The aim of this case study was to examine the upper and lower limbs muscular responses of one elite breaststroke swimmer at three different glide and speed conditions, to understand how strength and condition could be optimized during training. Surface electromyograms (sEMG) were collected in biceps brachii (BB), biceps femoris (BF), deltoid anterior (DA), gastrocnemius medialis (GM), pectoralis major (PM) rectus femoris (RF), tibialis anterior (TA), and tríceps brachii (TB) during 18 x 25 m breaststroke trials performed at three different glide( normal, maximal, minimal) and speed (70, 80 and 90% of maximal speed) conditions. Each trial required an individually imposed swimming speed corresponding to 70, 80 and 90% of the swimmer maximal speed and a specific glide condition: minimal glide, normal glide and maximal glide. In maximal glide, higher participation of TB and DA and TA, RF, and GM muscles. In normal glide, a significant higher participation of all the muscles occurred, except for GM. In minimal glide, a significant higher participation of all the muscles occurred, except for the PM. We have also found that swimming at 90% of maximal speed led to significant higher use of the BB and PM muscles, for the upper limbs and BF and TA muscles for the lower limbs. In conclusion, the swimmer recruited different muscles as increasing his swimming speed and when gliding differently than normally. It suggested that strength and condition should be trained for various swimming speeds associated to various conditions of glide to ensure behavioral adaptability in competition.

The purpose of the current study was to identify the relationships between competitive performance and tether forces according to distance swam, in the four strokes, and to analyze if relative values of force production are better determinants of swimming performance than absolute values. The subjects (n = 32) performed a 30 s tethered swimming all-out effort. The competitive swimming velocities were obtained in the distances 50, 100 and 200 m using official chronometric values of competitions within 25 days after testing protocol. Mean force and velocity (50 m event) show significant correlations for front crawl (r = .92, p < .01), backstroke (r = .81, p < .05), breaststroke (r = .94, p < .01) and butterfly (r = .92, p < .01). The data suggests that absolute values of force production are more associated to competitive performance than relative values (normalized to body mass). Tethered swimming test seems to be a reliable protocol to evaluate the swimmer stroking force production and a helpful estimator of competitive performance in short distance competitive events.