Relationship of force metrics with swimming performance in age-group swimmers.

Introduction In competitive swimming, performance relies in the good combination of force and technique. The relative contribution of each of these components is still a controversial issue. Therefore, the aim of this study was to verify if force metrics obtained through tethered swimming can be explanatory of free swimming performance. Methods 22 age-group swimmers (male n=14, age: 14.6±1.2years of age, body mass: 53.1±9.0kg, height: 1.66±0.1m; female n=8, age: 13.9±2.1years of age, body mass: 46.3±9.2kg, height: 1.57±0.1m) took part in the study. Each participant performed a 30 s maximal front crawl tethered swimming test (described in detail by Morouço et. al, 2011). After normality assumption checked, force metrics (average force – Favg; maximum force – Fmax; and impulse of force – Fimp) were correlated with 50m in-water maximal bout performance (t50). Results Both in male and female swimmers Favg presented strong negative correlations with t50 (r=-0.81 and r=-0.95; p<0.01, respectively). For the male group, both Fmax and Fimp obtained moderate negative associations with t50 (r=-0.63 and r=-0.57; p<0.05, respectively). In female swimmers, both Fmax and Fimp attained strong negative relationships with t50 (r=-0.91 and r=-0.85; p