Relationships among anthropometric and stroking characteristics of college swimmers.

A theoretical model was developed to identify anthropometric variables relevant to success in swimming. Frontal areas, cross-sectional areas (XSA), and lengths of body segments were measured on twelve members of a men's college team using a photographic procedure. Motion-picture films were taken of the subjects competing in freestyle events and were analyzed to determine the average stroke length (SL), average stroke frequency (SF), and average stroking speed (S). Correlation and multiple regression procedures were used to determine the relationships among the anthropometric variables and SL, SF, and S, respectively. Of the 21 anthropometric variables selected with the aid of the theoretical model, 6 were found to be significantly related to one or more of the measures of swimming performance when the influence of event distance was partialled out (P less than or equal to 0.05). The anthropometric variables characterizing the subjects accounted for 89% (SL), 41% (SF), and 17% (S) of the variances in the measured characteristics of their strokes. The axilla XSA was shown to have the largest influence on both SL and SF, accounting for 57% of the variance in the SL and 24% in the SF. These results suggest that although S is little influenced by the physique of a swimmer, the combination of SL and SF used to attain a given S is very much a function of his physique.