Bone conduction: A technology for swimmers’ progress in speed swimming?

While motor learning requires feedback for the learner, the PE teacher or coach may not always have the right tools to transmit it on the spot. This is especially the case in swimming, due to the often noisy environment of swimming pools. Hence, bone conduction transmission may prove to be a useful tool for adapting teaching practices to these specific constraints. The aim of this article is to assess the effects of using bone conduction headphones (EXP group) on stroke index (SI) and glide length (GL) in front crawl, during a sprint training session among young adult swimmers, compared with traditional delayed feedback (NORM group). While the latter led to improvements in SI (P=0.008) and GL (P<0.001), bone conduction feedback had no effect on SI (P=0.191) and only a trend on GL (P=0.069). More specifically, progress was greater in swimmers with a lower stroke index at baseline in the NORM group (SI: P=0.034; GL: P=0.031) but not in the EXP group. It would be relevant to continue research into the effects of this type of device for longer distances (400 meters and beyond) and over longer training periods (several months). This tool, used as a first approach, could thus help optimize the early stages of the swimmer’s development (the projectile body stage). However, it would have less impact on more advanced swimmers: Depending on their progress, the coach could then progressively reduce the frequency of feedback to encourage the development of internal cues, thereby avoiding dependency.