Start performance and its relation to competition times in Paralympic swimmers

• Christoph Clephas ^[2] ; Pro Stergiou ; Larry Katz ^[1]
  1. [1] University of Calgary

     University of Calgary

     Canadá

     
  2. [2] Christian-Albrechts-University Kiel
• Localización: Journal of Human Sport and Exercise: JHSE, ISSN-e 1988-5202, Vol. 14, Nº. 3, 2019, págs. 645-655
• Idioma: inglés
• Enlaces
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• Resumen

  • The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between the variability of the 100m freestyle final race time to start performance in a population of Paralympic swimmers using the coefficient of variation (CV). A secondary purpose of study was to investigate the correlation between start performance and competition results in this population of athletes. A total of 321 data points were collected on start performances and 231 data points were collected from competition results. It was found that there was a within-athlete CV in final times of 2.6% and a within-athlete CV in start performances of 18.2%. These two parameters were moderately correlated having an r2 of 0.57. The athletes improved their performances across five-consecutive seasons by 6.4%. In addition, it was found that a strong correlation existed between the 5m start time compared to the final race time in the 100m freestyle (r2=0.78). The results showed that the variability of start performance was moderately correlated to the variability of the final times and there was a strong correlation between start performance and competition results.