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Recording the subjective perception of fatigue to improve performance in the sport of finswimming (Bachelor thesis)

Δανέλης, Ιωάννης/ Danelis, Ioannis

In the field of coaching, a gap has been observed in recent years regarding the recording of athletes' loads in the sport of technical swimming. The training load in swimming can be divided into internal, in which the subjective fatigue index, heart rate, sleep quality, eating habits, mood and psychological state are evaluated, and external, in which it is recorded with indicators such as distance traveled, speed and number of complete arm movements during training or competitions. Training load tracking can be used by coaches to plan daily, weekly and monthly training plans. For this reason, relationships have been established between these data, such as monotonicity of training for the weekly recording and the ratio of long-term and short-term load over longer periods. The purpose of this research was to examine variations in training monotony between microcycles in swimming. The sample consisted of 23 technical swimmers, 15 to 22 years old, from the Prefecture of Attica, participating in competitive distances from 50-1500m, with single and double fins. For the needs of the study, a daily recording of the subjective perception of fatigue was carried out, a 0-10 scale questionnaire (RPE scale) was completed and in combination with the duration of the training, the sRPE of each training unit was calculated. Training monotonicity was calculated as the quotient of the mean and standard deviation of the internal load for each microcycle separately. A repeated factor analysis of variance was used for statistical analysis of the data. Data analysis showed that there were 38% differences between 1st (1.64 0.496) and 3rd week (2.33 ± 1.142) and 18% differences between 2nd (1.46±0.493) and 3rd week. The results of the study indicate that there may be differences in internal training load between weeks in finswimming. Specifically in the third week, training monotony exceeded the 2-point threshold, a point that has been presented in the literature as a threshold for overtraining or increased injury incidence. Information from this study can be used by coaches to better plan training and prevent overtraining.