This communication examines the feasibility of assessing the inter-arm coordination of individual swimmers to determine the optimal adaptation. Two highly-trained swimmers of different skill levels (95.3% vs. 87.9% of the world record for speed in 100-m freestyle swimming) swam at eight paces corresponding to the speeds adopted during competitive events (from V3000-m to maximal speed on 25-m). The Index of Coordination (IdC) was calculated for each swim pace. A velocity device was used to calculate the intra-cyclic speed variability (IVV). The results showed that the better swimmer was characterized by higher IdC at all swim paces. Moreover, the IVV of this swimmer did not significantly vary across swim paces, whereas it increased in the less skilled swimmer. It thus seems that IVV stability could be an interesting criterion to assess the optimal adaptation of coordination with swim pace increase.
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