In competitive swimming-race events, athletes can obtain their highest horizontal velocity at the instant of take-off from a starting block. Therefore, a faster take-off velocity is an important technical factor, especially for sprint-event swimmers. This study aims to clarify the influences of initial whole-body configuration (i.e. setting position on the starting block) on the four-limb joint torques during a starting motion. Seven male swimmers were instructed to practise dive starts with three types of starting positions (i.e. anterior-inclination, neutral and posterior-inclination positions) with maximum effort. The three-dimensional coordinates of the markers on the body during starting motion were collected using a motion-capture system with 25 high-speed cameras. Reaction forces exerted by each foot and each hand on the block were measured using two force sensors and two force plates. The joint torques of the extremities were calculated by inverse dynamics using the coordinate data and the block-reaction forces. The rear-side lower limbs` joint torques affect the forward movement of the body in the case of setting a posterior inclination, whereas the front-side lower limbs` joint torques affect the forward movement when setting an anterior inclination. These results indicate that body posture affects certain joint torques.
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