Investigation on the Time Taken per Cycle’s Effect on 100m Breaststroke Record
by Reika Shimomura
Category: STEM
Abstract – Breaststroke is one of the four competitive swimming styles where stroke rate is one of the factors influencing the breaststroke record to some extent. There is a trend, which as the stroke rate became larger, the 100m breaststroke record became faster in Olympic breaststroke records. Despite the attention on stroke rate in competitive swimming, it is still unclear how stroke rate solely affects the time taken to swim breaststroke. Stroke rate is cycles taken in a minute and cycle rate is time taken for one cycle of breaststroke. This investigation answers the question, “How does the time taken for one cycle, or cycle rate, of breaststroke affect a 100m breaststroke record?” The data from the simulation, Swumsuit, shows that as the cycle rate became smaller, the forward velocity of a swimmer became faster, and the maximum forward velocity also increases. This result correlates with the Olympic breaststroke swimmers’ relationship between their stroke rates and their breaststroke records. In addition, the graphed data reveals the breaststroke’s unique pattern in velocity throughout the cycles.