Effects of Swim Strokes in Labor-wear With and Without a Personal Flotation Device

Abstract

We determined how three different swim strokes were affected by standard labor-wear with and without use of a personal flotation device (PFD). The two main research questions included (1) what effects would standard labor-wear have on the American crawl, elementary back stroke and breast stroke with and without a PFD for 11.4 m (12.5 yds).  The sub questions included: (2) Will the addition of the PFD improve swim times? We addressed these questions with six hypotheses. Statistical analysis showed statistically significant P-values for the American crawl (no PFD 23.29 sec, PFD 18.29 sec, P = 0.0010) and back stroke (no PFD 36.96 sec, PFD 31.00 sec, P = 0.0223); the strokes showed improved swim times with the PFD. We detected no statistical evidence (P = 0.2086) for the mean swim time (22.61 sec) for the breast stroke with PFD and the mean swim time (23.00 sec) for breast stroke without a PFD. Swim time between swimmers with and without a PFD differed. The mean swim time for all swimmers with a PFD (24.17sec) was faster than the mean swim time for all swimmers without a PFD (27.75 sec, P = 0.0153). The mean swim time for swimmers using the elementary back stroke (33.98 sec) was slower than the mean swim time for swimmers using the crawl stroke (21.10 sec, P < 0.0001) and the mean swim time for swimmers using the breast stroke (22.81 sec).  We detected no difference between the mean swim time for swimmers using the crawl stroke and the mean swim time for swimmers using the breast stroke. We also detected no evidence (P = 0.164) of a stroke X flotation interaction effect.