title: Coordination pattern variability provides functional adaptations to constraints in swimming performance.
abstract: In a biophysical approach to the study of swimming performance (blending biomechanics and bioenergetics), inter-limb coordination is typically considered and analysed to improve propulsion and propelling efficiency. In this approach, 'opposition' or 'continuous' patterns of inter-limb coordination, where continuity between propulsive actions occurs, are promoted in the acquisition of expertise. Indeed a 'continuous' pattern theoretically minimizes intra-cyclic speed variations of the centre of mass. Consequently, it may also minimize the energy cost of locomotion. However, in skilled swimming performance there is a need to strike a delicate balance between inter-limb coordination pattern stability and variability, suggesting the absence of an 'ideal' pattern of coordination toward which all swimmers must converge or seek to imitate. Instead, an ecological dynamics framework advocates that there is an intertwined relationship between the specific intentions, perceptions and actions of individual swimmers, which constrains this relationship between coordination pattern stability and variability. This perspective explains how behaviours emerge from a set of interacting constraints, which each swimmer has to satisfy in order to achieve specific task performance goals and produce particular task outcomes. This overview updates understanding on inter-limb coordination in swimming to analyse the relationship between coordination variability and stability in relation to interacting constraints (related to task, environment and organism) that swimmers may encounter during training and performance.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Sports Sciences, Centre d'Etude des Transformations des Activités Physiques et Sportives (CETAPS), EA 3832, University of Rouen, Mont Saint Aignan, France, ludovic.seifert@univ-rouen.fr.
authors.forename: Ludovic
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Seifert
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Komar
authors.forename: Tiago
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Barbosa
authors.forename: Huub
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Toussaint
authors.forename: Grégoire
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Millet
authors.forename: Keith
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Davids
mesh_terms: D001132:Arm / Q000502:physiology*; D054874:Athletic Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D006801:Humans; D007866:Leg / Q000502:physiology*; D009048:Motor Skills / Q000502:physiology*; D010806:Physical Education and Training; D013550:Swimming / Q000502:physiology*