Biomechanical Factors in 200m Freestyle Swimming and Their Relationships with Anthropometric Characteristics

Document Type : Original Article

Abstract

Introduction: The purpose of this study was to determine the relationships between velocity (V), stroke 
length (SL), and stroke rate (SR) in each 50 meter distance in 200m freestyle competitions and their 
relationships with anthropometric characteristics.
Material and Methods: The sample consisted of twenty one Indian male inter-university swimmers with 
mean age of 18.66±1.11 years, mean body mass of 70.04± 1.02, mean height of 177±7.76 cm, mean arm span 
of 188±8.42cm, mean foot length of 27.28 ± 1.63 cm, and mean body mass index (BMI) of 22.09 ± 2.46 kg/m². 
All the participants swam and their biomechanical factors were recorded with a video camera (150 Hz) and 
their time records were recorded using stopwatches at each 50-meter distance.
Results: Correlations showed that there was a significant relationship between SR and V. A significant 
negative relationship was observed between SL and SR and there were no relationship between the SL and V
in 200 meter freestyle swimmers. The results of the stepwise regression technique showed that there were 
significant differences between velocity and anthropometric characteristics such as standing height, weight, 
difference of arm span and height and BMI. 
Discussion and Conclusion: The V of swimming is governed by SL and SR. The difference between height 
and arm span may explain the difference in stroke length. SR and SL were thus the main contributors to the 
higher velocity of the swimmers, since the magnitude of SL is related to the propulsive forces that a swimmer 
exerts while stroking. 

Keywords

• Stroke rate
• Stroke length
• Velocity
• Anthropometric characteristics

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