Longitudinal and confirmatory assessment of young swimmers’ performance and its determinant factors

Biography

Dr Tiago Barbosa received a PhD in Sport Sciences—Biomechanics and Physiology from the University of Porto, Portugal. Tiago is with a special leave from the Polytechnic Institute of Braganca (Portugal) where he holds an associate professor position, being at this moment a faculty staff at the Nanyang Technological University (Singapore). Besides that, he holds a part-time position as scientific consultant and sports analyst for the Portuguese Swimming Federation.

Synopsis

Young swimmers’ research is mostly based on cross-sectional and exploratory designs. Young swimmers’ biomechanics changes in a very meaningful way, due to growth and maturation though. Confirmatory research can be used to verify if a given theory occurs or not. However, once again most confirmatory models are based on cross-sectional designs. In this sense, longitudinal and confirmatory models analysing the magnitude of those changes, besides its contribution to performance, should be carry out. The aim of this research was to develop a longitudinal structural equation model for young swimmers’ performance and its determinants.