Flutter kick technique and its effect on overall front crawl velocity

Abstract

Purpose: To investigate the changes in flutter kicking frequency, knee angle and ankle plantarflexion angle at different free front crawl swimming velocities. Methods: Nine participants (six males and three females) swam 25 m of front crawl at three different velocities – 50%, 70% and 90% of their maximum velocity. Underwater video recordings of participants were analysed and recorded via Kinovea, and data collected were analysed using JASP Version 0.14. Results: A negative correlation was observed between kicking frequency and velocity during trials of V50 (p < .05), V70 (p > .05) and V90 (p > .05) respectively. Knee angles positively correlated with velocity (p > .05), while a large disparity in correlation was observed between velocity and ankle plantarflexion (p > .05). A significant difference in kicking frequencies and knee angles between different velocities was observed (p < .05). Ankle plantarflexion did not differ significantly between velocities (p > .05). Conclusions: Flutter kick frequency increased significantly as task demand increases. A higher swimming velocity may result in smaller degrees of knee flexion, but no significant differences were observed in this study. No clear relationship between velocity and ankle plantarflexion was observed possibly due to experimental errors.