EVOLUTION OF THE BUTTERFLY COORDINATION IN RELATION TO VELOCITY AND SKILL LEVEL OF SWIMMERS

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to identify stroke phases and arm and leg coordination during butterfly swimming as a function of swim velocity and performance level. Twenty four swimmers constituted two groups based on performance level. All swam at three different velocities, corresponding to the appropriate paces for respectively the 400 m, 100 m and 50 m. The different stroke phases and the arm and leg coordination were identified by video analysis. The coordination was studied by the temporal gap analysis separating the changes of arm and leg movements. The most important results showed that expert swimmers are characterised by their capacity to control and adapt their coordination with an increase in velocity, contrary to non expert characterised by lag times into movement of arms to place their legs actions.