FRACTAL DIMENSION AND HUMAN AQUATIC LOCOMOTION
Keywords:
swimming, nonlinear parameters, Higuchi's method, speed fluctuationAbstract
The aim was to investigate the fractal properties of human swimming and analyze its relationship with swimming kinematics. Eighty-two male swimmers from the local level up to World-ranked athletes undertook a set of 3x25m maximal trials at Front-Crawl. Fractal dimension (D) was calculated from the speed-time series collected with a speedo-meter. It was also calculated the speed fluctuation as an energy cost estimator. Human swimming showed fractal properties (1?D?2). The relationship between D and dv was very high analyzed in absolute values (R2=0.88; s=0.18; p<0.001) and Z-scores (R2=0.88; s=0.34; p<0.001). It can be concluded that human swimming shows fractal characteristics, though with lower values than gait. Energy cost of swimming increases with the complexity of the swimming patterns.Downloads
Published
2016-05-05
Issue
Section
Coaching and Sports Activities