How should the transition from underwater to surface swimming be performed by competitive swimmers?

Abstract

Despite the increasing importance of the underwater segment of start and turns in competition and its positive influence on the subsequent surface swimming, there is no evidence on how the transition from underwater to surface swimming should be performed. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to examine the role of segmental, kinematic and coordinative parameters on the swimming velocity during the pre‐transition and transition phases. A total of 30 national male swimmers performed 4 × 25 m (one each stroke) from a push start at maximum velocity while recorded from a lateral view by two sequential cameras (50 Hz), and their kinematic and coordinative swimming parameters were calculated by means of two‐dimensional direct linear transformation (DLT) algorithms. Unlike pre‐transition, backward regression analysis of transition significantly predicted swimming velocity in all strokes except breaststroke (R2 ranging from 0.263 in front crawl to 0.364 in butterfly). The inter‐limb coordination was a predictor in butterfly stroke (p = 0.006), whereas the body depth and inclination were predictors in the alternate strokes (front crawl (p = 0.05) and backstroke (p = 0.04)). These results suggest that the body position and coordinative swimming parameters (apart from kicking or stroking rate and length) have an important influence on the transition performance, which depends on the swimming strokes.