The Acute Effect of Front Crawl Sprint-resisted Swimming on the Direction of the Resultant Force of the Hand.

The aim of the study was to investigate the acute effect of front crawl sprint-resisted swimming on the direction of the resultant force of the hand. Five female swimmers swam 25 m with maximal intensity with and without added resistance. The underwater motion of the hand was recorded using 4 cameras (60 Hz) and the Ariel Performance Analysis System was used for the digitization. The results showed that the magnitude of the drag and lift forces, as well as the magnitude of the resultant force was not modified significantly during resisted swimming. However, the angle formed between the resultant force and the axis of the swimming propulsion was decreased significantly in the pull phase. Thus, it could be speculated that sprint-resisted swimming could contribute to the learning of a more effective application of the propulsive forces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]