Abstract
Swimming performance in males is superior to that in females at college level. It is supposed that this phenomenon is based on the developmental differences of various physical factors between males and females. The present study was designed to examine the sexual differences of physique, musclar strength, flexibility, neuromuscular function, cardio-respiratory function and elementary swimming skill in 245well-trained college male and female swimmers. The main findings are summarized as follows: 1) Physique elements except of body fat, muscular strength, neuromuscular function besides agility of the legs, and cardio-respiratory function were found to be significhnt1y superior in male swimmers as compared with female swimmers. In contrast, flexibility except of trunk rotation in female swimmers was much greater than that in male swimmers. Concerning elementary swimming skill, skills of under water swim and direction change swim c1osely related to speed were significantly better in male swimmers, although floating skill closely to related buoyancy was significantly better in female swimmers. From examining of the above-findings, it is inferred that major factors which produced the sexual difference of swimming performance were based on the developmental difference of muscular strength and cardio-respiratory function. 2) Swimmers seemed to possess superior abilities such as physique, muscular endurance, flexibility, and lung capacity as compared with their non-swimmers of same age level. 3) In analyzing different swimming strokes, it seemed that the sexual differences of physique aspects (i.e., body linearity, both girth, and lean body mass) were greater in individual medley stroke, but smaller in breast stroke. Concerning crawl and back strokes, significant differences between male and female swimmers were found in flexibility of trank extension, trunk lateral flexion, and so forth. And it seemed that the developmental balance of flexibility of each physical joint was different between male and female swimmers in every swimming stroke. Significant differences between male and female were also shown only in butterfly and individual strokes for glide skill, and in every stroke except of butterfly for treading water skill. The sexual differences of these skills appeared to be different in each swimming stroke.
