Assessment of key factors involved in the swimming start technique: a pilot study with secondary education students

Abstract

The physical education curriculum at secondary level is broad and flexible, facilitating the inclusion of sports content such as swimming, especially in schools having their own sports club. In addition to the teaching of technical elements, an evaluation may be included to provide teachers with reliable information on the achievement of objectives. The effective execution of the starting technique can be fundamental to the event performance; therefore, the aim of this study was to know and understand the influence of lower body extensor strength, ischiosural extensibility and starting angle on the swim start in young student-swimmers. Nineteen participants (15.95 ± 2.7 years) performed three starts using the Track Start technique (TS). Forward leg knee angle, lower body strength measured through various jump tests, and ischiosural extensibility using the straight leg raise test (SLR) were assessed in this study. The results showed that there was no correlation between the front leg knee angle and starting performance (T15), as well as between the swimming start variables and ischiosural extensibility. All three jumping tests showed high correlations with T15 (p = .000). The results suggest that the degree of swimmers’ ischiosural extensibility is not a limiting factor in the swim start outcome. The SJ and especially the SLJ tests, due to their technical similarity, are suitable for assessing lower body extensor strength in young swimmers, as well as to predict the outcome at T15.