Day, Y. J., & Lin, J. C. (1996). Critical velocity as a predictor of female front crawl swimming performance. Medicine and Science in Exercise and Sports, 28(5), Supplement abstract 940.

Crawl stroke performances over 50, 100, 200, and 400 m were correlated to critical velocity (CV) and heart rate threshold velocity (HRTV) in 20 female swimmers.

• CV correlated with each distance (50 m -.88, 100 m -.86, 200 m -.94, and 400 m -.99). CV accounted for 98% of the variance in 400 m swimming times.
• HRTV also correlated with each distance (50 m -.85, 100 m -.90, 200 m -.86, 400 m -.83).
• There was no significant difference between CV and HRTV values as both were significantly correlated (r = .81).

It was concluded that CV and HRTV are both significant predictors of crawl stroke performance, with the predictive capability increasing for CV as distance increased.

Implication. The performance of a CV or HRTV test takes considerable time. A better indicator of potential for any crawl stroke performance could be a time-trial over that appropriate distance. One should never overlook the possibility of performing an actual trial before deferring to some "test."

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