The relationships between breaststroke performance and muscular function of two hip adductors: Muscle force and muscle endurance

Abstract

This study is aimed to clarify how swimmers’ breaststroke performance is related to two physical variables of the hip adductors: muscle force and muscle endurance. Fifteen males belonging to a college swimming club （average age: 21.4 ± 1.2 years; average swimming experience: 13.9 ± 3.6 years） participated in the study. The intra-class correlation coefficients between two trials of breaststroke performance, breaststroke kick performance, and muscle force were 0.980, 0.982, and 0.952, respectively. There were significant correlations between muscle force and both overall breaststroke performance（r = - 0.711） and breaststroke kick performance （r = - 0.653） . However, there were no significant correlations between muscle endurance and either measure of breaststroke performances. We conclude that greater hip adductor muscle force tends to facilitate faster swim time of the 25-meter breaststroke and greater breaststroke kicking ability.