RESEARCH ARTICLE
Kinematic and Electromiographic Analysis of the Water Polo Crawl While Leading the Ball: A Pilot Study
F. Pereira1, P. Figueiredo1, P. Goncalves1, S. Pereira1, 2, J. P. Vilas-Boas1, R. J. Fernandes1, *, L. Machado1
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2010Volume: 3
First Page: 31
Last Page: 33
Publisher ID: TOSSJ-3-31
DOI: 10.2174/1875399X010030100031
Article History:
Received Date: 05/07/2009Revision Received Date: 06/10/2009
Acceptance Date: 09/11/2009
Electronic publication date: 20/4/2010
Collection year: 2010
open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Our aim was to conduct a kinematic and electromyographic characterization of the water polo front crawl while leading the ball technique. A high level male water polo player performed an experimental protocol of 3x15m at front crawl while leading the ball (with rest intervals of 2min between repetitions). Each repetition was performed in acceleration. One complete stroke cycle was analyzed for each repetition of 15m using surface electromyography to analyse the biceps femoris, gastrocnemius medialis, tricips brachii, b좥ps brachii, deltoideus posterior and rectus femoris muscles. The protocol was also recorded by 2 surface and 4 underwater cameras in order to assess centre of mass (CM) velocity during the cycle and its fluctuations. EMG signal was digital filtered (35-500Hz), full-wave rectified, calculated the linear envelope, normalized to the maximal isometric voluntary contraction and integrated (iEMG). The fluctuations of CM velocity were assessed though the coefficient of variation of the instantaneous velocity. Results showed that tricips brachii and gastrocnemius medialis were the most active muscles in the beginning of the cycle and that gastrocnemius medialis, deltoideus posterior and tricips brachii displayed the highest values (and b좥ps brachii the lower values) of maximum electric activity and iEMG. It was observed an increase in the velocity of the CM at the beginning of the cycle, decreasing slightly afterwards, implying a reduced coefficient of variation (16.8). It should be evidenced the different involvement of the studied muscles in the cycle of front crawl while leading the ball and the consequent differences in the CM velocity.
