Effects of wearing a customized bite-aligning mouthguard on powerful actions in highly trained swimmers

The study was supported and funded by the Faculty of Faculty of Psychology, Education Sciences and Sport Blanquerna, Ramon Llull University, Barcelona, Spain, grant number PIF1920-PSITICBackground/objectives: The potential advantages of wearing customized bite-aligning mouthguards on several performance parameters such as muscular strength, power and reaction time have been reported. Literature shows that the concurrent activation potentiation phenomenon, elicited by a powered and balanced jaw clenching, can provide athletes with several neuromuscular advantages. The aim of the present study was to investigate the acute effects of jaw clenching while wearing a customized bitealigning mouthguard on swimming start, countermovement jump and swim bench test, in contrast to two other conditions: non-jaw clenching and jaw clenching without mouthguard. Methods: A randomized, repeated measure within study designwas used to compare the condition effect on eight highly trained elite male and female swimmers. Results: Statistical analysis revealed a significant increase in the countermovement jump height (p ¼ 0.041) when comparing the use of mouthguards with the non-jaw condition. In the swim bench, a significant greater time to peak force (p ¼ 0.049) was found when comparing the use of mouthguards with the jaw condition. Although, non-significant effects, small differences were found in the start reaction time and 15-m freestyle swimming when comparing the use of mouthguards with the non-jaw condition. Conclusion: This study demonstrated that wearing customized, bite-aligning mouthguards had an ergogenic effect on specific measures of vertical jump and swim bench test, whereas non-meaningful but small differences were found in swimming start.Faculty of Faculty of Psychology, Education Sciences and Sport Blanquerna, Ramon Llull University, Barcelona, Spain PIF1920-PSITI