Swimmers’ extremity temperature: From autonomy of vessels towards joy of swimming

Autonomic psychophysiology has opened a new field in modern sports science and practice, providing effective means to improve swimming training and skills. Of the famous items of this technology is extremity temperature, which gives an estimate of pleasure and autonomic balance. Nevertheless, the literature on this area and swimming shows a significant gap. This study measures and interprets the extremity temperature of swimmers during swimming training, which can be beneficial for adjusting training approaches and designing neuroscience interventions (including biofeedback) for athletic peak performance.

A total of 10 teen swimmers voluntarily participated in this research. They were 11 to 13 years old (30% male [n=3]). They were under training by the leading researchers, selected with available sampling, and grouped as fully trained and semi-trained (each group n=5). Informed consent was obtained, and a 15-min recording session of the extremity temperature was performed, during rest along with the challenge of swimming competition imagery. The findings were ultimately compared in the two groups.

The semi-trained group had a higher extremity temperature than the fully trained group (29.52±3.19 vs 30.74±4.83), indicating more pleasure and autonomic balance during swimming imagery. Therefore, complete swimming training was associated with relative dominance of sympathetic activity and unpleasant autonomic imbalance.

The present study’s findings showed that competitive tensions and involvement in technical details at the end of swimming training might cause unpleasant emotions and physical alterations. Such conditions ought to be adjusted.