Background: The aim was to analyze the relationship of body mass and predicted muscle mass of body segments on swimming kinematics and tethered swimming indices, and further assess the influence of those indices on 100-m front crawl performance of adolescent male swimmers.
Methods: In 19 volunteer swimmers (age: 13.5±0.44 years, height: 168.6±7.77 cm, body mass: 56.9±10.57 kg), the predicted muscle mass of body segments was assessed with bioelectrical impedance analysis. The kinematic indices of swimming (stroke rate - SR, stroke length - SL, and stroke index - SI) were calculated from a video recording of a 100-m front crawl race. The strength indices (maximum and average value of force, average impulse per single cycle, force decline) were collected in a 30-second front crawl tethered swimming test.
Results: The average tethered swimming force was positively correlated with surface swimming speed (0.505; P≤0.05). Indices of SL, SI were influenced by average impulse per single cycle (0.58, 0.55; P≤0.05), and further the SI was strongly correlated with most specified speed indices of the 100-m race (0.59; P≤0.05).
Conclusions: It can be stated that the ability of force development in a single stroke, owing to strong interrelation with SI, is a good predictor in talent identification among young swimmers.