Body composition and anthropometrics of young male swimmers in relation to the tethered swimming and kinematics of 100-m front crawl race

BACKGROUND: The aim was to analyze the relationship of body mass and predicted muscle mass of body segments on swimming kinemat-ics and tethered swimming indices, and further assess the influence of those indices on 100-m front crawl performance of adolescent male swimmers.METHODS: In 19 volunteer swimmers (age: 13.5 +/- 0.44 years, height: 168.6 +/- 7.77 cm, body mass: 56.9 +/- 10.57 kg), the predicted muscle mass of body segments was assessed with bioelectrical impedance analysis. The kinematic indices of swimming (stroke rate -SR, stroke length -SL, and stroke index -SI) were calculated from a video recording of a 100-m front crawl race. The strength indices (maximum and average value of force, average impulse per single cycle, force decline) were collected in a 30-second front crawl tethered swimming test.RESULTS: The average tethered swimming force was positively correlated with surface swimming speed (0.505; P<0.05). Indices of SL, SI were influenced by average impulse per single cycle (0.58, 0.55; P<0.05), and further the SI was strongly correlated with most specified speed indices of the 100-m race (0.59; P<0.05).CONCLUSIONS: It can be stated that the ability of force development in a single stroke, owing to strong interrelation with SI, is a good predic-tor in talent identification among young swimmers.