The Relationship Between Horizontal Push-Off and Land-Based Vertical Jump During Tumble Turns in Freestyle Swimming

The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between the horizontal push-off against the pool wall and the land-based vertical jump performance during the tumble turn in freestyle swimming technique. Twenty-one young male swimmers (age:15.7±1.53 years; height:176.3±7.07 cm; body weight:63.7±7.61 kg) with at least four years of swimming training experience were participated in the study. In this study, the swimmers were tested on land and in the water. To examine the land based vertical jump performance, the countermovement jump, and the drop-jump (25 cm height) tests were performed. In the pool tests, the swimming times at 20 m, 25 m and, 5 m after the tumble turn were recorded. The relationship between land based and in water performance were analyzed using Pearson Correlation Test. A significant relationship was found between the tuck index and the drop jump height (p<0.05). A strong positive correlation was found between the tuck index angle, the 25 m swimming time, and the average speed for the last 5 m before the turn (p<0,05). As a result, it was investigated that increasing the vertical jump training and the land-based training can also increase the swimming performance. It is recommended that swimming coaches include lower extremity vertical strength training exercises on land in training programs.