ORIGINAL PAPER
The hierarchical organization of arm stroke in a 400-m freestyle swimming race
1
School of Physical Education and Sport, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
2
Faculty of Physical Education, Metropolitan University of Santos, Santos, Brazil
Submission date: 2019-10-18
Acceptance date: 2020-05-22
Publication date: 2021-05-24
Hum Mov. 2021;22(4):1-9
KEYWORDS
TOPICS
ABSTRACT
Purpose:
Arm stroke is a key variable of successful performance in front crawl swimming. In the present study, the effects of the arm stroke on the front crawl swimming performance were analysed by considering the complementarity of macroconsistency and micro-variability in the arm stroke as a hierarchically organized adaptive system. In this case, consistency is necessary to achieve outcomes reliably, and variability is fundamental for coping with environmental instability.
Methods:
Displacements of swimmers (n = 31) who competed in the 400-m freestyle race of the Paulista Master Championship were captured in 4 moments (partial races 1–4). From the aerial and aquatic phases of the left and right arm strokes, macrostructure (components’ relative timing) and microstructure (components’ overall time) had their variability rates calculated for all partial races on the basis of the biological coefficients of variation.
Results:
It was revealed that swimmers: (i) increased consistency of macrostructure related to the left arm aerial phase stroke in the final race; (ii) maintained consistency of microstructure across races; and (iii) presented macrostructure with inferior rate of variability to the microstructure in the final race.
Conclusions:
Given these results, coaches should emphasize instruction for swimmers to maintain the temporal relationship among arm stroke components (macrostructure) rather than focus on the components themselves (microstructure).
Arm stroke is a key variable of successful performance in front crawl swimming. In the present study, the effects of the arm stroke on the front crawl swimming performance were analysed by considering the complementarity of macroconsistency and micro-variability in the arm stroke as a hierarchically organized adaptive system. In this case, consistency is necessary to achieve outcomes reliably, and variability is fundamental for coping with environmental instability.
Methods:
Displacements of swimmers (n = 31) who competed in the 400-m freestyle race of the Paulista Master Championship were captured in 4 moments (partial races 1–4). From the aerial and aquatic phases of the left and right arm strokes, macrostructure (components’ relative timing) and microstructure (components’ overall time) had their variability rates calculated for all partial races on the basis of the biological coefficients of variation.
Results:
It was revealed that swimmers: (i) increased consistency of macrostructure related to the left arm aerial phase stroke in the final race; (ii) maintained consistency of microstructure across races; and (iii) presented macrostructure with inferior rate of variability to the microstructure in the final race.
Conclusions:
Given these results, coaches should emphasize instruction for swimmers to maintain the temporal relationship among arm stroke components (macrostructure) rather than focus on the components themselves (microstructure).
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