ANAEROBIC POWER AND DEVELOPMENT OF FATIGUE IN FREESTYLE SPRINT SWIMMING

Abstract

INTRODUCTION -In literature there are conflicting views on the relationship between anaerobic swimming and dry-land power (CostiI1/1983; Höltke! 1992; Johnson!1993; Tanaka/1993). In 100 m -freestyle swimming the highest speed are reached at the beginning. The values vary between 95 and 100 % of individual maximum in the first and between 85 and 90 % in the last quarter. Differences in the final time are results of lower speed at beginning and! or of higher decrease in swim velocity during the race (Küehler!1993). This decrease of velocity is an expression of muscle fatigue. The results of competition analyses of top athletes correspond to results of dry-land power tests on' the biokinetic swim bench. METHODS -Members of the German national swim team were tested on the biokinetic swim bench. 22 athletes performed a test lasting one minute on level 5. The work per repetition was represented in percent of the personal maximum. Additionally for some athletes the 5 m -and 100 m freestyle sprint speed were analysed. The swimming speed in 100 m -sprint was expressed in percent from the maximum in 50 m -sprint. RESULTS -Summary shows table 1. Athletes a, c and E show similar intensities in swim race and dry-land test. Athlete 9 performed only low intensities at the beginning in both tests. This is not typical for sprinters. Decrease in intensity in dry-land power test characterises the level of anaerobic glycol tie metabolism. In this respect individual differences between top athletes were found. We observed variations in intensity at tests on the biokinetic swim bench during the year too. This is an expression of variations of metabolic muscle properties. Dryland testing on a swim bench can help the athlete to know more about metabolic properties of his "swim" muscles in the whole season. For a comparison of swimming and dry-land power it is necessary to use relative values in form of intensity of the maximum. REFERENCES -Costill, D. L, Douglas, S. K., Holdren, A. & Hargreaves, M. (1983). Sprint speed vs. swimming power. Swimming Technique, Val 20, 20-22. Höltke. V. (1992). Zur Effektivität von dynamischem Maximalkraft• und dynamischem Kraftausdauertraining bei Leistungsschwimmem der nationalen Spitzenklasse: ein Trainings experiment im Hochleistungssport. Erlen ee: SFT-Ver1ag. Johnson, R. E., Sharp, R. L. & Hedrick, C. E. (1993). Relatlonship of swimming power and dryland power to sprint freestyle performance: a multiple regression approach. J. Swimming Research, Val 0, 10-14 KOchler, J., L opold, H. & Leopold, W. (1993) Vergleichende Betrachtungen der Gestallun der Wettkämpfe der 50 m-und 100 mSchwimmdisziplinen der Besten der Olympischen Spiele 1992 und deutscher Spitzenschwimmer. IAT Leipzig. 28 S. Tanaka, H., Costill, D. L., Thomas, R., Fink, W. J. & Widrick, J J. (1993). Dry-land re• sistance training for competitive swimming. Med. Sei. Exer ., Vol. 25. No. 8, 952-959.