Performance sports engineering: improving knowledge of human underwater undulatory swimming

Abstract

Underwater Undulatory Swimming (UUS), performed fully submerged following a dive or push from the wall in swimming, can be exploited to gain a competitive advantage in races. Athletes can travel underwater for up to 30 % of the race while performing an undulatory motion, benefitting from a reduction of resistive forces. The undulatory motion consists of a wave which propagates along the body, from the fingertips to the toes. As this wave moves along the body its amplitude increases, accelerating the fluid downstream to generate propulsive forces which propel the swimmer forward. This swimming technique mimics the locomotion of marine mammals. This collaborative presentation highlights the work undertaken during two closely related UK Sports Institute funded PhD projects. The kinematic data acquisition process using three-dimensional optoelectronic motion capture will be presented, along with the joint centre reconstruction methods. A novel two-dimensional implicit-LES computational fluid dynamics methodology will also be introduced. Examples of applications given by the speakers will include an estimation of error within the kinematic capture domain, the efficacy of training practices in UUS skill development, and a case study on the impact of kinematic modification on UUS force generation of a regional-level swimmer.

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ORCID for Izzy Thompson: orcid.org/0000-0002-2788-1675

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