Effect of different protocol step lengths on swim efficiency and arm coordination in front crawl swimmers

Biography

Kelly de Jesus is a PhD student at Faculty of Sport, University of Porto, Portugal. The work that will be presented is a part of her PhD project, which the theme is related to a biomechanical and bioenergetical characterisation during different incremental protocol step lengths.

Synopsis

In competitive swimming, the evaluation of physiological and biomechanical parameters has been made through protocol step lengths selected from a range from 200 to 400 m (~ 3–7 min or less). However, the duration of the protocol steps is still a controversial issue, since some authors require steps of at least 4 min duration to accurately determine a given variable (Bentley et al. 2007). Fernandes et al. (2011, 2012) showed that shorter step lengths (i.e. 200 m or ≤ 3 min) are valid to assess physiological parameters (e.g. blood lactate concentrations and maximal oxygen uptake), but it remains questionable if shorter step lengths affects swimmers’ biomechanics. It was aimed to compare incremental protocols with different step lengths to observe eventual changes in technique related parameters.