Critical Swim Speed

On 22-02-2003 02:03, in article

Quoted post said:

I am a rookie swim coach and I've been reading alot about "Critical Swim Speed". When I swam we
relied on a 3000 for time, but I'm wondering what other methods coaches might use to determine
this base pace.

You can estimate critical speed by taking the slope of the regression of time on distance. So if you
have time for 100, 200 and 400 m, plot it in a graph and estimate the slope and you have estimated
critical speed

Huub Toussaint ifkb.nlB4Open ↗

"Huub Toussaint" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

On 22-02-2003 02:03, in article

Quoted post said:

I am a rookie swim coach and I've been reading alot about "Critical Swim Speed". When I swam we
relied on a 3000 for time, but I'm wondering what other methods coaches might use to determine
this base pace.

You can estimate critical speed by taking the slope of the regression of time on distance. So if
you have time for 100, 200 and 400 m, plot it in a graph and estimate the slope and you have
estimated critical speed

Huub Toussaint ifkb.nlB4Open ↗

Could someone explain critical swim speed and its implications for training? Go easy on the
terminology. Paul

Huub Toussaint <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

On 22-02-2003 02:03, in article

Quoted post said:

I am a rookie swim coach and I've been reading alot about "Critical Swim Speed". When I swam we
relied on a 3000 for time, but I'm wondering what other methods coaches might use to determine
this base pace.

You can estimate critical speed by taking the slope of the regression of time on distance. So if
you have time for 100, 200 and 400 m, plot it in a graph and estimate the slope and you have
estimated critical speed

Huub Toussaint ifkb.nlB4Open ↗

Could you quickly walk me through this process? I've found the mathmatical equation for slope
(y2-y1/x2-x1) but I'm having trouble using it to figure critical speed, and I'm not even sure if
this is the equation I should be using.

As an example: 100 time is 1:05; 200 time is 2:14; 400 time is 4:39. What (and how) do these numbers
tell me about this swimmer's critical speed?

On 23-02-2003 02:18, in article

Quoted post said:

Huub Toussaint <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

On 22-02-2003 02:03, in article

Quoted post said:

I am a rookie swim coach and I've been reading alot about "Critical Swim Speed". When I swam we
relied on a 3000 for time, but I'm wondering what other methods coaches might use to determine
this base pace.

You can estimate critical speed by taking the slope of the regression of time on distance. So if
you have time for 100, 200 and 400 m, plot it in a graph and estimate the slope and you have
estimated critical speed

Huub Toussaint ifkb.nlB4Open ↗

Could you quickly walk me through this process? I've found the mathmatical equation for slope
(y2-y1/x2-x1) but I'm having trouble using it to figure critical speed, and I'm not even sure if
this is the equation I should be using.

As an example: 100 time is 1:05; 200 time is 2:14; 400 time is 4:39. What (and how) do these
numbers tell me about this swimmer's critical speed?

see: Toussaint, H.M., Wakayoshi, K., Hollander, A.P. and Ogita, F., 1998. Simulated front crawl
swimming performance related to critical speed and critical power. Medicine and Science in Sports
and Exercise 30, 144-151. Wakayoshi, K., Ikuta, K., Yoshida, T., Udo, M., Moritani, T., Mutoh, Y.
and Miyashita, M., 1992. The determination and validity of critical speed as swimming performance
index in the competitive swimmer. European Journal of Applied Physiology 64, 153-157. Wakayoshi, K.,
Yoshida, T., Kasai, T., Moritani, T., Mutoh, Y. and Miyashita, M., 1992. Validity of critical
velocity as swimming fatigue threshold in the competitive swimmer. Annals of Physiological
Anthropology 11, 301-7. Wakayoshi, K., Yoshida, T., Udo, M., Harada, T., Moritani, T., Mutoh, Y. and
Miyashita, M., 1993. Does critical swimming velocity represent exercise intensity at maximal lactate
steady state. European Journal of Applied Physiology 66, 90-95. Wakayoshi, K., Yoshida, T., Udo, M.,
Kasai, T., Moritani, T., Mutoh, Y. and Miyashita, M., 1992. A simple method for determining critical
speed as swimming fatigue threshold in competitive swimming. International Journal of Sports
Medicine 13, 367-71.

A test was developed to determine the capacity of the aerobic and anaerobic metabolic pathways by
Wakayoshi et al. . The test estimates the swimming velocity that theoretically can be maintained
forever without exhaustion. This so called critical swimming velocity is the slope of the regression
line between swimming distance and time. It relies on the concept of critical power. The concept is
based on a hyperbolic relationship between power output and time to exhaustion. It incorporates both
the anaerobic and aerobic contribution to the total power output. The anaerobic part is estimated as
the total work that can be performed anaerobically (anaerobic work capacity, AWC). The aerobic part
is considered inexhaustible, and is called the critical power (CP). At a given power output (Po) the
time to exhaustion will then equal:

time = AWC/(Po - CP)

This relationship can be transformed to a power-time relationship where:

Po = (AWC/time) + CP

This power-time relationship in cycle ergometry was extended to a velocity-time relationship in
swimming Wakayoshi, 1992 Wakayoshi, 1993:

V = (a/time) + b

The critical velocity (Vcrit) is the velocity at which one performs indefinitely, and thus V will
approach b.

Integration yields:

D = b € time + a

Accordingly, Vcrit equals b, i.e. the slope of the regression line between swimming
distance and time.

I will make a spreadsheet in which you can fill in the times on the distances and that will compute
critical speed. I will make it available on my website

Kind regards

Huub Toussaint

ifkb.nlB4Open ↗

On 23-02-2003 02:18, in article

Quoted post said:

Huub Toussaint <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

On 22-02-2003 02:03, in article

Quoted post said:

I am a rookie swim coach and I've been reading alot about "Critical Swim Speed". When I swam we
relied on a 3000 for time, but I'm wondering what other methods coaches might use to determine
this base pace.

You can estimate critical speed by taking the slope of the regression of time on distance. So if
you have time for 100, 200 and 400 m, plot it in a graph and estimate the slope and you have
estimated critical speed

Huub Toussaint ifkb.nlB4Open ↗

Could you quickly walk me through this process? I've found the mathmatical equation for slope
(y2-y1/x2-x1) but I'm having trouble using it to figure critical speed, and I'm not even sure if
this is the equation I should be using.

As an example: 100 time is 1:05; 200 time is 2:14; 400 time is 4:39. What (and how) do these
numbers tell me about this swimmer's critical speed?

Critical speed for this swimmer would be 1.398 m/s

You can download an excel spreadsheet to calculate critical speed from my website:

ifkb.nlB4Open ↗

The theoretical background of critical speed in swimming is described in a paper: Toussaint, H. M.,
Wakayoshi, K., Hollander, A. P. and Ogita, F., 1998. Simulated front crawl swimming performance
related to critical speed and critical power. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise 30,
144-51. An abstract of this paper is available on the website.

Enjoy!

Huub Toussaint

Huub Toussaint said:

You can download an excel spreadsheet to calculate critical speed from my website:

Thanks. I never do 400s, so I modified it to 100, 200, 500. I also created sheets for Breast and
Back using 50, 100, 200.

Donal Fagan AIA Donal@DonalO'Fagan.com (Anglicise the name to reply by e-mail)