Physical Endurance and Swimming Technique in 400 Metre Front Crawl Race

The aim of the observation was to examine the relationships between endurance indices and technique parameters on 400 m front crawl swimming. 26 swimmers were examined (16.1±1.09 years. Basic body variables (BH 177.5±8.07 [cm], BM 65.4±9.40 [kg]) and maximal oxygen uptake during arm crancking or leg cycling (3.14±0.54 and 3.82±0.53 [l.min‐1] respectively) were measured. The examination was conducted during 400 metre swimming (average speed 1.42±0.07 [ m.s‐1]) beginning from wa‐ ter at a 50 m pool. Stroke rate (SR), stroke length (SL), propulsion (PL, PS) and non‐propulsion phases (E, R) as well as index of coordination (IdC) for arms were measured. Leg movement quantity (LQ), was counted from the same shots as arms. There was a significant dependence of 400 m swimming speed on PL+PS level, IdC and SR (r=0.69, 0.50, 0.50 respectively) characterizing athletes technique. Front crawl swimming technique parameters were analyzed during four successive 100m segments of the 400 m distance. In spite of reduced stroke length, the increased stroke rate enabled swimmers to maintain speed in successive 100 metre segments or even accelerate, (especially in the last 100 m). The relation between SL and LQ was statistically significant r=0.41, p=0.04 and influenced stroke length. The correlation between SR and LQ was negative, close to statistical significance r= -0.36, p=0.07. Moreover, correlations between AR, WLLTAR, TWAR and V400 were insignificant and reached an average level (r=0.28-0.36).