In competitive swimming a spread in time of only 0.10,
and 0.16 seconds constituted the difference between
finishing second and seventh, and first and eighth,
respectively, in the women's 50 yard freestyle at the 1993
NCAA Division III National Swimming & Diving Championships.
Based on data collected over a period of years Maglischo
(1993) noted that "improving the start can reduce race times
by at least 0.10 second" (p. 544). Therefore it is
beneficial to the outcome of a race to direct attention to
maximizing the effectiveness of the racing start. The
primary purpose of this study therefore was to compare
kinetic and kinematic components of the grab and track style
starts.
During the past two decades extensive kinematic
research has been done using cinematography. These studies
used time, velocity, displacement, and the measure of angles
(i.e. at takeoff and entry) to measure the relative
effectiveness of various racing starts. Conversely, there
has been limited analysis of racing starts using kinetic
measurements.
Four kinetic and five kinematic variables were
evaluated in this study to compare the relative effectiveness
of the starting techniques. Ten female varsity
swimmers, who had used both starts interchangeably in
competition, were selected for this study. Force components
were obtained directly from a Kistler force platform. Block
time, horizontal and vertical impulse, and average horizontal
and vertical force values were obtained in subsequent
analysis of the Force-time data. Each subject was videotaped
as she executed three trials of each start. The video
data were digitized and then analyzed using two dimensional
video analysis techniques.
The type of start technique used on each trial was
randomly ordered. Kinematic variables of horizontal and
vertical displacement of the center of mass, average
horizontal velocity and vertical velocity were also obtained
from the video data in order to determine which of the two
starting techniques (i.e. grab vs. track) was the most
effective.
2x10 (starting technique x subject) repeated measures
Analyses of Variance indicated significant differences
(p<0.01) between the starting styles for five of the nine
dependent variables measured which provided support for the
original contention that the track style start was the more
effective of the two racing start techniques investigated.
The results of this study provide support to the empirical
and observational findings of earlier researchers. / Graduation date: 1995
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ORGSU/oai:ir.library.oregonstate.edu:1957/35313 |
| Date | 24 October 1994 |
| Creators | Juergens, Cheryl A. |
| Contributors | Rose, Debra J. |
| Source Sets | Oregon State University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis/Dissertation |
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