Sports Medicine in Change

Abstract

Background: Reaction time plays an important role in swimming competitions and in saving lives as a lifeguard: only a small delay in response to auditory stimuli can mean first or second place in competitions or success in saving lives. The purpose of this study was to compare expert swimmers reaction times at preferred and non-preferred running speeds.Methods: Twenty expert, female swimmers with mean age of 27.84 years (SD: 5.56) were instructed to run at their own preferred speed for 50 m on a treadmill. Then they ran the same distance 30% slower and 30% faster than their own preferred speeds. In order to examine swimmers attentional demands while running, their vocal reaction time, following an auditory stimulus, was measured by Audacity software. The interval between stimulation and the first response was calculated as swimmers reaction time. Results: An analysis of variance with repeated measures revealed that reaction time at a slow pace (0.5420.023s) was faster than at the preferred speed (0.6460.08s; P0.001). Conclusion: When running on a treadmill, swimmers focus their attention on maintaining their balance; that is why at slower speeds more attention can be directed to the auditory stimulus, resulting in shorter reaction times. In addition, these results indicate that changing movement planes (horizontal plane versus sagittal plane) can affect the level of skills in expert swimmers and lifeguards.KEY WORDS: Attentional Demands, Movement Plane, Swimming, Running Speed, Secondary Task