Individual profiles of spatio-temporal coordination in high intensity swimming

The aim of the present study was to examine the inter-subject variability in inter-arm coordination during front crawl swimming at high intensity. Ten male competitive swimmers swam 200 m front crawl at race pace. Two above water and four underwater cameras videotaped the test and APAS was used to assess the 3D anatomical points position and to calculate, afterwards, the angular position, velocity and the continuous relative phase, which was used to analyze upper limbs coupling during two arm stroke cycles for each 50 m lap of the 200 m front crawl event. The kinematics of the two arm stroke cycles was filtered and normalized to the total cycle duration. A significant decrease, caused by fatigue, was observed in the biomechanical and coordinative (temporal) parameters. The topography of the mean continuous relative phase curve showed a higher inter-subject variability between two groups (63.1° vs. 76.0°; p < .05), suggesting that several profiles of inter-limb coordination exist. Two clusters arose from the coordination profiling, which mainly stemmed from organismic constraints (i.e., the swimmer’s technique).

► The 200 m front crawl maximal effort induced fatigue.
► Changes were found in the coordinative, kinematical and physiological parameters.
► Two clusters were found in the basis of individual adaptations to the effort.
► Differences between clusters were mainly due to swimmers’ specialty.