Relationship of Physical and Kinetic Characteristics of the Ankle Joint and the Performance of Freestyle Kick in Pre-pubertal Swimmers and Water Polo Players

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between physical and kinetic characteristics of the ankle joint and the performance of freestyle kick at swimmers and water polo players 11 & 12 years old. The sample of this study was consisting of 50 prepubertal male athletes (25 swimmers, 25 water polo players). All participants completed a procedure of three measurements. In the first stage the body mass and height were meas-ured. Additionally, each athletes’ plantar print was recorded on paper. In the second stage, after stretching for 5΄-7΄, the flexibility of the ankle joint was measured. In the final step of the measurements the time of performance at 25m and 200m freestyle kick was recorded. The results of the study revealed statistically significant differences in perfor-mance of 25m freestyle kick among swimmers (21.4 ± 2.6 sec) and water polo players (25.5 ± 3.2 sec) (p<.05). The same result was found for the 200m freestyle kick (217.96 ± 18.97 sec vs 246.16 ± 26.11 sec, for swimmers and water polo players respectively) (p<.05). Accord-ing to the results, swimmers were more flexible than the water polo players. Thoroughly concerning the dorsiflexion of the ankle (88.48 ± 9.52º vs 94.6 ± 6.36º) and plantar flexion (171 ± 6.6º vs 165 ± 7.1º, for swimmers and water polo players respectively) (p<.05). In the other hand, there were no statistical differences at the size and the anatomical zero of the ankle joint, for swimmers and water polo players. Finally, there was found negative corre-lation between ankle plantar flexion with the performance of 25m (T= -2.590, p<.05) and 200m (T= -3.143, p<.05) freestyle kick. While correlation between ankle dorsiflexion and the performance of 200m freestyle kick was revealed by our study. In summary, the free-style kick performance depends on the ankle joint flexibility of prepubertal athletes.