Relay change strategies in top swimmers

Project Management: Prof. Dr. Armin Kibele, Sebastian Fischer

There are only a few empirical studies on the relay start in swimming in the literature. Most of them focus on questions concerning the motion sequence of the relay start technique. In total, no significant time advantage could be found for any of the different technique variations of the relay start compared to the traditional arm swing start. Although technique variations to the traditional arm swing start can be found in the literature and are used by successful nations in international competitions, they are not used in German-speaking countries.
So far, questions have hardly been examined as to whether the intuitively plausible shortening of the changeover time according to the literature is actually the most effective changeover strategy in terms of relay performance. For example, it is unclear whether a shortening of the time between the stop of the incoming swimmer and the head passage of the changeover swimmer at 7.5m can be achieved by optimizing the horizontal power stroke even without minimizing the changeover time.
In the present project, two longitudinal interventions were conducted on competitive swimmers. On the one hand, it was shown in a sample of 26 junior national team swimmers that feedback of the horizontal force maximum leads to better relay start performances than feedback of the changeover time. On the other hand, after an intervention with 16 competitive swimmers, it became clear that the single step start during the relay change is a more effective start variation for the relay change than the traditional arm swing start.

Publications:

• Fischer, S. & Kibele, A. (2008) On the effectiveness of two relay change strategies within a learning intervention with top German swimmers. Proceedings of the 2008 meeting of the Austrian Sport Science Society in Vienna, 29-30.
• Kibele, A. & Fischer, S. (2009). Learning relay change strategies in top German swimmers. K. Witte (Ed.). Biomechanical performance diagnostics in swimming - experiences in competitive sports and derivations for the education of students and coaches. Proceedings: dvs symposium swimming: Institute for Applied Training Science, 10-12.09.09 in Leipzig.