SHORT COURSE 50M MALE FREESTYLE PERFORMANCE COMPARISON BETWEEN NATIONAL AND REGIONAL SPANISH SWIMMERS

We aimed to analyse and compare the race components of national (47) and regional (158) male swimmers taking part in 50 m freestyle short course event. The relative contribution of each component, the split differences and relative splits were considered. A swimming race analysis system and an automatic swimming performance analysis (ASPA) were applied in the study. National male swimmers obtained significantly shorter times than regional: T10, 3.65 ± 0.14 s vs 4.56 ± 0.43 s; T15, 6.11 ± 0.18 s vs 7.47 ± 0.62 s; TTV15m, 6.99 ± 0.22 s vs 8.42 ± 0.71 s; T50, 23.25 ± 0.57 s vs 27.70 ± 2.16 s; higher SR (cyc•min-1) 60.2 ± 4.13 vs 57.6 ± 5.51; longer SL(m) 1.97 ± 0.15 vs 1.78 ± 0.15; and higher SI(m2•s-1) 3.89 ± 0.36 vs 3.011 ± 0.37. Differences in performances between national and regional Spanish groups were explained by the absolute split times, stroke length and stroke index. These differences were not found analysing the relative splits and indicates a similar race strategy regardless of the swimmers level