Summary
Study aim: To assess the effects of 8-week endurance training in swimming on work capacity of boys aged 12 years.
Material and methods: The following groups of schoolboys aged 12 years were studied: untrained control (UC; n = 14)
and those training swimming for two years. The latter ones were subjected to 8-week training in classical style (CS;
n = 10) or free style (FS; n = 13). In all boys maximal oxygen uptake (‡O2max) was determined, and the CS and FS
groups were subjected to 6 tests: swimming at 50 and 400 m distances (time recorded) and to 12-min swimming
(distance recorded), all by free and classical styles pre- and post-training. From swimming times at 50 and 400 m
distances the so-called critical swimming speed (CSS) was computed: CSS = (400 – 50) / (t400 – t50).
Results: No training-induced improvement in ‡O2max was noted in any group. Yet, boys subjected to classical style
training significantly (p