Monitoring Changes Over a Training Macrocycle in Regional Age‐Group Swimmers

摘要

Our aim was to analyze physiological, kinematical and performance changes induced by swimming training in regional age‐group athletes. Subjects (15.7 2.2 years old) performed a 4 x 50‐m front‐crawl test at maximal velocity (10 s rest interval) in weeks 2, 4, 9 and 12 of a 15‐week macrocycle. Descriptive statistics were used and the percentage of change and smallest worthwhile change (moderate, 0.6‐1.2, and large, > 1.2) were measured. Lactate concentration in the third, seventh and twelfth minute of recovery decreased significantly between weeks 2‐9 (14.1, 15.7 and 17.6%) and increased between weeks 9‐12 (18.2, 18.6 and 19.8%), with the HR presenting only trivial variations during the training period. Stroke length showed a large decrease in the first 50‐m trial between weeks 4‐9 (6.2%) and a large increase between weeks 9‐12 (3.1%). The stroke rate (in all 50‐m trials) increased significantly between weeks 4‐9 (3‐ 7%) and the stroke index had a moderate to large increase in the first and third 50‐m trial (3.6 and 7.1%, respectively) between weeks 9‐12. The overall time decreased by 1.1% between weeks 2‐12, being more evident after week 4. We concluded that physiological, kinematical and performance variables were affected by the period of training in regional age‐group swimmers.