The aim of this study was to examine the adaptability of the limbs movements and arm-leg coordination pattern in expert breaststroke swimmers when a drag perturbation is artificially applied. Six competitive swimmers performed an intermittent flume test composed of three randomised stages (60, 70, 80% of their maximal speed). Each stage consists of swimming 15 cycles at the given speed, then the swimmer was towed with a cable 1m backward from his initial place. Immediately after, the swimmer had to return as fast as possible to his initial place, before continuing to swim for 15 further cycles. Four inertial measurement units assessed elbow and knee angles, in order to calculate elbow-knee relative phase. The results suggest that there was a similar effect of the perturbation on the task-goal outcome and the behaviour outcome as the swimmer took similar number of cycle to recover the 1m and initial coordination pattern. However, large inter-individual variability was observed at 80% of maximal speed supporting that high active drag led to individual adaptation strategies.
© Copyright 2014 XIIth International Symposium for Biomechanics and Medicine in Swimming. Published by Australian Institute of Sport. All rights reserved.