INFLUENCE OF AGE AND HAND GRIP STRENGTH ON FREESTYLE PERFORMANCES IN MASTER SWIMMERS

Abstract

The aim of our work was to examine whether age and hand grip strength are correlated with 50m, 100m, 200m, 400m, 800m swimming performance times in Master swimmers and how correlation varies considering short, middle or long distances. The main finding of this work was that hand grip strength and age correlated significantly at each distance. Hand grip strength showed a relevant influence on performance time and explained 52% of variance of performance time in 50m race freestyle and only 15% in 800m race. Increasing age was a disadvantageous factor for performance time, and explained 45% of variance of performance time in 800m race freestyle and only 20% in 50 m race.