Individual-environment interactions in swimming: The smallest unit for analysing the emergence of coordination dynamics in performance?

摘要

Displacement in competitive swimming is highly dependent on fluid characteristics,\udsince athletes use these properties to propel themselves. It is essential for sport\udscientists and practitioners to clearly identify the interactions that emerge between\udeach individual swimmer and properties of an aquatic environment. Traditionally, the\udtwo protagonists in these interactions have been studied separately. Determining the\udimpact of each swimmer’s movements on fluid flow, and vice versa, is a major\udchallenge. Classic biomechanical research approaches have focused on swimmers’\udactions, decomposing stroke characteristics for analysis, without exploring\udperturbations to fluid flows. Conversely, fluid mechanics research has sought to\udrecord fluid behaviours, isolated from the constraints of competitive swimming\udenvironments (e.g. analyses in two-dimensions, fluid flows passively studied on\udmannequins or robot effectors). With improvements in technology, however, recent\udinvestigations have focused on the emergent circular couplings between swimmers’\udmovements and fluid dynamics. Here, we provide insights into concepts and tools that\udcan explain these on-going dynamical interactions in competitive swimming within\udthe theoretical framework of ecological dynamics.