Active drag related to velocity in male and female swimmers.
Propulsive arm forces of 32 male and 9 female swimmers were measured during front crawl swimming using arms only, in a velocity range between 1.0 m s-1 and 1.8 m s-1. At constant velocity, the measured mean propulsive force Fp equals the mean active drag force (Fd). It was found that Fd is related to the swimming velocity v raised to the power 2.12 +/- 0.20 (males) or 2.28 +/- 0.35 (females). Although many subjects showed rather constant values of Fd/v2, 12 subjects gave significantly (p less than 0.01) stronger or weaker quadratic relationships. Differences in drag force and coefficient of drag between males and females (drag: 28.9 +/- 5.1 N, 20.4 +/- 1.9 N, drag coefficient: 0.64 +/- 0.09, 0.54 +/- 0.07 respectively) are especially apparent at the lowest swimming velocity (1 m s-1), which become less at higher swimming velocities. Possible explanations for the deviation of the power of the velocity from the ideal quadratic dependency are discussed.
Toussaint
H M
HM
Faculty of Human Movement Sciences, Department of Exercise Physiology, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
de Groot
G
G
Savelberg
H H
HH
Vervoorn
K
K
Hollander
A P
AP
van Ingen Schenau
G J
GJ
D000054:Acceleration; D000328:Adult; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012737:Sex Factors; D013550:Swimming