Smith, GraceSmith, Jessica2017-02-092017-02-092016-09Smith, J. (2016). Movement variability in the frontcrawl and breaststroke swimming starts (Master's thesis). University of Chester, United Kingdom.http://hdl.handle.net/10034/620367The purpose of this study was to quantify biological variability of linear and angular kinematics in breaststroke and frontcrawl starts, when using the track start technique. Four male and six female swimmers aged 18 – 21 years old (mass: 70.3 kg ± 3.9; height: 167.1 cm ± 9.5) with a minimum of five years’ competitive experience performed ten breaststroke and ten frontcrawl starts. One 120 Hz camera recorded block and flight phases for subsequent two dimensional full body manual digitisation, using Quintic software. One 60 Hz camera captured temporal data of each trial. One underwater 50 Hz camera captured the underwater phase from entry in the sagittal plane. Biological coefficient of variation (BCV%) was calculated by extracting technical error (SEM%) from the coefficient of variation (CV%). A series of paired t-tests were used to compare BCV% of each start parameter between strokes using SPSS version 22.0. BCV% of start parameters and task outcome (time to 15 m were compared). There was no significant difference in BCV% between start parameters of the breaststroke and frontcrawl starts, despite BCV% being lower in the majority of frontcrawl parameters. Variability in task outcome was considerably lower than linear and angular kinematic parameters of the start, supporting the dynamic systems theory. Whilst variability does exist in start parameters, the task constraint of the stroke swam does not produce significant differences in biological variation of key start parameters.enhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/swimmingmovementThesis or dissertation