Variability in coach assessments of technique in front crawl sprint swimming

Biography

Gina Sacilotto is aiming to complete PhD in swimming by March 2014. Her PhD is entitled ‘Resistive forces and technique analysis in elite sprint front crawl swimming’. She has been at the AIS since December 2010 and will hopefully continue to work in elite swimming once she has completed her studies.

Synopsis

When critiquing swim technique, coaches often rely on basic stroke mechanics (stroke rates and lengths) to assess performance and recommend technique alterations based on qualitative analysis. To date no research has investigated the variability between elite coach qualitative assessment of swim technique. Therefore, the aim of this investigation was to compare coach ratings on front crawl sprint swimmers to examine the degree of variability between assessments of technique.