Inertial Sensors in Swimming

1. Please introduce yourself to the readers (how you started in the profession, education,

credentials, experience, etc.).

My name is Giuseppe Vannozzi and I'm a Computer Engineer, and I hold a PhD in Bioengineering. My thesis focused on the analysis of how the human body functions and moves with a special emphasis on the application of soft computing techniques to extract information from biomechanics data. I then held a post-doc position at the University of Rome “Foro Italico”, which specializes in sports and movement analysis, and now I am an Assistant Professor in Biomechanics. In these 15 years of activity, I have worked close to industrial partners as well as physical educators, clinicians and coaches to propose quantitative methods for capacity and performance assessment. Since 2009, I started my activity in swimming biomechanics in close collaboration with Dr. Giorgio Gatta and his staff at the University of Bologna. Mainly, we aimed at promoting the use of wearable technology devices to assess swimmer performance and monitor his/her activity.

2. You recently published an article on wearable inertial sensors in swimming. Could you explain what those are?

Miniaturized inertialmeasurement units (often called IMUs), commonly found today in trendy wearable technology, are an increasingly popular alternative to 3D video analysis. An IMU typically comprises a 3-axial linear accelerometer and an angular rate sensor, also called gyroscope. Output of the IMU are the 3D linear acceleration and the 3D angular velocity of the body segment to which it is attached. The physical quantities provided by each sensor are measured with respect to the axes of a unit-embedded frame, generally aligned with the edges of the unit case. Through smart algorithms, able to fuse the redundant information available and to compensate for sensor drift, 3D body segment orientation can be also obtained. IMU sensors are typically wireless, allowing for in-field quantitative measurements, easy to use and generally cheap.

3. What did your study look at?

Since an increasing range of inertial sensors and protocols have been proposed in the scientific literature for swimming performance assessment, we deemed of interest to examine how they were used and how well they performed with respect to traditional swimming motion analysis techniques. Therefore, our aim was to provide a systematic review regarding the current status of inertial and magnetic sensors for swimming performance assessment (Magalhaes et al, 2014). The main objective of this review was to provide a framework to fully exploit the recent advances in miniaturized wearable technologies to obtain biomechanical data related to sport performance.

4. What were the results of your study?

We found that IMUs are potentially capable of helping us evaluate the performance of swimmers throughout the swimming pool and for a whole duration of a training session; this overcomes the various limitations of traditional video analysis. For instance, in looking at the stroke patterns, while video analysis limits its observation to a single stroke cycle, depending upon the real capture volume of the cameras, IMUs can generally acquire continuously without specified spatial limitations. Thus, for instance, changes with fatigue may be potentially captured using IMUs. These results were supported by a comprehensive overview of the existing applications of inertial sensors in swimming science.

5. What were the practical implications for coaches and swimmers from your study?

Nowadays, there is a lively interest about IMUs in swimming motion analysis and researchers working in this area are continuously proposing new methods to estimate variables potentially useful for coaches and swimmers practice. We discovered that inertial sensors, including accelerometers and gyroscopes, can be invaluable in a multidisciplinary environment, in which sport biomechanists and engineers can work together to calculate the scores and indices – widely used by swimming practitioners –with the aim of progressively meeting the desires of coaches and trainers. Based on specific objectives of the analysis, you can appropriately select the sensor to include in your setup: an accelerometer to estimate linear kinematics (velocity) and body inclination; a gyroscope to estimate angles and body orientation; both sensors to estimate task phases, time parameters (durations, stroke frequency).

6. What inertial sensors do you use or recommend?

It is really hard to recommend any specific brand or product available on the market. Your best starting point to conduct your research is really any IMU device that possesses the appropriate sensor requirements (Picerno et al, 2011) and the suggested guidelines to improve outcome accuracy (Bergamini et al, 2014). Personally, I have used the technology offered by Newsens, which included a spin-off of our laboratory with which I have started to work on this topic.

7. What other technical advances do you see beneficial for swimmers?

As a swimmer-centric monitoring technology, these devices can increase the amount of information available to the athlete/coach. IMU technology can potentially put the coaches and athletes in a position to benefit from numerical feedback almost in real time. This is especially valuable if a swimmer or a coach wants to detect and correct specific performance-related concerns. Moreover, coaches at poolside can have individual indicators of the swimmer’s performance such as velocity, attitude and position of the swimmer for the length of the swimming pool (Le Sage et al., 2010b).

The engineering literature started also to consider the development of real-time feedback methods, even if these approaches are not ready for the everyday practical application. The main advantage of these methods is the low computational effort required. Therefore, once the communication protocols reach a useful real-time performance and the sensor fusion algorithms become more reliable in the aquatic environment, it would be reasonable to expect a decrease in the time gap between laboratory and training environments. In this manner, swimmer performance analysis based on biomechanics method can be carried out almost instantaneously after a swim trial.

8. How can a coach use inertial sensors for a large age-group (40 kids), a more elite high school group (20 kids), or an elite college group (10 kids)?

Inertial sensors have several advantages and allow for quick data acquisitions without cumbersome setups as you may experience using video-cameras, which makes it applicable to athletes of medium level and not only to élite swimmers. Depending on the team size, the coach may consider to include only one IMU device per swimmer to monitor cycle durations, stroke frequency and related parameters or to include additional sensors to monitor more complex indicators. A coach might consider partnering with an analyst who can then implement the right mathematical procedures following the scientific literature. Currently, there are no commercially available devices that directly implement some of the mentioned performance indexes.

9. Who is doing the most interesting research currently in your field? What are they doing?

There really aren’t many laboratories working on swimming biomechanics using IMU sensors. Groups from Australia, Switzerland and UK are very active carrying out the most interesting work about the topic as widely cited in our review article. Adding to our review, Farzin Dadashi from Lausanne (SW) recently published an interesting paper about the estimation of front-crawl energy expenditure using IMUs (Dadashi et al, 2014), which is one of the most promising application we foresaw at the end of our review article. In his study, he used a set of four waterproofed IMUs worn on forearms, sacrum, and right shank of eighteen swimmers and validated their methodology using indirect calorimetry and blood lactate concentration.

10. Which teachers have most influenced your research?

I had the privilege to work with Professor Aurelio Cappozzo, recognized internationally as one of the main experts in the biomechanics of human movement. In his laboratory in Rome, I had the opportunity to learn how biomechanical methods can be applied and used to assess the performance and capacity of human motion. Working with several sports science colleagues, I had the opportunity to approach the field and to better understand the needs of coaches and sport professionals; the collaboration with my colleague Giorgio Gatta was determinant for me to open to the swimming field which is one, currently, of my main scientific interest.

11. What research or projects are you currently working on or should we look from you in the future?

I am always looking at how I can help coaches and athletes benefit from rich numerical feedback at the swimming pool. Currently, I am evaluating the feasibility of using IMUs to characterize block starts and turning mechanics, this will add yet another layer to my previous research and answer some of the questions coming out of the swimming community.

References

1. Bergamini E, Ligorio G, Summa A, Vannozzi G, Cappozzo A, Sabatini AM, (2014). Estimating orientation using magnetic and inertial sensors and different sensor fusion approaches: accuracy assessment in manual and locomotion tasks. Sensors (Basel): 14(10):18625-49.
2. Dadashi F, Millet GP, Aminian K, (2014). Estimation of Front-Crawl Energy Expenditure Using Wearable Inertial Measurement Units. IEEE Sensors Journal, 14(4): 1020 – 1027.
3. Le Sage T, Bindel A, Conway P, Justham L, Slawson S, & West A, (2010). Development of a real time system for monitoring of swimming performance. Procedia Engineering, 2, 2707–2712.
4. Magalhaes FA, Vannozzi G, Gatta G, Fantozzi S, (2014).Wearable inertial sensors in swimming motion analysis: a systematic review. Journal of Sports Sciences, Epub ahead of print, pp. 1-14.
5. Picerno P, Cereatti A, Cappozzo A, (2011). A spot check for assessing static orientation consistency of inertial and magnetic sensing units. Gait and Posture, 33(3):373-8.

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Adam Kiefer Discusses Motor Learning

1. Please introduce yourself to the readers (how you started in the profession, education,

credentials, experience, etc.).

My name is Adam Kiefer and I am the director of the new, state of the art Training Enhancement and Analysis of Movement Virtual Reality (TEAM VR) laboratory in the Division of Sports Medicine at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. I am also an assistant professor in both pediatrics and psychology at the University of Cincinnati. I earned my BS in Exercise and Sports Science at the University of Wisconsin – LaCrosse and during my undergraduate training I served as both the head boy’s and girls varsity tennis coach and also the head freshman girl’s basketball coach at Holmen high school in Holmen, WI. After completion of my MS in Movement Science/Sport Psychology at Barry University in Miami FL, I earned a PhD in Experimental Psychology at the University of Cincinnati where I studied perceptual-motor control and development with research focussed on both expert athletic performance and rehabilitation following injury. This work led me to a four year post-doctoral research fellowship at Brown University in Providence, RI where I utilized innovative virtual reality technologies to examine perceptual-motor deficits to inform rehabilitation practices in patients with low vision, and I have continued my work in virtual reality and associated technologies in my current position at Cincinnati Children’s.

2. You recently published an article on motor learning and electroencephalography (EEG). What do we know about these two subjects (ie what area of the brain are responsible for motor learning)?

This might be a little out there, but humor me for a minute. Imagine you know nothing about the sport of baseball, and by nothing I mean you have never even heard of the sport. Moreover, you don’t know how many players are on a team and you don’t even know what equipment is used. So I take you to a baseball game to let you experience and learn all about the sport. Except that I can’t allow you to see anything or talk to anyone. The only method I can use to help you learn about the sport is to let you listen to the cheering crowd. Throughout the game the crowd cheers when good things happen, boos when things go poorly, is quiet during some high stress moments, and is loudly encouraging during others. Over the course of the game you build a limited understanding of what is happening through the cheering pattern of the fans. This is the same way that EEG works. We are essentially learning about a process by listening to the “Cheering patterns” of neurons—more specifically, the electrical neural activity—and then drawing conclusions from these patterns.

This is an important consideration, as it then makes the identification of specific areas of the brain that are responsible for various processes (movement, vision, etc) very tricky to truly localize for a given task. Over the years, algorithms have been developed to better identify specific areas, but just like we can’t listen to the noise of a crowd and figure out exactly what noises every individual person in the crowd is making or, more importantly, exactly how many people are in the crowd, we also can’t tell exactly which specific neurons are firing or even how many are firing. What we can get is a general idea of where the cheering is coming from (i.e., left field vs. behind home plate) so we are able to make generalizations to regions of the brain. For example, the occipital region is known to be more active during visually-dominant tasks as measured by electrodes placed at occipital sites, where as the integration of sensory information from a variety of sources might lead to changes in activation as measured by electrodes placed at central sites (typically in-between the frontal and parietal lobe) near the middle of the skull, above and slightly in front of the tops of the ears.

3. Do the areas of the brain during motor learning change on the skill level of the performer or the difficulty of the task?

As in the “cheering neuron” example, EEG’s strength is that it can tell us whether the electrical activity of the brain changes before, during or after learning. The electrical activity is generally broken down into different waveforms, or components, that each tell us something different about the activity itself. For example, there is a large body of research on the effect of learning on target shooting of marksmen that has demonstrated that one kind of EEG alpha activity—waveforms that are usually most prominent when someone is awake and relaxed—tend to be higher in skilled marksmen prior to shooting compared to less skilled marksmen. It is believed that this is due to a more relaxed performance state prior to a given action or behavior. So the amount of this particular alpha activity can indicate the mental state of the athlete. For example, a less experienced athlete may exhibit a decrease in alpha activity that coincides with more stress prior to performance of a difficult task, while a more experienced athlete would tend to stay more relaxed and maintain a more stable level of performance.

4. Is there an ideal age for motor learning?

My colleagues and I have written about this in another paper, titled: Training the developing brain, part I: cognitive developmental considerations for training youth. We have defined the term training age. Training age is an age that represents the child’s prior experiences of context-specific training (e.g., swimming) that is partially, but not wholly, dependent on the child’s time course of natural physical development. We advocate for starting children early in generalized and integrative neuromuscular training to advance the development of the child’s general motor skill proficiency; however, the initiation of training at an earlier age is not always easy because it is dependent on the child’s cognitive and perceptual-motor development. In other words, the child must be physically and/or mentally prepared for training and the training must be geared toward the child’s capabilities and level of understanding. Starting a child in more generalized training at a younger age has the potential to allow for more sport-specific training at an earlier age as well, and both are advantageous given their brains tend to be more “plastic”, or responsive, to training. To be clear, I am not advocating for sport specialization but rather making a case that a strong foundation in neuromuscular control will provide a large number of benefits in early childhood, adolescence and throughout adulthood. So unfortunately it is not as simple as saying, “Charlie is 5 and now he is ready for training.” Instead, parents should discuss their child’s capabilities with a certified strength and conditioning specialist, or well-educated coach, and based on an assessment decide what is best for their child at a particular age.

5. What did your study look at?

This particular study looked at how adults learn to perform a completely novel task. We used a mirror-star tracer, which requires the performer to only utilize the reflection of his or her hand in a mirror as he or she traces the outline of a five point star. As you can imagine, it is difficult to find a task that adults have never performed. But when studying motor learning, it is beneficial to have people start at a similar level of task familiarity, and the mirror star tracer task is one that has been used quite a bit in psychology/motor learning research.

We were also interested in whether practicing the entire task (e.g., tracing the entire star over and over again) or only practicing parts of the task (e.g., tracing each point of the star over and over in a random order, but never tracing the entire star) would lead to more efficient learning. People may recognize these as the “Whole” and “Part” practice techniques. We also had a third group that did not practice the task at all.

We collected EEG data in three star-tracing tests prior to the intervention, and then three star-tracing tests after the practice intervention (either whole, part or no practice).

6. What were the results of your study?

As is true with a lot of research the results weren’t as clear cut as we would have liked, but they do provide a window into motor learning at a very basic level. The main takeaway from the study was that we saw greater alpha power following practice, compared to EEG activity when performing the star tracer task prior to any practice. These results may indicate a familiarization with the task and/or more efficient perceptual-motor activity in the brain following practice. This replicates the work of others and also builds on previous findings.

7. What were the practical implications for coaches and swimmers from your study?

This was a research study designed to uncover basic processes inherent to motor learning using a very simple task, so we have to be careful about making broad generalizations to more complex activities. What I will say is that we want our athletes to be efficient in their athletic maneuvers, whether it be a particular stroke in swimming or driving the lane in basketball. In swimming even small changes in movement efficiency can have large impacts on overall performance and, especially at elite levels, might be the ultimate difference between finishing first or second. If we can optimize the neural activity for a given movement during skill training, we can better optimize movement strategies for a given sport context. The more important question is: How do we optimize movement strategies? Well, one way to utilize this information is to understand when alpha activity decreases and if there are observable performance outcomes associated with these changes. This allows a coach or trainer to know that the athlete may be more relaxed with their current movement patterns and to appropriately challenge the athlete in practice.

7. Do you think the results would be different if you had a different task or different skill level of the participant?

Skill level probably would influence the results more than a different task. A higher-level performer would likely already exhibit similar alpha activity to what we observed, even before practice. This is why we chose the task that we did. We wanted individuals to perform a novel task so that everyone was on an even playing field from the outset. A different task would only matter if someone had expertise in that task already.

8. If you were looking to maximize learning a new aspect of swimming (ie a different hand entry position), what would be the ideal method of implementation and frequency of feedback?

It certainly depends on the complexity of the movement and the training context, and the question really is about internal vs. external focused feedback. Internal focused feedback is utilized to teach precise techniques and encourages the athlete to explicitly focus attention on specific bodily movement patterns. While this technique has been classically utilized, research indicates that external focused feedback—feedback that directs the athlete’s attention externally toward the consequences of their movements rather than on the movement itself—generally is more robust in its transfer of complex, learned skills to competition in the pool, or on the field of play.

9. Is there an ideal type of feedback (verbal, tactile, visual)?

All things equal, visual feedback is the most powerful and can be processed extremely fast. It is also dominant in the sense that it can even override proprioceptive or tactile feedback. There is a famous study that had people perform really difficult polyrhythms (e.g., 3 taps with the right hand while simultaneously tapping 7 times with the left). The participants were not able to perform a variety of complex rhythms when they viewed their hands. However, when they were unable to see their hands and visual feedback was given that only directed participants to move their hands in such a way that a shape was drawn on a screen in front of them (the shape was only drawn correctly when they performed a 3/7 rhythm), the participants were able to execute the task. So why are we able to do this?

Well, we are information hungry beings. In other words, our bodies are always craving any kind of sensory information we can get our hands on (no pun intended), and will utilize it whenever we can. We will even make use of it when it misleads us or when it is incongruent with other sensory feedback. For this reason, I would advocate for a multi-faceted feedback approach that utilizes all of the components of the sensory-motor system. This is advantageous because it allows for redundancy in the system in the case that, during the heat of competition, one type of information is unavailable then the athlete can utilize other perceptual modalities (I.e., proprioception instead of vision) to continue movement efficiency. It also teaches the system to be poised and ready to utilize all types of information quickly and efficiently.

10. Who is doing the most interesting research currently in your field? What are they doing?

Well I am definitely biased, but my colleague Dr. Greg Myer is one of the most well-published researchers when it comes to training youth for performance enhancement and injury prevention. Outside of our team, I think probably Gabriele Wulf out of UNLV. She has conducted a lot of important research on external focus and what it means for skill acquisition and retention in motor learning.

11. What makes your research different from others?

My own work is a hybrid of perceptual-motor research from my training in psychology and performance enhancement/injury prevention. I work to find ways that athlete’s can exploit information, whether during performance or when given feedback, that will make the learning of specific movement patterns more efficient and protect the athletes from injury. I also utilize cutting edge technologies, including virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR), to put athletes in “safe zones” where we can challenge them in a variety of ways through VR, or provide them feedback using AR, while letting them move freely as they would in their over-ground sport.

12. Which teachers have most influenced your research?

Wow, there have been a lot of them. Gualberto Cremades (Barry University) and Jay Lee (now at the University of Houston) first got me interested in psychophysiology, and research in movement science more generally. Mike Riley at the University of Cincinnati really gave me the technical skills to analyze data in extremely novel ways, and to think about perceptual-motor processes very differently than the majority of the existing classic research. Bill Warren, at Brown University, really pushed me to think about human behavior in ways that are completely novel, and to utilize VR to probe the visual system and to ask the right questions about how humans utilize perceptual information to drive behavior. The influence of both Bill and Mike is probably the most dominant theme in my current work, and my experience working with Bill in his Virtual Environment Navigation Lab is the reason I am pushing hard for the development of VR applications to enhance training in sport. Needless to say, I wouldn’t be where I am today without any of these people.

13. What research or projects are you currently working on or should we look from you in the future?

Our general focus is on injury prevention and we have a lot of exciting research on the horizon. We have a newly renovated research center that is going to be opening in early spring, 2015. It will house multiple labs and have about 2000 square feet of space for wireless VR with full-body motion capture technology to assess biomechanical variables related to movement performance. It will be the only lab of its kind in the world. We are partnering with the military simulation software company VT-MAK to help us develop realistic sport-specific virtual environments, and also with Tobii Technologies to utilize their cutting-edge eye tracking technology to understand athlete’s attention and functional deficits associated with injury. In addition, we have a partnership with ElMindA, a technology company based in Israel that has developed a Brain Network Activation analysis that utilizes EEG to assess recovery from concussions, among other things. We are also in the middle of development of some very novel strategies to deliver visual feedback that is externally focussed through heads-up wearable displays (e.g., google glass) so that athletes can be anywhere in the laboratory space, train with our strength and conditioning specialists and interact with their peers, but have individualized external-focussed feedback in their field of view whenever they want to access it. Our goal is to be the world leader in injury prevention for sports medicine and I believe we are well on our way.

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Michael Fröhlich Discusses Cold Water Immersion for Athletes

1. Please introduce yourself to the readers (how you started in the profession, education,

credentials, experience, etc.).

From 2000 to 2006, I worked at the Olympic Training Center Rhineland-Palatinate/Saarland (Germany) with elite athletes projected to participate in the Olympic Games in Sydney in 2000 and in Athens in 2004. Since 2006, I have been a qualified teacher and associate professor for sport sciences at Saarland University.

2. You recently published an article on cold water immersion (CWI) and strength gains. What are the different types of CWI and what temperatures appear most ideal?

Cold water immersion is one of many different cooling types, such cooling vests, cooling packs, drinking cold water, cryogenic chambers, etc. CWI can be differentiated into whole-body CWI and partial-body CWI. In partial-body CWI, for example, a single leg or single arm was cooled. On average, whole-body CWI was significantly more effective than partial-body CWI. Immersion of only a small part of the body, such as a single arm, does not cool down the body core as effectively as whole-body CWI.

3. What did your study look at?

Most of the published studies analyzed only short-term recovery effects, whereas the adaptation aspect has been widely neglected. So in your study we analyzed the adaptation,, effects of strength training after a routine CWI.

4. What were the results of your study?

The main result of your study was that strength training adaptations were reduced by 1-2% after a 5-week strength training regime, with the trained leg being regularly cooled directly after training compared to an uncooled control condition.

5. What were the practical implications for athletes?

Based on the results of our study, it has been concluded that CWI can have a negative impact on strength training adaptation in persons with strength training experience. It has also been shown that small deteriorations in training adaptation in the long term could be balanced with the possible beneficial short-term recovery effects of CWI.

6. Do you think the results would be different if you had differently trained athletes?

That is a very good question! The transferability of the results to a higher performance level in combination with the optimal scenarios for the application of cold water immersion as a recovery means in a practical setting does indeed require further research.

7. What do you think of different types of cryotherapy or contrast therapy?

Based on the available evidence, I think that cryotherapy seems to be very effective in decreasing pain. Further effects of cryotherapy on more frequently treated acute injuries have not been fully understood.

8. How about full body cryotherapy at extremely low temperatures (http://www.cryohealthcare.com/about-cryotherapy/)?

In this context, Poppendieck et al. (2013) published a very interesting meta-analytical review. The authors can show that the effect size of CWI was slightly higher than for cryogenic chambers. For cooling packs, average effects were negligible (see Poppendieck, W., Faude, O., Wegmann, M. & Meyer, T. (2013). Cooling and performance recovery of trained athletes: A meta-analytical review. International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance, 8(3), 227-242.

9. A lot of swimmers are using CWI on a daily basis, do you think this is beneficial, harmful, or neutral for performance?

I don’t know. Many athletes use CWI as part of their daily routine, but any long-term effect on performance is not yet well understood. In this field, further research is needed.

10. What research or projects are you currently working on or should we look from you in the future?

My co-workers and I are currently conducting a cross-over training study involving CWI. The longitudinal study is scheduled to take one year.

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Shawn Simonson Discusses Resistance Training for Incoming College Swimmers

1. Please introduce yourself to the readers (how you started in the profession, education,

credentials, experience, etc.).
My name is Shawn R. Simonson and I'm a National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA) Certified Strength and Conditioning Coach (CSCS), American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), Health Fitness Specialist (HFS), and Ed.D. from the University of Northern Colorado. I started in Exercise Physiology as a middle school science teacher and coach. I have worked as a personal trainer, police fitness instructor, health educator, and owned my own gym. I have eleven years in academia teaching and conducting research. I am currently in my 8th year at Boise State University.

2. You recently published an article which surveyed college strength coaches. How many strength coaches were surveyed?
The survey was sent to 195 collegiate strength and conditioning coaches. The survey was completed by 57 (29%). This is a low rate of return, but is within reason for on-line surveys.

3. What did your study look at?
We asked strength and conditioning coaches to share with us their perception of the preparedness of incoming college freshmen athletes for the rigors of strength and conditioning in training for their respective sports. The survey was specifically designed to find areas in which pre-college programs could help athletes improve and asked open-ended questions that allowed coaches to respond with any information they felt appropriate. Coaches’ responses were grouped into themes.

4. What were the results of your study?
Incoming college freshmen athletes lack lower extremity strength, overall flexibility, and core strength, as well as proper Olympic lifting technique. Athletes also lack mental toughness (grit) to endure collegiate sport strength and conditioning. In addition knowledge of correct nutrition and recovery principles is limited. From the manuscript:

Table 2. Thematic Analysis Regarding Areas of Improvement(3)

Major Themes	%
Olympic Lifting Technique	36.8
Core/Lower Extremities Strength	33.3
Flexibility/Mobility	22.8
Mental Toughness	22.8
Knowledge of Exercise Technique/Recovery	22.8
Work Capacity	19.3
Minor Themes
Running/Jumping Form	5.3
Knowledge of Periodization	3.5

Note: 50th Percentile was 18.4%. Any theme greater than the 50th percentile was considered a major theme while any themes less than the 50th percentile was considered a minor theme.

5. What were the practical implications for coaches and swimmers from your study?
High school strength and conditioning coaches, personal trainers, and club sport coaches should consider obtaining certifications within the field of strength and conditioning (i.e., CSCS, USAW). These certification indicate that the coach is qualified to develop and implement safe sport training regimens that will take into account biological maturity, athlete experience, evidence-based program design, and appropriate progressions. Parents also need to become educated and understand the importance of hiring only suitably certified strength and conditioning professionals to train their children. Just because a potential strength and conditioning coach or personal trainer was a successful competitor sports does not indicate that they have the education and knowledge to design and properly progress a strength and conditioning program for high school athletes. Failure to employ certified individuals with the requisite knowledge not only puts athlete health at risk, but also creates a disadvantage when beginning collegiate sport training and competition.

Certified high school strength and conditioning coaches/trainers should 1) focus on teaching proper technique in the basic multi-joint movements and Olympic lifts. 2) Increase power via appropriate plyometric exercises and sprinting and agility form drills to improve movement economy. 3) Ensure a complete and proper mobility/flexibility component. 4) Include mental training to enhance mental toughness (grit), and 5) Educate athletes regarding evidence-based nutrition and recovery principles.
 
6. Did you ask the strength coaches specifically about sports they worked with or what which sports were the least prepared?
We did not.

7. Do you think it is appropriate for a swim coach to implement resistance training at their club for high school athletes or is a strength and conditioning specialist preferred?
Based on what we found in the survey, we encourage club and high school teams to hire Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialists rather than implementing their own programs.

8. If a swim coach is leading their high school kids strength program, what education do you recommend they have for safety and preparing the athletes?
High school strength and conditioning coaches, personal trainers, and club sport coaches should obtain certifications within the field of strength and conditioning (i.e., CSCS, USAW). These certification indicate that the coach is qualified to develop and implement safe sport training regimens that will take into account biological maturity, athlete experience, evidence-based program design, and appropriate progressions.

9. What is the ideal athlete to coach ratio in the weight room?
“The National Strength and Conditioning Association recommends staff-to-athlete ratios based on the age and experience of the athletes participating in the training program. For middle school strength and conditioning programs, a 1:10 staff-to-athlete ratio should not be exceeded. Secondary school strength and conditioning programs should not exceed a 1:15 staff-to-athlete ratio. Strength and conditioning programs for athletes older than the secondary level should not exceed a 1:20 staff-to athlete ratio. It is recommended that no facility exceed a staff-to-athlete ratio of greater than 1:50(1).” (2) page 84.

10. What are some things coaches can work on to have their swimmers ready for college strength training?
1) Focus on teaching proper technique in the basic multi-joint movements and Olympic lifts. While many swimmers do not think much about Olympic lifting, the clean and snatch are specific to getting off the starting block and wall quickly and with power. In addition, start with the basic movements before moving on to multi-planar movements and more advanced conditioning programs.
2) Increase power via appropriate plyometric exercises and sprinting form drills to improve movement economy. This is important for both sprinters and distance swimmers as it will help with coming off the block and wall as well as reduce fatigue and delay the loss of movement economy that accompanies fatigue. Proper mechanics and movement economy also reduce the potential for overuse injuries – the most common injuries in swimming.
3) Ensure a complete and proper mobility/flexibility component – especially in the hips and low back.
4) Include mental training to enhance mental toughness (grit). This will help athletes overcome adversity and better tolerate the grind of intense and/or long conditioning sessions.
5) Educate athletes regarding evidence-based nutrition and recovery principles. Do not pay attention to the fads and commercials. What does the science say?

11. What research or projects are you currently working on or should we look from you in the future?
We are currently working on a follow-up assessment protocol for this recent study to measure the accuracy of the strength and conditioning coaches’ perceptions that will include sport-specific information. We hope to collect data from a wide variety of programs and sports.
We also continue to work on the use of Olympic weight training to improve sport performance.

References:

1. Greenwood M and Greenwood L. Facility organization and risk management, in: Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning. TR Baechle, RW Earle, eds. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics, 2008, pp 543-568.
2. Simonson SR, Moffit JT, and Lawson J. What is the impact of NCAA policy 11.7.2.1.1 weight of strength coach (Football Bowl Subdivision) limits on strength and conditioning as a profession? Strengt Cond J 36: 82-87, 2014.
3. Wade SM, Pope ZC, and Simonson SR. How prepared are college freshmen athletes for the rigors of college strength and conditioning? A survey of college strength and conditioning coaches. J Strength Cond Res 28: 2746-2753, 2014.

If you're looking for more information about dryland for swimmers, consider purchasing dryland for swimmers. Although this doesn't substitute a certification for strength and conditioning, it helps bridge the gap between swimming and weight training. 

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Aldo Matos da Costa Discusses Development of Youth Swimmers

1. Please introduce yourself to the readers (how you started in the profession, education,

credentials, experience, etc.).

I did my undergraduate and master's degree in Physical Education and Sport at the University of Tras-os-Montes and Alto Douro (Portugal). Later I obtained a doctoral degree in Sport Science at the University of Beira Interior (UBI, Portugal). I’ve started my career as a swimming instructor, coach and as a swimming technical director in a small local club. In 2008, I moved to UBI where I currently work as an Assistant Professor at the department of sports sciences and also as Vice President for Education and Quality Assurance at the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities (UBI). I’m also an effective researcher at the Research Center in Sports Sciences, Health and Human Development (CIDESD, Vila Real, Portugal), scientific advisor at the Portuguese Swimming Federation and board member of the Portuguese Swimming Coaches Association.

2. You have done research on the relative age effect and performance in swimmers, could you explain what this is?

Most competitive sports are organized into age categories. Thus, the participants are grouped by chronological age to ensure equitable competition. However, in the same grade grouping, differences of age among individuals still exist. Some individuals born late in the competitive year (third and fourth quarter) and some born early (first and second quarter). Such age differences among individuals in the same grade grouping are referred as relative age effect (RAE).

One would expect that individuals born in the early part of the cut-off date would be taller, stronger and better coordinated. All those are important attributes for success in various sports including swimming (e.g. power and body size). RAE may be even more pronounced when there is a positive variation in the skeletal age.

3. In the states, most youth swimmers are grouped by every two years (ie 13 - 14), how are youths grouped together in Portugal?

In Portugal, swimmers are divided into five age categories. Like in the US, age groups (cadet, infantile and juvenile) for both genders are also grouped by every two years, keeping girls one year ahead of boys in all age categories (table),

4. What did you study look at?

Our purpose was to identify the existence of RAE in swimming, considering all competitive age groups and both genders. Using the top 50 Portuguese performance times we were able to analyze the RAE on swimming performance for the main swimming competitive events. This allowed us to clearly identify which age category and competitive(s) event(s) seem to be most affected by the cut-off birth date. To our knowledge, this type of analysis was non-existent in the literature, particularly in swimming, making this research quite original.

5. What were the practical implications for coaches and swimmers from your study?

The existence of an inequitable distribution of birth dates by quarter in the top 50 ranking in nearly all age groups allowed us to assume that RAE can actually influence selection and probably the long term development of swimmers (although we have no data on sports dropout). Thus, selection procedures of swimmers (whether local or national level) should be more prospective and the way of grouping more equitable. The literature is scarce regarding the RAE on psychological parameters. However, a few studies are now showing some variation particularly on swimmers motivation. Thus, younger swimmers may require greater psychological and technical monitoring by coaches.

6. Why do you think there were more male swimmers born in the first two quarters of the year?

Younger and later matured promising swimmers are likely to be ignored by their lower competitiveness at a given time. So we were expecting to find an inequitable distribution of birth dates by quarter in the younger age groups but not among older swimmers. This seems to suggest the existence of a profound effect on the number of swimmers born later in the selection year that effectively reaches the elite.

8. You mention there being minimal relative age effect on swimming performance, is this different from other sports?

Other studies in different sporting disciplines are showing a clear physical advantage for athletes born in the first half of the year. Some recent studies are even showing differences in fundamental movement skills proficiency within children placed in age groups according to the school year (Birth et al., 2014). According to our results, RAE seems to influence swimming performance (except on front crawl swimming events), but particularly in the youngest swimmers of both genders. We probably didn’t find a greater REA on swimming performance in other age groups (and swimming events) because we have studied the best Portuguese swimmers (Top 50), whose overall performance is more homogeneous. In less competitive level swimmers, I believe we would find a much greater RAE on swimming performance.

9. Do you think there is a "best" way of grouping youth swimmers together?

I think the swimmers up to 13-14 years should be organized not by birth year but by birth semester.

10. What research or projects are you currently working on or should we look from you in the future?

In swimming I am currently working on three main themes: genetic polymorphism and sports performance (particularly in swimming); Aquatic environment factors that directly influence the organization of teaching and, therefore, determine their effectiveness (e.g. shallow water versus deep water teaching); the effect of aquatic experience in motor proficiency.

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Cammile Adams Discusses Training and Biomechanics

1) Since your last interview you began training at SwimMac Carolina. What have biggest

transitions with your in-water training?

I'm actually still in school. Im in my last semester right now. So being back in Aggieland has been great! I really missed the girls team this summer so it’s been fun being back!

2) Currently, what are the biggest biomechanical aspects you're working on in your butterfly?

I’ve been working mainly on getting more out of my kicks and keeping that second kick in my stroke throughout the race. David had me doing some different things this summer and I’m still working on those things back here at school.

3) What specific training aspects are you working on for your 200 fly (improving take out

speed, finishing, etc.)?

I’m working on trying to get a little more front half speed. I’m usually really good back half so just trying to lay in on the line a little earlier has been my focus here lately.

4) Has your dryland training changed in the past few years, if so how?

It has quite a bit! Haven’t done a lot outside of the water besides dryland, cardio and weights. This summer I added in some yoga and pilates and really loved both of those. I felt like that really helped my body position in the water and I had a ton of fun doing it!

5) What about your meet preparation behind the block?

Meet preparation behind the blocks kind of changes depending on the meet. Some international meets you’re in the ready room for 20 or so minutes before you actually race. So then I try to just stay relaxed…I usually bring my music with me so that helps. I also like to stretch a bit before and just make sure I’m feeling loose. As far as right before the race starts…I usually splash some water in my face and just take in the atmosphere of the meet.

6) Last time you only took iron supplementation, has this changed at all?

Hasn’t changed at all.

7) What are your goals for 2015 and 2016?

My goals for 2015 and 2016…I’m really excited to have made the Worlds team! So that meet will be my main focus for the summer. Ill be going to SC words here pretty soon in late November so that will be a great time racing short course meters. As far as after that, I just want to continue training in order to put myself in a good place to medal in 2016.

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Daniel Marinho Discusses Finger Position in Swimming

1. Please introduce yourself to the readers (how you started in the profession, education, credentials, experience, etc.).

My name is Daniel Marinho, I was a swimmer and a coach for many years. I started my PhD in 2005 regarding the analysis of swimming propulsion using CFD methodology. Since then we have been able to participate in several research projects but also to work in straight cooperation with the swimmers, the clubs, namely with the Portuguese Swimming Federation.

At this moment I am working at University of Beira Interior and at CIDESD Research Center, in Portugal.

2. You recently co-authored a paper regarding finger position during swimming. Has there been much research on this subject?

In the past there has been a great interest under this field, namely with the studies carried-out by Schleihauf. However, recently there has been again an increase interest on the analysis of the best finger position, namely with the use of CFD.

3. What did your study look at?

We analyzed the effect of finger spreading and thumb abduction on the hydrodynamic force generated by the hand and forearm during swimming. We would like to understand what could be the best finger position to increase the propelling force.

4. Did your team consider any other methods for monitoring finger position?

At this moment we were very interested in using CFD to conduct this study, especially to improve our previous studies regarding this field, although we believe the combination of different methods and different studies could be the best solution to improve our knowledge under this field.

5. How did you ensure the swimmers had the same finger position throughout their trial?

It is the advantage of CFD analysis. As we are using computational simulations, one can add some input data into the system and to be sure that this input data will remain the same during the analysis. We used 3D models of the swimmers, obtained with a 3D scanner, so after that procedure one can manipulate and insert the desired data into the system and verify what is the result.

6. What were the practical implications for coaches and swimmers from your study?

I would state that finger and thumb positioning in swimming is determinant for the propulsive force produced during swimming; indeed, this force is dependent on the direction of the flow over the hand and forearm, which changes across the arm’s stroke. Therefore, coaches should be aware that the most appropriate technique must include changes in the relative positions of the fingers and thumbs during the underwater path.

However, when referring to finger spreading, it seems fingers should be grouped or even slightly separated to maximize lift and propulsive drag force production for most sweepback and attack angles.

7. Do you think ideal finger position varies on the swimming stroke?

Yes, we do. The geometry of the hand circumstantially used by a swimmer, especially the position of the thumb, appears to be dependent on and determined by the predominance of the lift and drag forces in each phase of the propulsive action, aiming to best orient the resultant force and thus the effective propulsive force. Thus, thumb abduction and adduction tend to favor propulsive drag or lift under different conditions. It is interesting to notice this situation in high-level swimmers, who changed the position of the fingers, especially the thumb, during the stroke cycle (for instance, Alexander Popov seemed a good example of that).

8. How do you recommend teaching finger position from age-group through Olympic level swimmers?

Coaches should be aware that the most appropriate technique must include changes in the relative positions of the fingers and thumbs during the underwater path and that attention should be paid to the training of swimmers’ specific sensitivity to the hydrodynamic effects of water flow over the propulsive segments.

In age-group swimmers it is very important to allow the swimmer to test different finger position,

different hand position, different “sculling” and propelling drills, to allow improve the “feel of the water”. We believe this is the most important part regarding this issue. Later on, they will be ready and prepared to change the finger position, to be aware of the importance of these small changes during the stroke cycle to improve swimming velocity.

9. Do you think finger position varies much during a stroke cycle or is it static?

Yes, as stated before, we do believe there are important variations during the stroke cycle, allowing the swimmer to improve the capability of producing propelling force, especially regarding to changes in thumb abduction/adduction.

10. Who is doing the most interesting research currently in your field? What are they doing?

There are a lot of good works in swimming research. Fortunately swimming community is very active, as noticed in the last Biomechanics and Medicine in Swimming Conference (Canberra, April 2014). Each year one can observe different research groups with good ideas, using interesting methods to allow a better understanding of swimming performance, thus it is always very difficult to highlight someone or some research group because at this moment it can be appearing an interesting study on a specific field.

Nevertheless, if you allow me I would like to say that I am very proud to be part of the Portuguese Research Team Network who has been doing very interesting works on swimming research.

11. What makes your research different from others?

Basically, one can point out two main things: (i) the use of CFD with realistic models, and the use of different hand/forearm models, and (ii) combining different finger spreading and different thumb positions within the same CFD simulation, which was a step forward in the analysis of swimming propulsion.

12. Which teachers have most influenced your research?

A lot of people have been influencing my work, some of them were my teachers and some cooperated with me in different research projects. All of them played an important role on my education process and I have the pleasure to keep working with them in different projects.

I would refer by a chronological order professor João Paulo Vilas-Boas and Professor Ricardo Fernandes, from the Faculty of Sport in Oporto, who were very important during my undergraduate studies and the ones who integrated me in swimming research projects. Later on Professor António José Silva and Professor Abel Rouboa, from the University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro and CIDESD Research Centre, for allowing me to be part on the CFD project applied to swimming research and supervised my work during the PhD. I would also indicate my colleague at CIDESD Research Centre Professor Tiago Barbosa and my colleague at University of Beira Interior (where I am working nowadays) Professor Mário Marques for the sharing of new ideas regarding swimming research and training methods.

I can not forget my father (Fernando Marinho), a swimming coach and teacher, who helped me think out of the box regarding swimming training, and my swimming coach professor António Vasconcelos (Tonas) who were always up to date regarding swimming training methods and enjoyed to share his knowledge with the others.

13. What research or projects are you currently working on or should we look from you in the future?

We want to continue improving the use of CFD in swimming research, and this should be one of our main focuses in the following years with some PhD students working under this scope and with some projects shared with different Research Centers.


On the other hand, we are very interested in developing and testing new ideas regarding swimming training methods, especially related to strength training and the effects of the use of different warm up routines in swimming performance. We have at this moment at University of Beira Interior and at CIDESD some PhD and Master degree students working under these topics, so we believe in a new future we can present some interesting results.

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Victor G. Sarramian Discuses Post-activation Potentiation for Swimmers

1. Please introduce yourself to the readers (how you started in the profession, education,

credentials, experience, etc.). (pictures)

I completed my Sport Science degree at University of Leon (Spain), followed by a Post Graduate Certificate in Education. Soon after finishing my studies I took a job as a swimming coach in a small team.

In 2005, I moved to London and started working as a PE teacher and swimming instructor. My increasing interest in endurance sports, led me to train a number of athletes in and out of the pool. I realized that I wanted to learn more, in which to improve their performance and my knowledge, a MSc in Strength & Conditioning seemed to be a perfect match for my degree in Sport Science. So that's exactly what I did, I attained my Msc and was delighted when my dissertation was awarded with a distinction and proposed for publication. It has been finally published in one of the most prestigious journals in the field of sports science. (http://goo.gl/CJvoxY)

I also gained sound knowledge on different subjects such as applied strength training, research methods, and corrective exercise...but mostly, I learned how important it was to manipulate every training variable with evidence-based facts.

Alongside my studies, I worked at Barnet Copthalls Swimming Club under the supervision, of one of the best coaches in England; I assisted the club with the strength & conditioning programmes. Working with Rhys Gromnley was an invaluable experience, he gave me the opportunity to get involved with the making of national champions. During my time in the squad, I learned that bridging the gap between sport science and day-to-day coaching is a key factor to enhance performance.

Currently, I deliver S&C sessions for endurance athletes with a strong scientific input. Personal training customers also benefit from my knowledge and experience.

2. You recently published an article on post-activation potential (PAP) and sprint swimming performance. First, what is PAP?

Postactivation Potentiation (PAP) is a relatively new phenomenon in sport and exercise science that provides coaches with a new tool to potentially impact sports and exercise performance. PAP can be defined as a condition whereby acute muscle force is increased due to a previous high resistance exercise.

Popular training methods implemented to seek an acute augmentation in maximal power output have been already benefiting from PAP by utilizing the method of complex training where by a heavy-load exercise is followed by a low-load high velocity or plyometric exercise e.g. barbell back squats followed by box jumps or bench press followed by bench throws.

The inclusion of a PAP protocol in the warm up has been object of study in a number of researches, having shown enhanced performance in a variety of sports such us rugby (Kilduff et al, 2007), weightlifting (Chiu et al, 2003), football (Mc Bride and Erickson, 2005) and track and field (Linder et al., 2010 ).

The underlying mechanisms behind PAP are not fully understood yet, but the phosphorylation of the regulatory light myosin chains and the increased recruitment of high threshold motor units have been proposed as the two most coherent underlying PAP mechanism theories .

3. Has there been previous research on PAP and swimmers? If so, what do we know?

There is paucity of published research on the effects of PAP in competitive swimmers. To the best of my knowledge, the first study to address this topic was conducted by Kilduff et al. (2011). The research reveals that sprint times over 15m were similar after PAP using 3RM backsquats or a traditional warm-up.

Recently, a group of Spanish researches from the University of Granada published a really interesting paper, they demonstrate that start performance can be enhanced after a warm up with two different PAP stimuli , 3x85% RM of the lunge exercise and 4x YOYO squat.

Basically, we know that start performance can be enhanced using a PAP protocol and, based on our study, we also know that PAP is as effective as a traditional warm -up in the water, with the potential to increase performance over 50m in some individuals.

4. There is a lot of research on PAP in other sports, how did you decide on the exercises, loads, and rest you picked for your study?

The most important factor when choosing the exercises was practicality, we wanted to propose exercises that could be done in a real situation. I cannot imagine any swimming coach taking a squat rack, barbells and plates to a swimming meeting in order to warm-up the sprinters.

The exercise for the lower body was chosen based on previous research that showed increased power output of the leg extensors after jumping into a box wearing a weighted vest . (Fig 1) The external load of the weighted vest worn to perform the test equalled 10% of their body weight. (Thompsen et al 2007 and Burkett et al 2005). Three squat jumps performed 4, 8 and 12 minutes after the PAP stimulus were performed in order to establish optimal rest periods for power output enhancement for the lower body. For example, if a swimmer achieved the highest jump 12 minutes after the weighted jump to the box , we obviously established 12 minutes as his optimal rest period for the lower body. Simple.

Fig 1

Choosing an exercise for the upper body was a bit more complex because all the previous PAP studies focused investigated pushing actions such as bench presses. We thought that a pull-up was a simple exercise that replicated to some extend the underwater pulling motion of front crawl. The 3RM was determined by adding the athlete's body weight to a vest's additional weight that was worn during the 3RM PU test.

The swimmers completed a medicine-ball-throw test in order to determine optimal time to upper body muscle enhancement following the loaded pull-ups. (Fig 2)

Fig 2

5. What your study specifically looked at?

The primary aim was to compare the effectiveness of the PAP protocols with a traditional warm-up in the water. Secondly, the research examined the effect of the loaded pull-up and the weighted jump to a box as conditioning activities to produce potentiation on sprint swimming.

6. What were the practical implications for coaches and swimmers from your study?

There are several implications:

(1) Postactivation potentiation has the potential to be a useful tool for coaches to warm-up swimmers participating in sprinting events, especially when space and time limitations can impede performance of a warm-up in the water.

(2) It is imperative to identify the conditioning activities and following rest intervals that trigger potentiation in each swimmer. The combined protocol showed to be a valuable method to boost performance to some extent in some individuals.

In my opinion, knowing how to interpret the data is key to understand the outcome of a research. Most data is published as average and standard deviation and we look for statistically significant differences, but in the pool we work with individuals. If you look at the data from a pure statistical point of view, you might think 'ok, the results of the PAP protocols are not so impressive', but some swimmers achieved reasonably good improvements that could mean a lot in a championship. Those performances will not be reflected in the results section of a paper because a few remarkable individual performances using PAP may be diluted in the overall results or hindered by those swimmers who performed poorly under a PAP protocol. Knowing that some swimmers may respond positively to PAP, makes it worth trying.

Another promising fact about this study is that 12 out of the 18 swimmers performed better following one of the three PAP protocols.

For that reason, the coaches should be encouraged to experiment with different exercises to determine what works best for each swimmer. I know this is hard work but in elite swimming, very small improvement in times are crucial amongst competitors in sprint events.

(3) Conditioning activities such as the weighted jump to the box described in the present study represent an effective and simple method to warm-up the lower body, the vest's load can be easily adjusted to meet individual needs and can be taken into any swimming pool, as opposed to more voluminous and heavier weight-lifting material.

7. Why do you think PAP for the upper body impaired performance?

When swimming, the hands do not apply force against a solid base of support and follow curvilinear patterns of movement under the water. Consequently, the kinematic characteristics of the freestyle stroke are extremely hard to replicate out of the water, which may impede the transfer into performance enhancement. The PU, regardless of its pulling nature may differ extensively from the actual motion of the arms under the water. Furthermore, Figueiredo et al. (2013) revealed high activation of the triceps brachii muscle during the upsweep phase of the freestyle stroke. The upsweep is the most propulsive sweep in freestyle swimming and the PU may not be an appropriate exercise to produce high activation of the triceps brachii.

8. Did any of the swimmers have greater performance in the upper body PAP condition?

Only one out of 18 swimmers, what makes me think that there is a lot of room for improvement for the combined PAP protocol. Imagine for a moment, that the combined PAP protocol was composed by an improved upper body exercise and the 4 x YoYo Squat for the lower body, which has already shown positive outcomes to enhance performance of the lower body (Cuenca- Fernandez et al, 2014). Maybe we could have a superb protocol that is exceptionally valuable for some sprinters.

9. Since the regular swimming warm-up and combined warm-up had similar results, how can coaches decide who to prescribed the combined protocol?

Trial and error, I am afraid. As I mentioned before, it is the coach's task to experiment and get to know his/her swimmers' responses to different stimuli.

10. Do you think PAP is something that can be done before major meets or just high-intensity practices?

I would experiment with different PAP protocols in practices and low key events. If it works under those circumstances, I think there is no excuse for not trying.

Additionally, it can be performed when space and time limitations can impede the performance of a warm-up in the water. It is not unusual to hold a swimming event in facilities without a warm up pool and some swimmers may compete long after they warm-up in the water.

11. What makes your research different from others?

(1) Despite the significance of upper body pulling performance on a variety of sports (e.g., swimming, judo), no studies have investigated the outcome of specific conditioning activities to trigger PAP for pulling motions. I believe we have been the first researchers investigating PAP for pulling motions.

(2) This is also the first study investigating the effects of a combined PAP protocol to enhance upper and lower body performance simultaneously. Previously, all PAP studies focused on upper or lower body separately.

(3) Finally, we look at performance on a swimming event, the 50m freestyle. Former research studied performance only on swim starts.

12. Which teachers have most influenced your research?

The research was my dissertation project for a MSc in Strength and Conditioning (Middlesex University, London) and I was most influenced by the whole environment during the course. From the very beginning I understood that all the knowledge that I was acquiring was based on the latest research, so I knew that I had to back up all my ideas with science and reflect that in my research project. When I presented my first literature review for this project, my tutor (Anthony Turner) suggested that I needed to improve and elaborate my ideas quite a lot. That moment was a real eye-opener, now I look back in time and realize that my original ideas, such us combining an upper and lower body PAP protocol were very innovative but at the same time I realized that I needed to raise the bar to write a decent paper. To be honest, I thought I wasn't going to pass the course and I got a bit obsessed with this research. Probably that obsession helped me to work extremely hard to produce a reasonably good research (at least for a student). I encourage every MSc student to publish their research project if they believe their work is good enough. They may contribute somehow to the development of sport science. Despite being a difficult and time-consuming task, preparing and submitting a research can be emotionally satisfying, and give a student a great sense of accomplishment and a confidence boost.

13. What are some unanswered questions regarding PAP and swimming performance?

We still need much more research on the topic. We need to test different PAP stimuli, try protocols over different distances, test PAP stimuli that are specific to different strokes or simply play around with the sets and repetitions of the exercises. A recent meta-analysis on PAP studies showed that performance enhancement was greater following multiple sets of a PAP stimuli than a single set.
In my opinion we know very little, we only know that PAP has a great potential to became a good tool for coaches to enhance performance.

14. What research or projects are you currently working on or should we look from you in the future?

At the moment I am 100% focused on running my company, I deliver S&C programmes for endurance athletes and personal training. I am not involved in any research but in the future I would love to keep working with endurance athletes. There are some topics I am very interested in, such as gluteus maximus strengthening in endurance runners, not only to prevent injury but to increase performance.

Thanks for the opportunity to discuss about my study and do not hesitate to contact me with your questions, research proposals or comments.

Victor G Sarramian
+44 (0) 7809719251
[email protected]
http://victorsrunningblog.com/
http://victoriaparkfitness.com/

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Interview: Roland Schoeman Discusses Swimming Biomechanics and Training

1) When did you begin swimming and get involved in the sport?

I only started swimming after I had turned 14 (I knew how to swim, because of some lessons when I was a kid), my entire life however had been spent playing a wide variety of other sports, Soccer, Rugby, Cricket, Tennis, track and field, Field hockey and even Karate. I was my happiest in a sporting arena.

2) As a "late starter", what do you think about kids specializing in sports (particularly swimming) at such a young age?

Personally I don’t see the need in specializing at a young age, kids need to be kids, I believe they need to build their athleticism and concept of self by participating in individual sports as well as team sports. There is definitely a need for variety as it allows the kids to see exactly where they will succeed. I believe allowing kids to specialize later in life will allow for increased longevity.

3) In the past year, have you tried any new things in your swimming training? 

I’ve never been afraid of experimenting and trying something new. After the hype surrounding USRPT I decided that I would give it a try. While the science behind it may be sound and while there may have been success for some swimmers with this modality I found it impossible to buy into. It is my experience that most coaches succesfully incorporate elements of USRPT into their “well balanced” programs. Ultimately I have a problem with anyone functioning in absolutes. In everything in life, as in swimming there is a need for balance. Since Commonwealth games I have switched back to a more balanced swimming program and I couldn’t be happier.

4) What items are you currently working on with your freestyle technique? 

We made some changes before Barcelona in 2013 and while there were some benefits I believe I lost the “connection” especially as I started fatiguing. Lately we’ve been focusing on trying to be a bit flatter in the water and trying to avoid too much shoulder rotation

5) What do you do for dryland training? 

I’ve been working with Nick Folker and Train FASST for quite some time now. Nick and I go back to 1999 and he’s one of the best in the business. He tailor makes our workouts based on our specific needs and weaknesses. I have also been working with two Ki-Hara practitioners here in Phoenix. I love the difference the Ki-Hara resistance stretching has helped me with recovery and injury prevention

6) How about nutrition, do you follow any program for food and supplements? 

I’ve gone back and forth with various diets. PH Balanced diet, High Fat Low Carb, Blood type diet etc. I’ve found that at this point in time as long as I am eating healthy, avoiding excess sugar that I will recover properly and feel great on a day to day basis. I believe I had a tendency to over think my dietary requirements but now I just trust my body and intuition about what I need and how much of it I need.

7) As a veteran swimmer, what things do you wish you knew 10 years ago?

I wish I’d had a chance to help the overall development of South African swimming from a far earlier stage, after 2004 we had a huge platform to improve the professionalism and marketability of swimming. We unfortunately didn’t capitalize on that. Secondly I wish I’d done better to market myself and my successes. Unfortunately at this point in time with 2016 Olympics less than 2 years away I do not have a single sponsor.

8) Do you perform any particular injury prevention or recovery techniques? 

I have spent quite a bit of time talking to Kelly Starrett and have been following his principles for mobility. He’s an unbelievable guy with a wealth of knowledge, I feel fortunate that I’ve been able to tap into that.

9) What are some of the most important things you've implemented into your training? 

I think one of the most underrated things in terms of training is recovery. I have tried to ensure that I get as much sleep as possible at night. I have a device called an Earthpulse, it is an electromagnetic sleep device that helps improve sleep and overall performance.

10) What are you goals for 2015 and 2016?

Between now and 2016 I’d like to find several sponsors who will be willing to walk on this Olympic journey with me. If I attend the Olympics in Rio I will be the first South African to ever attend 5 Olympic games. It is an honor that I would like to achieve more than anything else. When it comes to the Rio games, I would like to represent South Africa in the 50 freestyle and I would like to be a part of the 4x100 free and 4x100 medley relays.

11) Why do you think there is resistance in adding 50 meter stroke events during international competition? 

Ultimately I can only speculate as to the real rational behind not including the 50m of strokes. In all honesty it makes no sense, if you want the crowd involved you have to cater to them. Modern sport is about the excitement, creating characters, setting events apart. As far as I am concerned there is a need for the 50’s of stroke and a 4x50 medley relay. I think we should question the current event order and scheduling. The World Championship schedule works fairly flawlessly and caters to the 50’s. At the end of the day it would be foolish not to include 50’s of stroke. Smaller nations who may not have top 100m swimmers all of a sudden also have the opportunity to compete for medals.

12) What are you working biomechanically for your butterfly?

For butterfly I am trying to improve my thoracic mobility as well as improve my shoulder flexibility. I need to improve my initial catch on the water so everything we are doing is geared towards that right now.

Follow @rolandschoeman and Instagram is Roland-Schoeman

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