How Swimming Students' Anthropometric Characteristics Affect Short-Course Swimming Performance

Abstract

It has been found that anthropometric swimming performance factors may be related to and affect swimming performance. In light of this, the study's objective was to examine the association between certain motoric and anthropometric traits and 25-meter freestyle swimming performance results. A total of 16 male swimming students from Yozgat Bozok University's Faculty of Sport Sciences (age: 21.75±1.23 years; weight: 78.29±13.04 kg; height: 177±5.44 cm; body fat percentage: 17±7.5 %) took part in the study as volunteers. Height, body mass, skinfold thickness, circumference measurements (biceps in flexion, calf), diameter measurements (humerus epicondyle, femur epicondyle), static flexibility measurements (shoulder flexion, trunk-neck extension, ankle extension), and strength measurements (leg strength, back strength) were carried out to assess the anthropometric measurements of swimming students. In a semi-Olympic swimming pool, short-course freestyle scores of swimming students were recorded. The data appeared to have a normal distribution after the skewness and kurtosis tests, so the Pearson Correlation test was used to look at the correlation between 25-meter freestyle swimming levels and other characteristics. It was discovered that there was no statistically significant correlation between static flexibility and strength tests and 25-meter freestyle swimming performance results, but there was a negative and statistically significant correlation between swimming performance results of swimming students and mesomorph variables (r=-0.529, p=0.035). It is believed that identifying swimmers' somatotype structures may be crucial for talent selection and serve as an indicator of swimming ability.