Author:

Keywords:

Down Syndrome, Swimming

Abstract:

Introduction Down syndrome (DS), a genetic cause of intellectual disability, presents physical impairments that may affect their motor performance behavior. Race video recording is essential both to provide feedback of swimmers’ performances and to analyze performance influencing factors. Since this has never been done for DS exclusively, the aim of this study is to analyze the 200-m backstroke event from the 5th DS World Championships. Methods The event was videotaped with two side view cameras, and 28 swimmers (15 men and 13 women) from the preliminary heats were analyzed for start, turn and swim times and stroke length (SL), rate (SR), and index (SI). Mean and SD were obtained, and Student t-tests were computed to compare gender groups. Pearson correlation analysis was performed between race components, stroking variables and end results (p<.05). Results Differences were found between male and female swimmers on start (7.22±.77 & 8.42±1.17s), swim (94.63±12.03 & 109.68±12.98s), turn (98.67±7.86 & 113.53±10.11s), finish (10.74±1.35 & 12.98±2.88), and final times (211.25±18.94 & 244.53±24.91s), SL (1.59±.18 & 1.33±.17m), SI (1.34±.25 & .96±.14), and speed (.86±.09 & .74±.07m/s). No differences between genders were observed for SR (32.85±4.86 & 34.51±6.01st/min). Higher significant (P<.05) correlations with final time were found for swim (.93), finish (.81), turn (.78), and start times (.76), for men, and swim (.97), followed by turn (.92), start (.84), and finish times (.72), for woman. Inverse correlations were found between SR and SL (-.62 men & -.83 woman). Discussion As observed in previous studies with other populations (Arellano et al., 1994; Daly et al., 2003), male DS swimmers are significantly faster than their female counterparts in the 200-m backstroke event and demonstrated longer SL and higher SI, for a similar SR, implying that SL is more important for swimming speed than SR. For this event, swim and finish times are most determinant for final time in men, and swim and turn times in woman. In accordance with Chatard et al. (2003), starts were not of major importance for the final time. Since swimmers spend more time turning in a 25m pool than in free swimming, and considering that this race component is also related to final time, coaches should emphasize turning on the training process, so that swimmers will be able to improve their performance. References Arellano R, Brown P, Cappaert J, Nelson R. (1994). J Appl Biom, 10, 189-199. Chatard JC, Girold S, Caudal N, Cossor J, Mason B. (2003). Biom and Med in Swimming IX, 261-264. Daly D, Djobova S, Malone L, Vanlandewijck Y, Steadward R. (2003). Adapt Phys Activ Q, 20, 260-278.