Effect of leg kick on active drag in front-crawl swimming: Comparison of whole stroke and arms-only stroke during front-crawl and the streamlined position

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of leg kick on the resistance force in front-crawl swimming. The active drag in front-crawl swimming with and without leg motion was evaluated using measured values of residual thrust (MRT method) and compared with the passive drag of the streamlin...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of biomechanics Vol. 76; pp. 197 - 203
Main Authors Narita, Kenzo, Nakashima, Motomu, Takagi, Hideki
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States Elsevier Ltd 25.07.2018
Elsevier Limited
Subjects
Active drag
Adult
Arm - physiology
Biomechanical Phenomena
Drag coefficients
Humans
Kicking motion
Leg
Leg - physiology
Legs
Load cells
Male
MRT method
Passive drag
Stroke rate
Studies
Swimming
Swimming - physiology
Values
Velocity
Young Adult
Japan
Passive drag
MRT method
Kicking motion
Stroke rate
Active drag
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Summary:The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of leg kick on the resistance force in front-crawl swimming. The active drag in front-crawl swimming with and without leg motion was evaluated using measured values of residual thrust (MRT method) and compared with the passive drag of the streamlined position (SP) for the same swimmers. Seven male competitive swimmers participated in this study, and the testing was conducted in a swimming flume. Each swimmer performed front-crawl under two conditions: using arms and legs (whole stroke: WS) and using arms only (arms-only stroke: AS). Active drag and passive drag were measured at swimming velocities of 1.1 and 1.3 m s−1 using load cells connected to the swimmer via wires. We calculated a drag coefficient to compare the resistances of the WS, AS and SP at each velocity. For both the WS and AS at both swimming velocities, active drag coefficient was found to be about 1.6–1.9 times larger than that in passive conditions. In contrast, although leg movement did not cause a difference in drag coefficient for front-crawl swimming, there was a large effect size (d = 1.43) at 1.3 m s−1. Therefore, although upper and lower limb movements increase resistance compared to the passive condition, the effect of leg kick on drag may depend on swimming velocity.
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content type line 23
ISSN:0021-9290
1873-2380
DOI:10.1016/j.jbiomech.2018.05.027