Turning techniques of elite swimmers

The purposes of this study were: (1) to determine selected kinematic characteristics of the turning techniques used by elite swimmers in the four competitive strokes; (2) to compare the results obtained for male and female swimmers, and for swimmers using the same stroke in races over different distances; (3) to determine the relationships between those characteristics and the race time and order of finishing in an event. The turning techniques employed by the finalists in 19 individual swimming events at the 1982 British Commonwealth Games (Brisbane), were recorded with the aid of two 16 mm motion-picture cameras. Four measures (the distance in, time in, distance out and time out) were taken directly from the films and three others (the average speed in, average speed out and total turn time) were derived from these four. Significant differences were found between male and female swimmers in most of the distance and speed measures, the males having larger mean values than the females in all instances. In the freestyle events, the distance in and the average speed in tended to increase as the distance of the race decreased. This suggested that as the speed of the approach increased, the swimmers initiated their turns farther from the wall and executed them with a faster turning motion. Also the distance out decreased as the race distance increased. This decrease in distance out probably reflected a corresponding decrease in the force of the thrust against the wall as the swimmer tried to conserve energy. For the longest freestyle events for both men (1500 m) and women (800 m), the average speed out was significantly correlated with both the event time and the order of finishing: the greater the speed out, the less the event time and the higher the placing. The correlation between the total turn time and the event time increased systematically as the distance of the event increased, suggesting that a swimmer's turning technique assumes a progressively greater importance as the distance of the event increases. In the 100 m breaststroke events the male and female swimmers employed markedly different techniques or strategies. In the men's event, short distances out, short times out and fast average speeds out were associated with better event times and placings. In the women's event, almost exactly the reverse was true with long distances out and long times out associated with better event times and placings.