Effects of Three Swim Strokes Over 25 Yards in Labor-Wear with a Personal Flotation Device

Abstract

We determined how three different swim strokes (breast, back, and American crawl) were affected by standard labor-wear while wearing a personal flotation device (PFD) over 22.8 meters (25 yards). The main research questions were, (1) which stroke would yield the fastest times over 22.8 meters and (2) Would there be a difference in the swim times between male and female subjects?  We addressed these questions with three hypotheses addressing whether or not there would be a statistically significant difference among the three strokes, and whether or not gender would have an effect on performance of the different strokes. The mean 22.8-m elementary back stroke swim time for all subjects (n = 51) was 59.98 sec; for the breast stroke it was 46.05 sec and for the crawl stroke it was 46.48 sec.  An ANOVA generated a P-value of less than .0001. Thus, we rejected null hypothesis 1 in favor of research hypothesis 1 at a significance level of 0.05. There was a difference in swim times over 22.8-m for each stroke for all subjects, with breast stroke being the fastest and the elementary back stroke being the slowest.  The mean 22.8-m elementary back stroke swim time for male subjects (n = 26) was 51.04 sec; for the breast stroke it was 41.41 sec and for the crawl stroke it was 34.73 sec.  An ANOVA generated a P-value of less than .0001. Thus, we rejected null hypothesis 2 in favor of research hypothesis 2 at a significance level of 0.05.   There was a difference in swim times over 22.8-m for each stroke, with the crawl stroke being the fastest and the elementary back stroke being the slowest.  The mean 22.8-m elementary back stroke swim time for female subjects (n = 25) was 69.28 sec; for the breast stroke it was 50.87 sec and for the crawl stroke it was 58.71 sec.  An ANOVA generated a P-value of .001. Thus, we rejected null hypothesis 3 in favor of research hypothesis 3 at a significance level of 0.05. There was a difference in swim times over 22.8-m for each stroke, with the breast stroke being the fastest and the elementary back stroke being the slowest.