Kinesthetic awareness is very important in swimming in order to better "feel the water", improving the propulsive actions and reducing the drag forces [1]. Synchronized swimming requires flexibility, aerobic as well as anaerobic conditioning and abilities [2]. In particular kinesthetic awareness allows to maintain a fine body control and to better operate the actions of propulsion based on lift forces. Improvements of the kinesthetic awareness and the conditional capacities subsequent to a classic synchronized swimming training program have been investigated in this study. METHODS: Twelve 11 to 17 years old subjects practicing synchronized swimming participate in the study. Before and after a traditional six months synchronized swimming training, subjects underwent a series of tests (in order to assess kinesthetic awareness, technical and coordinative abilities, strength and power) such as: i. diving and gliding underwater in a streamline position (DG); ii. pushing off from the wall and gliding underwater in a streamline position (PG); iii. sculling while floating on the back for 15m (SC); iv. swimming the front crawl stroke at 90% of the maximum for 25m (CR90%); v. swimming front crawl stroke only with legs for 25m (LCR); vi. swimming front crawl stroke with close hands for 25m (CHCR); vii. swimming breaststroke for 25m in modified coordination (MBRST), viii. swimming front crawl stroke only with arms for 25m (ACR). Pre and post training results were then compared. RESULTS: No differences were found in PG, LCR and CHCR (p>.05). Significant improvements were found in DG (pre vs. post, 7.7±2.4 vs. 8.9±1.7 m, p<.05), SC (29.4±4.0 vs. 28.3±4.1 sec, p<.05), CR90% (the gap in percentage to the attended performance have been considered, 6.2±2.8 vs. 3.2±1.6 %, p<.05) and MBRST (30.2±5.2 vs. 28.9±5.4 sec, p<.05). In ACR no differences were found in the performance (22.9±3.5 vs. 22.0±2.7 sec, p>.05), whereas improvements were found in counting the number of the arm strokes needed to swim the distance (34.9±5.1 vs. 32.8±5.1 n, p<.05). CONCLUSION: The results suggest that six-months of traditional training in synchronized swimming would not significantly affect the conditional capacities such as strength and power (PG, LCR, CHCR and even ACR did not differ between pre- and post- training). On the contrary, training would mostly improve the kinesthetic awareness and the coordinative abilities. The significant improvements in ACR`s number of arm strokes (although the performance did not differ) and in DG could mainly depend on the progress of the technical actions related to the kinesthetic awareness evolution.
© Copyright 2009 14th annual Congress of the European College of Sport Science, Oslo/Norway, June 24-27, 2009, Book of Abstracts. Published by The Norwegian School of Sport Sciences. All rights reserved.