‘Doing’ competitive swimming: Exploring the skilled practices of the competitive swimming lifeworld

Biomechanics of Competitive Swimming Strokes

Competitive swimming is one of the most challenging sports to perform scientific research. Not only the research of human movement is quite complex, because human beings are not so determinists as other (bio)mechanical systems; but also, assessing human beings in aquatic environment becomes even more as this is not their natural environment and other physical principles have to be considered. O...

The rise of competitive swimming 1840 to 1878.

The main focus of swimming in the first half of the nineteenth century was simply for enjoyment and pleasure, plus its endorsement by society as a wholesome rational recreation. It was pursued at popular river sites, at the seaside, at private baths clubs or at the newly emerging municipal baths. The formation of swimming clubs, during the middle years of the century, was the beginning of a cha...

Evaluation of the energy expenditure in competitive swimming strokes.

The purpose of this study was to measure and compare the total energy expenditure of the four competitive swimming strokes. Twenty-six swimmers of international level were submitted to an incremental set of 200-m swims (5 swimmers at Breaststroke, 5 swimmers at Backstroke, 4 swimmers at Butterfly and 12 swimmers at Front Crawl). The starting velocity was approximately 0.3 m x s (-1) less than a...

The impact of competitive swimming and swimming training on cognitive function

Long-Term, Competitive Swimming and the Association with Atrial Fibrillation

BACKGROUND Endurance exercise plays a role in cardiovascular risk reduction, but may also be a risk factor for atrial fibrillation. This study was performed to assess the prevalence of atrial fibrillation in a population of long-term, competitive swimmers compared with patients within an internal medicine clinic with known risk factors for atrial fibrillation such as diabetes mellitus and hyper...