Purpose: To investigate race-management strategies over a longitudinal case study of one of the world’s best female swimmers of the 200-m freestyle to understand if only 1 race-management strategy allowed her to succeed or whether several profiles have been used over the 8 years of analysis. Methods: Different race-management strategies within and between 50-m laps emerged from cluster analysis. To better explain race management, additional characteristics described the level of adversity, the level of competition, the performance outcome, and the type of race. Results: Two strategies of race management between laps have been used, and both allowed her to succeed in her career. The first was characterized by a fast start and a greater decrease of the speed between laps, whereas the second exhibited a more stable speed management. When those strategies were examined in relation to the level of competition and the level of adversity, it appeared that the first strategy was used more in international competitions and associated with higher time intervals between the studied swimmer and the direct rivals, while the second one was used more in national competitions and associated with lower time intervals. Conclusions: Findings suggested that this top elite swimmer did not adhere to a single “ideal” race-management strategy. Instead, she demonstrated flexibility and the ability to adapt her race management to contextual factors throughout her career, effectively controlling adversity. This highlights the importance of including adversity analysis in race-management studies.
Search Results
You are looking at 1 - 2 of 2 items for :
- Author: Ludovic Seifert x
- Physical Education and Coaching x
- Refine by Access: All Content x
Longitudinal Analysis of Race-Management Strategies in a World-Class 200-m Freestyle Swimmer: A Case Study
Camille Loisel, Robin Pla, and Ludovic Seifert
Cluster Stability as a New Method to Assess Changes in Performance and its Determinant Factors Over a Season in Young Swimmers
Jorge E. Morais, António J. Silva, Daniel A. Marinho, Ludovic Seifert, and Tiago M. Barbosa
Purpose:
To apply a new method to identify, classify, and follow up young swimmers based on their performance and its determinant factors over a season and analyze the swimmers’ stability over a competitive season with that method.
Methods:
Fifteen boys and 18 girls (11.8 ± 0.7 y) part of a national talent-identification scheme were evaluated at 3 different moments of a competitive season. Performance (ie, official 100-m freestyle race time), arm span, chest perimeter, stroke length, swimming velocity, speed fluctuation, coefficient of active drag, propelling efficiency, and stroke index were selected as variables. Hierarchical and k-means cluster analysis were computed.
Results:
Data suggested a 3-cluster solution, splitting the swimmers according to their performance in all 3 moments. Cluster 1 was related to better performances (talented swimmers), cluster 2 to poor performances (nonproficient swimmers), and cluster 3 to average performance (proficient swimmers) in all moments. Stepwise discriminant analysis revealed that 100%, 94%, and 85% of original groups were correctly classified for the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd evaluation moments, respectively (0.11 ≤ Λ ≤ 0.80; 5.64 ≤ χ2 ≤ 63.40; 0.001 < P ≤ .68). Membership of clusters was moderately stable over the season (stability range 46.1–75% for the 2 clusters with most subjects).
Conclusion:
Cluster stability is a feasible, comprehensive, and informative method to gain insight into changes in performance and its determinant factors in young swimmers. Talented swimmers were characterized by anthropometrics and kinematic features.
