Abstrakt: |
Trained breaststroke swimmers (females, n=10; males, n=7) participated in this investigation to examine the relationship between swimming power, intracyclic linear body velocity fluctuations and sprint breaststroke performance. A velocityvideo system was employed during a sprint breaststroke performance (22.86m) to measure (1) peak kick (PK) and arm pull (PA) linear body velocity, and (2) minimum linear body velocity prior to the arm pull (MVA) and kick propulsive phase (MVK). An isokinetic Cybex dynamometer was adapted to measure swimming power during a partially tethered breaststroke sprint effort. The correlation between swim power and breaststroke sprinting velocity was 0.64 (p=.l 1) and 0.87 (p<0.05) for males and females, respectively. The correlation between swimming power and breaststroke performance for 91.4m and 365.8m was 0.91 and 0.86, respectively (p<0.05). The male swimmers were more powerful and faster than the female swimmers (p<0.05), and covered a greater distance per stroke cycle during the sprint performance, 1.56±0.17 vs. 1.34±0.16 m.stk-1 (p<0.05), respectively. The male swimmers also obtained a greater *PK, *MVA and *PA (*p<0.05), while no difference was found for MVK. The correlation between PK, PA, MVA and breaststroke sprint velocity was 0.74*, 0.91* and 0.80*, respectively (*p<0.05). This study illustrated that the ability to effectively generate power during a partially tethered sprint was an important predictor of both sprint and endurance breaststroke performance. In addition, the better breaststroke sprinters were characterized by their ability to obtain a higher peak linear body velocity during the arm pull and kick propulsive phases. Minimizing the drop in linear velocity before the propulsive phase of the arm pull was a common characteristic among the more successful breaststroke swimmers. This suggests a better streamlined body position and/or timing between the completion of the kick and start of the propulsive phase of the arm pull. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
