STABILITY OF PATTERNS OF BEHAVIOR IN THE BUTTERFLY TECHNIQUE OF THE ELITE SWIMMERS

The purpose of this study was to find patterns in the butterfly swimming technique, with an adaptation of the Behavioral Observation System Tech. This, as an instrument for ad-hoc qualitative analysis, enables the study of the stability of the technical implementation. When used in the training of swimmers, analysis can reduce the variability of behavioral tuning swimming technique. Through the analysis of temporal patterns (T-pattern) and a sequence of five cycles running at hand maximum speed, the behavior of four technical Portuguese elite swimmers, with a record of 259 alphanumeric codes and a total of 160 configurations, were studied. The structure of the original instrument, based on a mixed system of categories and formats Field, can record technical features, observed during the execution of hand cycles. The validity was ensured through the index of intra-observer reliability (95%) and inter-observer accuracy (96%). To detect patterns in each swimmer, the Theme 5.0 software was used, which allowed to identify the stable structures of technical performance within a critical interval of time (p