Coordination in arm movements during crawl stroke in elite swimmers with a loco-motor disability Danguole Satkunskiene a , Lutz Schega b , Katrin Kunze c , Kristina Birzinyte a , Daniel Daly b, * a Laboratory of Sport Performance Management, Faculty of Sports Technologies and Tourism, Lithuanian Academy of Physical Education, Sporto 6, 3000 Kaunas, Lithuania b Department of Rehabilitation Science, Faculty of Kinesiology and Rehabilitation Sciences, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Tervuursevest 101, 3001 Leuven, Belgium c Institute of Rehabilitation Sport, Sport Therapy and Adapted Physical Activity, Faculty of Sport Science, University of Leipzig, Jahnallee 59, 04109 Leipzig, Germany Available online 17 May 2005 Abstract The purpose of this study was to investigate selected kinematics parameters of the arm stroke in crawl swimmers with disabilities and to examine the potential use of an index of arm coordination (IdC) to evaluate the stroking technique of swimmers with diverse func- tional abilities. The degree of overlap in the propulsive phases (superposition model) and lag time between the propulsive phases (catch-up model) was examined in 18 well-trained swimmers with loco-motor disabilities, 9 females and 9 males, from functional classes S3– S10 with S10 being most functional. Based on the results, correct coordination appears to be fundamental to swimming crawlstroke in both able-bodied swimmers as well as swimmers with a disability. Some swimmers with disabilities examined here exhibited extreme values at both ends of the index scale. This might be essential to maintaining balance while swimming when not all limb activity contributes to the forward movement. Ó 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 0167-9457/$ - see front matter Ó 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.humov.2005.04.001 * Corresponding author. Tel.: +32 0 16 32 90 44; fax: +32 0 16 32 91 96. E-mail address: daniel.daly@faber.kuleuven.be (D. Daly). Human Movement Science 24 (2005) 54–65 www.elsevier.com/locate/humov