The purpose of this study was to characterize the velocity curves corresponding to 30 sec maximal front crawl swimming, and to establish eventual relationships with metabolic path-ways related to the anaerobic energy production. 72 swimmers of different maturational Status were studied. The mathematical procedures for data treatment, including a continuous wavelet analysis, are described. Results revealed a tendency to an inverse relationship between the number of fatigue thresh-olds found on the velocity curves and the maturational Status. The large number of the velocity curves studied presented two fatigue thresholds. The first threshold was found between 8 and 12 sec. This time interval well fits the alactic-lactic threshold enounced in the literature and leads us to speculate about the possibility of using the velocity curves to assess individual alactic-lactic thresholds in order to better plan and control anaerobic swimming training.
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