Evaluation of kinaesthetic differentiation abilities in male and female swimmers

INTRODUCTION: Events longer than 50 meters also require a good distribution of the effort during the swim. The control of the swim pace largely depends on the coordinative and sensory-perceptive abilities; kinaesthetic differentiation skills are required. The repeatability of two procedures aimed to measure the kinaesthetic differentiation abilities and the correlations between the differentiate performances and the best performances with respect to gender and to the amount of speed changes have been studied. METHODS: 8 male swimmers (15.38±1.84 years, 168.9±11.7 cm, weight 57.6±13.3 kg) and 10 fe-male swimmers (15.75±1.39 years, 167.8±6.0 cm, 57.9±8.8 kg) participated in this study. The kinaesthetic differentiation’s abilities were evaluated by eight 25m front crawl swims at different paces (50% and 80% of the maximum) according to two pro-cedures: 8/1 and 8/4, performed in a single day and during four days running, respec-tively. The performance on the 25m was analysed. RESULTS: 8/1 and 8/4 procedures are reliable (ICC=0.77). Males showed little differences between the two procedures in the 25m (R=0.84 and 0.75 in the 50%max and 80%max of the 8/1, respectively; R=0.72 and 0.73 in the 50%max and 80%max of the 8/4, respectively, p<0.05). The females showed significant correlations only in the 8/4 (R=0.77 at 80%max, p<0.05). DISCUSSION: Both collecting the data in a single day and during four days running are reliable and re-peatable methods to measure the performances connected to the kinaesthetic differentia-tion abilities. Generally, at 50%max where dueto the high speed reduction it should be more difficult to regulate the pace, males achieve the best significant correlation. At 80%max, where the speed is close to the maximum, both males and females showed good significant correlations. This is in accordance with the literature that shows a lower degree of the differentiation abilities in females than males.