The Backstroke Swimming Start: State of the Art

• Authors: Karla de Jesus , Kelly de Jesus , Ricardo J. Fernandes , João Paulo Vilas-Boas , Ross Sanders
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

As sprint swimming events can be decided by margins as small as .01 s, thus, an effective start is essential. This study reviews and discusses the ‘state of the art’ literature regarding backstroke start biomechanics from 23 documents. These included two swimming specific publications, eight peer-reviewed journal articles, three from the Biomechanics and Medicine in Swimming Congress series, eight from the International Society of Biomechanics in Sports Conference Proceedings, one from a Biomechanics Congress and one academic (PhD) thesis. The studies had diverse aims, including swimmers’ proficiency levels and data collection settings. There was no single consensus for defining phase descriptions; and kinematics, kinetics and EMG approaches were implemented in laboratory settings. However, researchers face great challenges in improving methods of quantifying valid, reliable and accurate data between laboratory and competition conditions. For example, starting time was defined from the starting signal to distances as disparate as ~5 m to 22.86 m in several studies. Due to recent rule changes, some of the research outcomes now refer to obsolete backstroke start techniques, and only a few studies considered the actual international rules. This literature review indicated that further research is required, in both laboratory and competition settings focusing on the combined influences of the current rules and block configuration on backstroke starting performances

Keywords

EN

Biomechanics; dorsal starts; starting technique; starting variant; literature review

• Publisher: De Gruyter Open
• Journal: Journal of Human Kinetics
• Year: 2014
• Volume: 42
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 27-40

Dates

published

1 - 10 - 2014

online

10 - 10 - 2014

Contributors

author

Karla de Jesus

• Centre of Research, Education, Innovation and Intervention in Sport, Faculty of Sport, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal.

author

Kelly de Jesus

• Centre of Research, Education, Innovation and Intervention in Sport, Faculty of Sport, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal.

author

Ricardo J. Fernandes

• Centre of Research, Education, Innovation and Intervention in Sport, Faculty of Sport, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal / Porto Biomechanics Laboratory, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal.

author

João Paulo Vilas-Boas

• Centre of Research, Education, Innovation and Intervention in Sport, Faculty of Sport, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal / Porto Biomechanics Laboratory, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal.

author

Ross Sanders

• Centre for Aquatics Research and Education, Institute for Sport, Physical Education, and Health Sciences, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK / Exercise and Sport Science, Faculty of Health Sciences, The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia.

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Identifiers

DOI

10.2478/hukin-2014-0058