How to Create a Ground-Breaking Swim Race Analysis
As you might already know, I spent a whole weekend at the Experientia Congress in Granada, Spain at the beginning of October. On behalf of the Austrian Swimming Federation, I represented umimplavat.cz and deepened my understanding of the importance of swim race analysis.
But it wasn’t just any simple training trip for me…
I came back to old friends… Two years ago I was an intern at the Aquaticslab in Granada. Not only did I enjoy the gorgeous scenery, but I had unique experiences and learned a great deal.
Since then I worked a lot in the field of swim race analysis and I enhanced my skills. But there’s always something new to discover.
You know what they say… the one who stops learning stops living… So I didn’t have to think twice before joining the Experientia Congress.
During the 3-day conference, we covered mainly 3 thrilling topics regarding the importance of swim race analysis and the inner principles of a swim race performance. And how to create reports which give the best possible foundation for coaches and swimmers.
But first, is swim race analysis even worth our precious time and hard-earned money? Glad you asked!
YES, yes it is!
You’ll never unlock your full potential unless you start tracking your swim performance. You need the cold-heart data to measure your process. Only then will you know which details you can still tweak.
By understanding and using that knowledge you have the ultimate tool to improve future results.
With that being said, let’s dive a little deeper into the juicy part of this post…
The 3 Fascinating Topics we Covered at the Experientia Congress in Granada + Their Key Takeaways
1. The 2 Swim Race Components to Focus on
During this session, we mainly dealt with the two components of a swim race: cyclic (clean swimming and finish) and acyclic (start and turns). This split proves to be crucial for training and race analysis.
Always keep in mind that there’s a difference between the performances of individual races within a season and within a specific competition.
By splitting up a swim you’ll be able to not only focus on each section individually but you can specifically work on their details during practice.
The thing is, we all know that the magic lies within the details, that separates an athlete from a top athlete…
2. Which Data to Collect & Types of Swim Analysis
(R. Arrellano: Swimming competitive performance analysis congress; 2022, Spain)
The second session was all about data. We looked a little closer at how to analyze a swimming performance and the 4 groups of data to combine to get in the results you’re aiming for:
- Individual Data
- Big Data
- Pre-Competition
- Train to Compete vs. Train to Win
This specific collection of data you get from filming, official results, and subsequent detailed section analysis of the whole race.
Let’s say you collect all this beautiful data… What happens next?
You can differentiate between split and full detailed analysis.
While using split times of the results you’re able to collect basic data and provide information about the profile of your pace in general (e.g. for long-distance events).
With a full detail analysis, you go even deeper into the split times, e.g. each 5 -10m of the race. Plus the other race components in each 10m section.
Finally, it’s all going down to good old mathematics…
Because with the collected data you can feed predictive mathematical models to improve the swimmer‘s performances based on retrospective race analysis data (speed charts, timetables, benchmarks,…).
In recent years automatic tracking and data collection started to be a well-discussed topic…
But big news: FINA finally approved the automatic data collection during competitions! „Allowing the use of technology and automated data collection devices for the sole purpose of collecting data.“
3. How to Utilize Swim Race Reports in Practice
It hasn’t been that long, since coaches use race analysis and reports to improve the little details and let swimmers thrive to success…
In fact at the 1980 Olympics in Moscow, the Russians were the first ones to use this kind of technique. But they kept it a secret so they would be ahead of their competitors.
However, as it is with all secrets, this one did not remain undiscovered for long…
Of course, the rest of the swimming universe also detected this possibility and has been developing it ever since.
The third session was all about our goal as swimming analysts: We aid coaches, and athletes in their decision-making by providing evidence-based recommendations for their practice.
So nowadays we use swimming race analysis as a tool to evaluate the competitive performance of a swimmer. And this ultimately provides information for a specific race pace training — tailored to each swimmer.
This could look like this:
Based on the analysis, you work separately on the start, turns, and finish. The technique is precisely watched all the time and every little detail is considered. Later all components will be put together — start, clean swim, turn and finish.
I hate to break it down to you, but a single swim race analysis won’t do the trick…
Combining the race data with a daily or weekly monitoring process during practice is vital. E.g. video recording underwater, testing specific movements, or simulating race conditions.
So if it’s not used regularly in practice, it is challenging to recognize its effect on the future performance of the swimmer…
I hope you were able to get some insight into the exceptional Experientia Congress in Granada and a little behind the scenes of our work and its impact on the sport of swimming.
Got more questions? Just drop them in the comments.
Until then looking forward to reading you next time,
From Granada
Team member Marek
P.S. If you want to learn more about us and our mission to change the swimming universe, just visit us on Instagram, Facebook, or LinkedIn. Also, we’re going to publish some magnetic insights into our work on our blog every other week. Let’s keep in touch!
