PORTO, Portugal, July 11. DR. Josh White captured the Archimedes award for the best presentation by a young investigator (under 30 years old) at the Xth International Biomechanics and Medicine in Swimming Conference at the University of Porto in Portugal in June.
His study titled “Ability of Competitive Swimmers to Modify Start Depth is not Dependent on Experience, ” earned White a 500 Euro cash prize. White defended his dissertation at Indiana University shortly before leaving for Portugal.
Indiana University grads comprised the majority of the American delegation. In addition to White, the group included Dr. Jan Prins, Dr. Joel Stager, Dr. Ted Becker and Dr. Rod Havriluk. While working on their degrees, they each had the opportunity to learn from Dr. James Counsilman. Conversation over dinner at the conference included many stories about the legendary coach.
Stager is an exercise physiologist and the director of the Counsilman Center for the Science of Swimming at IU. He served as White’s major professor and he co-authored the award winning presentation.
Prins is a professor and former coach of swimming at the University of Hawaii. He specializes in aquatherapy and rehabbed Olympic champ Rowdy Gaines after he came down with Guilliane-Barre syndrome. Prins used the Aquanex system developed by Havriluk to measure Gaines’ improvement and to make decisions regarding his treatment. He presented one paper on an “Evaluation of Selected Kinematic Variables in Swimmers with Permanent Physical Disabilities using Motion Analysis Technology” and included distinct examples of swimmers exclusively using drag or lift force based on their physical limitation. He also presented his other paper titled “The Influence of Tuck Index, Depth of Foot Plant, and Wall Contact Time on the Velocity of the Push-off in the Freestyle Flip Turn.”
Becker, owner of Everett Pacific Industrial Rehabilitation in Seattle presented “Bilateral and Anterior-Posterior Muscular Imbalances in Swimmers.” His paper stressed the need for screening swimmers to identify muscular imbalances that can lead to injury, and cautioned the use of appropriate technique instruction and training methods. Becker is an expert on rehabilitating shoulder injuries. He is well known for rehabilitating Steve Lundquist, who went on to win gold in world record time at the 1984 Olympics.
Havriluk presented “Magnitude of the Effect of an Instructional Intervention on Swimming Technique and Performance” and showed the rapid and significant performance improvement that is possible from using advanced technology. The technology included the Aquanex+Video analysis system and a biomechanical model for optimizing performance, both developed by Havriluk. He is the president of Swimming Technology Research and he co-authored Becker’s presentation.
The Xth International Biomechanics and Medicine in Swimming Conference was held June 21-24 at the University of Porto in Porto, Portugal. This conference is held every four years. It is the premier swimming conference. At the first conference in 1970, Counsilman presented his theory on propulsive forces.