Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Availability

Open Access Thesis

Keywords

Stretch (Physiology); Swimming--Physiological aspects; Women swimmers; Academic theses;

Abstract

While stretching is commonly part of the pre-performance routine in many sports including swimming, its function has been a controversial topic in the research community. Researchers have found decrements in performance measures such as force (Fowles, Sale, & MacDougall, 2000) and torque (Avela, Kyrolainen, & Komi, 1999) after stretching. While still controversial, some researches have also found decreases in one repetition maximum lifts (Kokkonen, Nelson, & Cornwell, 1998) and various jumping tests (Knudson, Bennett, Com, Leick, & Smith, 2001) after the inclusion of stretching.

Because there is much conflicting evidence in the literature pertaining to stretching and a lack of research on multi-response protocols, the purpose of this study was to determine the effects of stretching on the performance of a 25-yard freestyle swim test. Eleven females from the University of Northern Iowa's Swim Team participated in the study. Each participant swam a 25-yard maximal freestyle sprint on two separate afternoons, once after a warm-up and once after a warm-up and a five-muscle, 15 minute stretching protocol.

Results of the study showed no significant difference (p > .05) in 25-yard swim times after the use of stretching. Additional variables including block time, flight time, flight distance, takeoff velocity, trajectory angle, and angular velocity of the knee were also measured, although frame-by-frame videotape analysis of the start revealed no significant differences in any of these measures as well. It was concluded from this study that stretching prior to a 25-yard sprint did not significantly effect swim time.

Year of Submission

2004

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Department

School of Health, Physical Education, and Leisure Services

First Advisor

Forrest Dolgener

Second Advisor

Kevin Finn

Third Advisor

Robin Lund

Comments

If you are the rightful copyright holder of this thesis and wish to have it removed from the Open Access Collection, please submit a request to scholarworks@uni.edu and include clear identification of the work, preferably with URL.

Date Original

2004

Object Description

1 PDF file (54 leaves)

Language

en

File Format

application/pdf

Share

COinS