Reliability of using a pressure sensor system to measure in-water force in young competitive swimmers

Catarina C Santos; Daniel A Marinho; Mário J Costa

doi:10.3389/fbioe.2022.903753

Reliability of using a pressure sensor system to measure in-water force in young competitive swimmers

Front Bioeng Biotechnol. 2022 Oct 31:10:903753. doi: 10.3389/fbioe.2022.903753. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Catarina C Santos^{1

2

3}, Daniel A Marinho^{1

3}, Mário J Costa^{4

5}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Sport Sciences, University of Beira Interior, Covilhã, Portugal.
² Department of Sport Sciences, Polytechnic Institute of Guarda, Guarda, Portugal.
³ Research Center in Sports Sciences, Health Sciences and Human Development (CIDESD), Vila Real, Portugal.
⁴ Centre of Research, Education, Innovation and Intervention in Sport (CIFI2D), Faculty of Sport, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal.
⁵ Porto Biomechanics Laboratory (LABIOMEP-UP), University of Porto, Porto, Portugal.

Abstract

The aim of this study was to analyze the reliability of using a differential pressure system to measure in-water force in young competitive swimmers. Ten boys and five girls (12.38 ± 0.48 years, 49.13 ± 6.82 kg, 159.71 ± 7.99 cm) were randomly assigned to perform two maximum bouts of 25 m front crawl on different days (trial one, T1; trial two, T2), one week apart. A differential pressure system composed of two hand sensors (Aquanex System, v.4.1, Model DU2, Type A, Swimming Technology Research, Richmond, VA, United States) was used to measure the peak (RF_PEAK) and the mean (RF_MEAN) resultant force of the dominant and non-dominant hands (in Newton, N). Reliability was analyzed by computing the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC), typical error (TE), smallest worthwhile change (SWC), coefficient of variation (CV%), standard error of measurement (SEM), and the minimal detectable change (MDC). Bland-Altman plots with 95% limits of agreement were also analyzed. The results showed no differences between T1 and T2 in all variables (p > 0.05). The ICC showed "excellent" reliability (ICC > 0.90) for the RF_PEAK and RF_MEAN in both hands. The CV% was rated as "good" (<5%) and TE was smaller than SWC in all variables. The Bland-Altman plots showed high reliability with a small bias (RF_PEAK dominant, -0.29 N; RF_PEAK non-dominant, -0.83 N; RF_MEAN dominant, 0.03 N; RF_MEAN non-dominant, 0.50 N). The pressure sensor system (Aquanex System) seems to be a reliable device for measuring the hand resultant force during front crawl in young swimmers and can be used to monitor the changes over time.

Keywords: accuracy; differential pressure; hand force; kinetics; swimming.