Swimming velocity patterns in elite women’s water polo: a case study

There is a paucity of information on the swimming velocity profiles of elite women water polo players during competitive game situations. This study sought to establish a method to reliably asses the patterns of swimming velocities evident for an elite women water polo player. One full game was filmed and the image space calibrated to allow the swimming velocities of one of the players to be calculated. A reliability analysis performed on the data demonstrated that the reliability of the velocity data was high. The results of the motion analysis revealed a relatively low overall swimming time and total distance swum for the player analysed. It was also determined that, when comparing the results to the player’s maximum swimming velocity, a large proportion of the swims were performed at a relatively low intensity. This tends to indicate that a large proportion of the total energy cost in a water polo game can potentially come from non-swimming activities. The information provided by this sort of analysis can supply objective information that can be used to better tailor swimming conditioning programs to reflect the demands of a game situation.