The effect of pullout timing on breaststroke turn performance

Biography

Dr Alison Alcock graduated from Liverpool John Moores University and then came to Australia after to do a three-month biomechanics work experience placement at the Australian Institute of Sport—which somehow turned into 7 years! At the AIS Alison mainly worked with swimming and women’s football. Alison moved to the Sportscotland Institute of Sport in 2011 where she now mainly works with swimming and curling, and manages projects in sport science and innovation.

Synopsis

In breaststroke races, between 20 and 40% of the total event time is spent turning, and the turn times are the most variable of all the swimming strokes, likely because of the greater technical expertise required (Blanksby et al., 1998). The aim of this study was to determine the effect of the timing of the breaststroke pullout on overall turn performance.