open-water swimming

physiological performance
experience and habituation
Abou el ella A. Abd El fattah Ph.D.
Abou el ella Fattah 1
 Contents

1.Talent identification
2.physiological performance
3.open-water experience and
habituation

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1. Talent identification

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The characteristics of a successful
open-water swimmer are unclear

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This comparison between the open water swimmers and pool swimmers.
Notes from the table increase the power of pool swimmers, height, weight, muscle mass more
and increase body fat % to the open waterAbou
swimmers
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 Tall (i.e. greater than
average height)

Wide shoulder
girdle and narrow hip
width

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 Individual
Free Brest Back Butterfly
medley

Longest distance swimmer

is shorter stature

Lower
muscle
mass

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Height
cm
Women have body fat
measurements between17%
and 23%, while mens body fat
is between9% and 13%.

Shorter
and lighter
Open
water
Swimmer

Short legs

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 long arms

the arm-span taken

from the
extremities of the
outstretched arms
Arm span: 200 cm
should be equal to,
or greater than,
ones standing Height:
193 cm

height
Weight: 88 kg
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 large hands and feet

Michael Phelps
Feet size: 14

Ian Thrope's size: 17

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 Age
for any event.FINA Rules require swimmers to be at least
14 years of age

ASA Regulation (410.4) requires the following minimum

ages to apply for each event:

Events up to and including 1,000m 11 years

Events up to and including 2,000m 12 years
Events up to and including 10,000m 13 years
Events over 10,000m 16 years

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2 .physiological performance

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 Training for open-water swimming
performance should focus on two key areas:
David Walliams

physiological performance

Training
open-water experience and
habituation

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 Energy demand for Open Water
swimming
Basically, the longer the
Swimming event, the
more important
Energy aerobic conditioning
demand for becomes
Open Water There are also periods
during the race which
demand
sprinting ability

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 Brain tells a muscle to contract
When the brain tells a
muscle to contract,
such as in swimming it
conveys a signal to the
muscle via the nerves

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Muscle fibers to begin contracting

This activates
a group of
muscle fibers
to begin
contracting

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 ATP provides the energy for this
contraction
The process for
this is complex,
but a single
compound called
ATP provides the
energy for this
contraction
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 ATP The Bodys Energy Currency
Whether it's:
during open water swimming
or one explosive movement like a start or
sprint,
skeletal muscle is powered by one compound...
adenosine triphosphate (ATP)

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ATP consists of one molecule of protein (adenosine)
and three molecules of phosphate.

Muscle cells always contain free ATP, which

reduces to ADP (adenosine diphosphate) and
releases the energy during the first few
seconds of work
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 100 m 200
m-400m

25 m - 50 m

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 The Creatine Phosphate system
is extremely fast and it
has no negative by-
products
It very rapidly recycles
ATP from ADP.
Usually after 2-3 seconds
of high intensity work,
free ATP stores in muscle
cells are depleted.

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 Then CP phosphate is involved to recycle ATP.
After 10-15 seconds of high intensity work
the rate of recycling ATP from CP is slowed
down.
Creatine Phosphate has very high power, low
capacity, and low efficiency.

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 Examples of swimming sets and distances to
develop creatine phosphate metabolism
diving and turns,
short distances (10-25 M/Y) with maximum
intensity,
swimming sets with short distance and long
rest interval (i.e., 4-6 x 12.5 M/Y, 2-4 x 25
M/Y with rest interval 1-3 min.).

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 The anaerobic glycolytic system

has 10 steps but

they happen very
fast
The end product is
pyruvate but it
turns into lactate
almost immediately.
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This is a complicated
process to produce a
small amount of
energy, but it is very
fast.
It is slower than the
creatine phosphate
system but much
faster than the
aerobic system
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 For200 m 400m

. It is the main energy system for exercise bouts of 30 sec until 3

min.
Anaerobic metabolism has high power, middle capacity, and low
efficiency Abou el ella Fattah 26
Examples of swimming sets and distances
that develop anaerobic metabolism
distances of 50 to 300 M/Y, high
intensity swimming sets with short
rest interval
(i.e., 6-16 x 25 M/Y, 4-8 x 50 M/Y,
2-4 x 100 M/Y, 2 x 200 M/Y with rest
interval 20-30 sec etc.).

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is the oxidative process
of recycling ATP primarily
from glycogen.

It is a slow process of
recycling ATP.

Fats and proteins can be

involved in aerobic
metabolism also, but this
process is very slow (long
distance swimming).

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 Nearly all the pyruvate
produced by this
process will follow one
of two paths.

Either
or

it is used
immediately
as fuel for it is converted
aerobic into lactate
energy

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Examples of swimming sets and distances that
develop aerobic metabolism

distances of 2000 M/Y and longer,

low and middle intensity swimming
sets with short rest interval
(i.e., 20 and more x 100 M/Y, 10 and
more x 200 M/Y, 7 and more x 300
M/Y, 5 and more x 400 M/Y etc.).

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 ENERGY SYSTEMS FOR SELECTED
SWIMMING EVENTS
EVENTS % ATP-PC % Glycolisis % Aerobic
Swim (50m) 95 5 0

Swim (100m) 80 20 0

Swim (200m) 30 65 5

Swim (400m) 20 40 40

Swim (1.5km) 10 20 70
the longer the Swimming event, the more important aerobic
conditioning becomes
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 sprint at various points in race depend on
Creatine Phosphate (immediate non-oxidative way of energy
recycling)

start
around the turn bouys

to pass Abou el ella Fattah 32

one another at the finish
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.
The name is derived from V - volume, O2 -
oxygen, max - maximum.

VO2 max (also maximal oxygen consumption,

maximal oxygen uptake, peak oxygen uptake or
maximal aerobic capacity)
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 Race economy
Race economy is to swim with The less oxygen consumes
to maintain a given pace
Swimmers could improve their swimming economy by
improving the Technique and flexibility of shoulders and
feet
stroke mechanics
Neurological recruitment of different types of muscle
fibers
body type
High-tech swimsuits
shaving of body hair Abou el ella Fattah 35
 Lactate threshold

Lactate threshold is considered the upper

limit of steady-state aerobic metabolism.

If this threshold is crossed there will be rapid

accumulation of many metabolites in the
muscles and blood (Karp 1992)

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 AT was defined as the point at
which there was :
1) a nonlinear increase in ventilation,
2) a nonlinear increase of the arterial blood
lactate level,
3) a nonlinear increase in CO2 production,
4) an arterial lactate level of 4 mmol/l,

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 Open water
swimming

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 90-95% from the maximum
velocity on 200 meters.
Based unlimited studies on Open Water
swimmers, their lactate threshold is at
90-95% from the maximum velocity on
200 meters.

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3 .open-water experience and
habituation

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 Ability to Acclimatization
Experience
and swim the
Habituation distance

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 Ability to swim the distance

Unlike a pool there are

no
no lane
no lines on walls to water
ropes wind
the bottom push off temperature
from

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 with the physiological impact of the cold and
sometimes saline environment

navigate
open-water
swimming a
significant
the control and
physiological deep
ability maintain
and water pace
to
psychological
challenge.

coping with the prolonged

isolation of often opaque
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 Very little acclimatization takes
place in response to cold-water
exposure to open water.

Acclimatization

Currents, DEHYDRATION
eddies, rip CHAFING HYPOTHERMIA AND
tides, HYPERTHERMIA

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 DEHYDRATION AND HYPERTHERMIA
Dehydration is an illness which causes
extreme electrolyte imbalances in the body.

It occurs when you do not take in enough

fluids to replace what have been lost
through sweat and urination.

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 Reduction
in stroke
volume

increase
fainting in heart fatigue
physiological rate and
changes occur depletion of
All
energy
with these changes in
dehydration conjunction
with
and/or decline in
hyperthermia anaerobic
headache and lactate will affect
threshold swimming
performances
electrolyte
imbalance

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 dehydration is a danger during
swimming
for two reasons

when you exercise, because you are

you sweat. When you surrounded by water,
are in the water your brain is tricked to
swimming, you do not think you have all the
realize that you are fluid you need, and
still sweating losing does not signal your
fluid mouth and throat to
be thirsty.
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good hydration and electrolyte balance is essential not
only to peak performance, but also to muscle cramp
prevention, health and safety.

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 A cold shock
response

can occur immediately on

submersion in cold water

leading to hyperventilation and a

dramatic fall in breath hold time

acclimatization (habituation) can

reduce the cold shock response.
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In addition to core temperature,
peripheral and skin temperatures
play an important role in open-
water performance.

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 Leads to
Reduces
cooled Reduces the
peripheral muscle level of
performance in
nerve power swimming
output

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 To treat severe hypothermia
swimmers must first be removed from the
water

dry warm clothes

warm drinks and baths

external heat devices(lamps, etc.) and other techniques
may be used

In severe cases, advanced warming techniques

and medicalAbouassistance
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 Prevention is the best option and it can be addressed by
several methods

gradual exposure to increasingly cold

Acclimatization (or warm) water over time

but their use may be limited by the

Layered swim caps rules of the competition
.

decrease the middle and inner ear

Ear plugs
exposure to cold

lanolin and other will lessen the impact of the cold,

coating agents they do not actually decrease heat
loss
.
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 hypertonic environment of seawater
the hypertonic
environment of seawater
with a 3.5% sodium compared with 1% in cells
solution

leads to significant
problems with feeding
and abrasions that can
have a profound effect
on performance
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Chafing is a common ailment and complaint among
open water swimmers There are three fundamental
types

Fabric- Hair-on-
Skin-on-
on-skin skin
skin
chafing chafing
chafing

improper stroke a swimsuit,

mechanics can goggles, swim facial and
cause chafing as cap, protective
body hair can
can a cross-over suit or wetsuit
can cause some cause chafing
kick or
breathing. mean chafing.

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 Common sites

suit lines,
shoulder (caused by
breathing patterns),
armpit,
inner thighs,
back of neck (sighting)
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Thank you for your attention!

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