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Swimming constraints and arm coordination.

Ludovic Seifert1, Didier Chollet, Annie Rouard

  • 1University of Rouen, Faculty of Sport Sciences, CETAPS Laboratory EA 3832, Boulevard Siegfried, 76821 Mont Saint Aignan Cedex, France. ludovic.seifert@univ-rouen.fr

Human Movement Science
|November 28, 2006
PubMed
Summary

Swimmers adapt arm coordination based on race pace, with faster speeds triggering different coordination modes. Elite men use superposition at high speeds due to environmental resistance, while others maintain a gap.

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Area of Science:

  • Sports Science
  • Biomechanics
  • Human Movement

Background:

  • Understanding constraints on swimming performance is crucial for optimizing technique.
  • Newell's concept of constraint provides a framework for analyzing movement adaptations.
  • Front crawl arm coordination varies with swimming intensity.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To identify organismic, environmental, and task constraints on front crawl arm coordination.
  • To examine how arm coordination adapts to increasing race paces.
  • To quantify arm coordination modes (opposition, catch-up, superposition).

Main Methods:

  • Forty-two swimmers (elite/mid-level men, elite women) performed self-paced front crawl trials.
  • Video analysis quantified swim velocity, stroke rate, stroke length, and arm phases.
  • Index of Coordination (IdC) measured lag time between arm propulsions.

Main Results:

  • All groups showed a similar transition in arm coordination at the 200m pace.
  • Race pace and stroke rate were key predictors of IdC changes.
  • Elite men used superposition at high velocities (>1.8 m/s) due to environmental resistance.
  • Elite women and mid-level men maintained a time gap (catch-up) with increasing paces.

Conclusions:

  • Arm coordination in front crawl is influenced by task, environmental, and organismic constraints.
  • Race pace and stroke rate act as manipulable control parameters for coordination.
  • Catch-up coordination can be an adaptive response to constraints, not necessarily a mistake.