Leg Dominance and OSB12 Kick Start Performance in Young Competitive Swimmers

Ivan Matúš, Pavel Ružbarský, Bibiana Vadašová and Pavol Čech
Additional contact information
Ivan Matúš: Faculty of Sports, University of Presov, 08001 Presov, Slovakia
Pavel Ružbarský: Faculty of Sports, University of Presov, 08001 Presov, Slovakia
Bibiana Vadašová: Faculty of Sports, University of Presov, 08001 Presov, Slovakia
Pavol Čech: Faculty of Sports, University of Presov, 08001 Presov, Slovakia

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 24, 1-11

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to examine differences in starting and kick-plate positions, pointing to an effect on kick-start performance with the dominant and non-dominant feet placed on the front edge of the OSB12 starting block. The sample included 20 female competitive swimmers whose average age was 16.1 ± 0.6 years. To assess swimmers’ lower body explosive strength and determine leg dominance, a triple hop distance test was administered. We determined the swimmers’ preferred starting position on a starting block in terms of the kick-plate setting and body position on the starting block. The results of our study demonstrate the importance of leg dominance and positioning on the OSB12 starting block. After the preferred starting position was determined, the optimal position for the kick start was selected. When the dominant leg was placed on the front edge of the starting block ( p < 0.05; Cohen’s d —large effect), swimmers produced shorter block times and times to 2 and 5 m. For most of the tested swimmers, the optimal basic position on the starting block included neutral- and rear-weighted positions with the kick plate set to positions 3–4 and the right leg placed on the front edge of the OSB12 starting block.

Keywords: biomechanics; kinematic analysis; start phase; leg positioning (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/24/13156/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/24/13156/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:24:p:13156-:d:701735

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().