Performance analysis of 10-12-year-old adolescent Chinese in swimming start and turn: A pilot study

Abstract

From 2018 to 2020, more than 5,000 swimming clubs were registered in China every year. By 2022, China had one million athletes participating in amateur swimming training. However, previous studies have hardly examined swim initiation and turn performances in Chinese amateur youth club swimmers. This study was designed to describe adolescents’ start and turn techniques in amateur swimming clubs in China and explore a pilot method for developing reliable start and turn performances. The study surveyed 80 swimmers aged 10 to 12 years in Ningxia Amateur Swimming Club in 2022, Ningxia province, China. Using test-retest reliability, the intra-class correlation coefficients (ICC) for all dependent variables ranged from 0.920 to 0.999 (Pearson’s r). It was concluded that the test procedure had high reliability and accurately reflected the swimmers’ performances in the start and turn techniques. The study provides baseline information for future researchers to accurately measure adolescent swimming starts and turns.