Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate the important kinesthesia perceived by college swimmers to enhance swimming skill enhancement. A psychological scale test was employed and the components of the kinesthesia were analyzed. Additionally, we examined the correlations between these components and performance level, gender, swimming distance type and differences in swimming style. Questionnaire forms were completed by 375 Japanese college swimmers, and data for 296 subjects (age: 19.7±1.1 yr) were included after elimination of erroneous data. Twelve questions were presented with answers on a seven-point Likert scale (from 1 Extremely disagree to 7 Extremely agree) regarding the kinesthesia perceived by the swimmers as being important for swimming skill enhancement. The data were analyzed using factor analysis with promax rotation. Higher scores were observed for self-motion (i.e. focusing on internal kinesthesia), which indicated that swimming is a characteristic “closed skill”. After factor analysis of the twelve questions, three main factors emerged: “somatic sense”, “time control” and “special sense”. The swimmers placed special emphasis on “somatic sense” and “time control”, indicating that these kinesthesia are important for swimming skill enhancement. There was no correlation between these factors and performance level or sex. These results indicate that performance level and sex are not related to the degree of kinesthesia perceived during swimming in college students. Long-distance swimmers placed emphasis on “time control”, and breast stroke swimmers emphasized “somatic sense”. We suggest that the present questionnaire could be employed on a practical basis as an index for evaluation of internal changes in swimming skill.
