Comparison of fractal dimension among swimmers with different levels of expertise Conference Paper uri icon

abstract

  • It is known that performance is strongly related to proportional changes in the inputs. The “marginal gains theory” in sports performance gained popularity a few years ago. It encompasses the assumption that small changes in the input (or the sum of several changes) may have a significant effect on the output. Yet, it is unclear if nonlinear parameters such as fractal dimension are able to distinguish subjects with different levels of expertise. The aim was to compare the fractal dimension in swimmers with different levels of swimming expertise. Seventy-five subjects in accordance to their level of expertise (highly qualified experts, experts and non-experts) were invited to perform maximal 4x25m swims in each swim stroke after a push-off start. A speedo-meter cord (Swim speedo-meter, Swimsportec, Hildesheim, Germany) was attached to the swimmer’s hip (Barbosa et al., 2015) collecting the instantaneous speed. Upon that, the fractal dimension (FD; Higuchi, 1988) was computed. Two-way repeated-measures ANOVAs (group x swim stroke; P≤0.05), effect size by the (eta-squared) plus Cohen’s d (d) and 95% confidence interval (95CI) were computed. There was an expertise x swim stroke interaction (F6,72=3.564; P<0.001; 2=0.13) in the swim speed. Front-crawl was the fastest stroke, followed by the Butterfly, Backstroke and Breaststroke (P<0.001)

publication date

  • January 1, 2017