An assessment of selected motor skills in young female swimmers and their associations with swimming test results – a pilot study

Introduction
The most recent WHO report (2020) highlighted the scarcity of information regarding how different physical activities and sports influence the development of motor skills in young people.

Aim of the research
This study set out to determine if dryland speed, endurance, strength, and flexibility would differentiate peripubertal female swimmers from their untrained peers, and how the swimmers’ performance on dryland motor skills tests would correlate with the results of standard 25-, 50-, 75-, and 100-m swimming tests involving front crawl, breaststroke, and backstroke.

Material and methods
Twenty-eight peripubertal female swimmers and 22 same-age girls in the control group performed the following tests of motor skill: the 50-m sprint run test (speed), the 20-m shuttle run test (cardiorespiratory fitness), the 30-s sit-up test (abdominal muscle endurance), the backward overhead medicine ball throw test (back muscle strength), and the sit and reach test (flexibility).

Results
The swimmers performed significantly better than the control group on tests assessing speed (p < 0.01), abdominal muscle endurance (p < 0.001), back muscle strength (p < 0.001), and flexibility (p < 0.01) but did not differ from the control group in the level of cardiorespiratory fitness. Speed, cardiorespiratory fitness, and abdominal muscle endurance were best predicted by 25-m backstroke velocity (p < 0.001 in all cases), back muscle strength by 25-m front crawl velocity (p < 0.05), and flexibility by 25-m breaststroke velocity (p < 0.01).

Conclusions
Although swimming training for peripubertal children emphasizes cardiorespiratory fitness, it only significantly improved the studied swimmers speed, strength, abdominal muscle endurance, and flexibility.