Training & Testing 194
Unnithan V et al. Aerobic Cost in Elite Female Adolescent … Int J Sports Med 2009; 30: 194–199
accepted after revision
August 8, 2008
Bibliography
DOI 10.1055/s-0028-1104583
Published online:
February 6, 2009
Int J Sports Med 2009; 30:
194–199 © Georg Thieme
Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York
ISSN 0172-4622
Correspondence
Prof. V. Unnithan
Department of Sport
Liverpool Hope University
Hope Park
Liverpool
United Kingdom
Tel.: + 0151/291/20 45
Fax: + 0151/291/34 14
unnithv@hope.ac.uk
Key words
swimming economy
elite female athletes
Aerobic Cost in Elite Female Adolescent Swimmers
Age group swimmers vary in size and shape, even
in homogeneous elite groups of the same age
grouping. The effect of body length, surface area,
cross-sectional area, and weight have an effect on
friction, form and wave drag and thus correcting
C
s
for these variables may explain some of the
differences among swimmers, even in an elite
age group. Therefore, examining C
s
after correc-
tion for some of these variables would demon-
strate their role in C
s
and performance.
Determining the importance of maximal aerobic
power and C
s
in the performance of young female
elite swimmers, could ultimately help guide the
coaching strategy in these swimmers. Conse-
quently, the purpose of this study was to deter-
mine these variables in elite young female
swimmers and examine their relationship to
their race times and ranking nationally. It was
hypothesized that maximal aerobic power and C
s
would act as significant predictors of race time
and national ranking in elite, adolescent female
swimmers.
Introduction
&
Maximal performance in swimming depends on
metabolic power and the economy of the swim-
mer [26]. There are few studies of metabolic
power or economy in young elite female swim-
mers. Data on the relationship between peak V
˙
O
2
and swimming have been equivocal. Ogita et al.
[16] demonstrated a positive correlation between
V
˙
O
2
max and swimming performance over the
200–400 m freestyle races. Weiss et al. [25], in
elite adult female swimmers, found that aerobic
capacity played an important role in swimming
technique at high stroke rates and velocities.
However, Costill et al. [6] suggested that a high
peak V
˙
O
2
does not correlate with improved swim-
ming performance.
A complex inter-play exists between peak V
˙
O
2
and swimming economy in high caliber swim-
mers [23]. High level swimming performance can
be achieved with either low economy and high
peak V
˙
O
2
or high economy and lower peak V
˙
O
2
.
Furthermore, evidence exists to suggest that the
submaximal energy cost of swimming (C
s
) is
dependent, in part, on underwater torque which
in turn has been shown to increase with age
[15, 26, 27, 28].
Authors V. Unnithan
1
, J. Holohan
2
, B. Fernhall
3
, J. Wylegala
4
, T. Rowland
5
, D. R. Pendergast
6
Affiliations Affiliation addresses are listed at the end of the article
Abstract
&
Maximal performance in swimming depends
on metabolic power and the economy of swim-
ming. Thus, the energy cost of swimming
(economy = V
˙
O
2
/V, C
s
) and maximal aerobic
power ( V
˙
O
2max
) in elite young female swimmers
(n = 10, age: 15.3 ± 1.5 years) and their relation-
ships to race times (50–1 000 m) and national
ranking were examined. V
˙
O
2
increased exponen-
tially with velocity (V), ( V
˙
O
2
= 5.95 + ( − 10.58 V) +
5.84 V
2
) to a maximal V
˙
O
2
of 2.71 ± 0.50 L · min
− 1
(46.7 ± 8.2 mL · kg
− 1
· min
− 1
) at a free swimming
velocity of 1.37 ± 0.07 m · s
− 1
. C
s
was constant up
to 1.2 m · s
− 1
(21.5 mL · m
− 1
), however was sig-
nificantly higher at 1.36 m · s
− 1
(27.3 mL · m
− 1
).
Peak [La] was 5.34 ± 2.26 mM. C
s
expressed as a
percentage of Cs at maximal swimming veloc-
ity was significantly correlated with race times
and ranking across a number of distances. The
data for these elite females demonstrate that the
energy cost of swimming is a good predictor of
performance across a range of distances. How-
ever, as swimming performance is determined
by a combination of factors, these findings war-
rant further examination.