Development Of Performance And Age Characteristics Of Elite Competitive Swimmers

The growth of age is a key driving factor for the physical and mental development of athletes,which plays an important role in the development of competitive level.The improvement of swimmers ’performance depends not only on training,but also on their growth.Understanding the age characteristics of elite swimmers’ performance trajectories can provide valuable information for coaches and researchers.Research Objective:The elite swimmers we selected for this study was the Top 8 in 14 Olympic events at swimming world championships and Olympic Games,which held from 2011～2019.By collecting the best annual time from each swimmer between the ages of 12 and 30,to help us understand the age characteristics of elite swimmers,as well as differences in gender,strokes and distance.Combined with the objective law of human growth and development,the biomechanics principle of competitive swimming technology,and the case analysis of top swimmers.Strive to clearly understand the general law of developing excellent swimmers across different age groups.Research methods:This study primarily uses statistical methods.The collected performance data were used to establish a two-level hierarchical linear model by HLM software.Based on the statistical results,this document analyzes the developmental characteristics of athletes at different ages,that is,the linear growth or trend of non-linear changes,and explains its developmental orientation.Statistical analyses were performed using SPSS software(IBM SPSS Statistics 25,SPSS Inc.,Chicago,IL).The Bonferroni correction was used for the multiple comparison tests.This study also uses literature research method to provide a theoretical basis for the research results.Results:1.The result of the hierarchical linear model shows that the percentage difference of their average performance of elite swimmers is 22.71%.As the age increased,the swimmer’s best annual time increased significantly on average by 4.36%per year.It displayed significant growth(P<0.01),which means an average annual increase of 0.19%.2.Significant differences exist in the performance development of athletes of different genders,distances and events.Compared with female swimmers,the percentage of difference in the best performance of male swimmers at the age of 12 is 3.14%higher on average.Results from the different distance athletes showed that as the distance increased,the percentage difference in performance decreased by 1.04%on average.3.Male and female breaststrokers achieve personal best later(23.81 ± 2.99 for males and 22.37 ± 3.19 for females).The peak performance age between female backstroke swimmers and breaststroke swimmer(p<0.01),freestyle swimmers(p<0.01)showed significant differences;4.50 meters swimmer to achieve personal best performance of the largest age(male 25.23±3.25,female 24.71±3.1 8),compared with other distance athletes showed significant difference(p<0.01).800/1500m athletes were earlier to reach their personal best performance(males 21.94 ± 2.41,female 20.92±2.97).The age of peak performance of males and females 100 meters(p<0.01),200 meters(p=0.01)and 400 meters(p=0.015)swimmers showed significant gender differences.There were also significant genders differences in backstroke swimmer(p<0.01)and individual medley swimmers(p=0.09).Conclusions:1.Because of the significant differences between men and women in the growth and development process,there are significant gender differences in swimmer performance.In comparison to male swimmers,female swimmers mature earlier and achieve their best performance earlier.2.The age characteristics of performance development of different distance swimmers are similar to the development of key physical ability affecting each distance events.Long-distance swimmers with higher requirements on anaerobic systems achieve higher levels earlier.Sprinters who need a better strength and anaerobic capacity reach their personal best level later and maintain a higher level of competition for longer periods.The biomechanical variables that determine swimming speed will also affect the performance of athletes.The technology is more complicated,the swimming posture requires higher strength quality,and the athletes reach a higher competitive level later.3.Biomechanical variables that determine swimming velocity will also have an impact on athlete performance development.The strokes which is more complicated technique or requires better strength,the swimmer reach their best performance later.4.The development of swimmer performance shows a non-linear tendency.