Relationship of Freestyle Swimming Performance Between Adolescence and Adult Japanese Top-class Swimmers

Abstract

Objective: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the relationship of freestyle swimming performance between adolescence and adult Japanese top-class swimmers.

Methods: The 234 males and 134 females ranked in the top 100 records of 50, 100, 200 and 400 m freestyle short-course performances of over 22 years old during 2016 to 2018 (latest TIME), and their season best performances during 2006 to 2017 were analyzed. All data were collected from the public database “Swimrecord.com” by Japan Swimming Federation. Performance maturity status was determined by the ratio of each age record to the latest TIME and the relationship between the latest TIME and each age record was evaluated. Also, the subjects were divided into the upper or lower group with reference to the latest TIME and the developmental changes of performance were compared between the groups.

Results: The performance maturity status was higher in females than males at each age. The correlation between the latest TIME and each age record became gradually stronger from males aged 17 years and females aged 14 years, but there was no clear correlation in the previous records. There was no difference in developmental changes in performance between the upper and lower groups in both males and females.

Conclusions: The longitudinal analysis of the swimming performance in the growth period reveals that the Japanese top-class swimmers show high performance before 12 years old and that the time to approximate peak performance appeared earlier in females than in males and the relationship is different depending on swimming distance.