Optimising individual stance position in the swim start on the OSB11

Biography

Armin Kibele received his PhD from the University of Freiburg, Germany. Since 2002 he has been Professor for Trainings Science and Movement Science at the University of Kassel, Germany. He is also Adjunct Professor at the Memorial University of Newfoundland.

Synopsis

Since 2010, the OSB11 starting block model has been used for national and international championships. It provides clear advantages in swim start performance as compared to the previously used OSB9 device (e.g. Honda et al., 2010). However, there is scarce knowledge on the optimal stance position for swimmers with respect to their individual body length or leg preference (Slawson et al., 2011). Therefore, the purpose of this study was to evaluate systematic variations of the stance parameters of elite swimmers in regard to their swim start performance. Variations of the preferred stance were examined regarding the front leg (left vs. right), the centre of mass (CM) height (low vs. high), the stance width (narrow vs. wide), and a rear vs. a front weighted stance (estimated by the horizontal distance of the hip joint the front edge of the block). The magnitude of the variations was expressed relative to the individual leg length.