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Classifying motor coordination impairment in Para swimmers with brain injury
Hogarth, Luke Payton, Carl Nicholson, Vaughan Spathis, Jemima Tweedy, Sean Connick, Mark Beckman, Emma van de Vilet, Peter Burkett, Brendan
Hogarth, Luke
Payton, Carl
Nicholson, Vaughan
Spathis, Jemima
Tweedy, Sean
Connick, Mark
Beckman, Emma
van de Vilet, Peter
Burkett, Brendan
Abstract
Objectives
The International Paralympic Committee has mandated that International Sport Federations develop sport-specific classification systems that are evidence-based. This study examined the predictive and convergent validity of instrumented tapping tasks to classify motor coordination impairments in Para swimming.
Design
Cross-sectional.
Methods
Thirty non-disabled participants and twenty-one Para swimmers with brain injury completed several instrumented tapping tasks as an assessment of upper and lower limb motor coordination. Para swimmers also completed a maximal freestyle swim to obtain a performance measure. The predictive and convergent validity of instrumented tapping tasks was examined by establishing differences in test measures between participants with and without brain injury and defining the strength of association between test measures and maximal freestyle swim speed in Para swimmers, respectively.
Results
Random forest successfully classified 96% of participants with and without brain injury using test measures derived from instrumented tapping tasks. Most test measures had moderate to high correlations (r = 0.54 to 0.72; p < 0.01) with maximal freestyle swim speed and collectively explained up to 72% of the variance in maximal freestyle swim performance in Para swimmers with brain injury.
Conclusions
The results of this study evidence the predictive and convergent validity of instrumented tapping tasks to classify motor coordination impairments in Para swimmers with brain injury. These tests can be included in revised Para swimming classification to improve the objectivity and transparency in determining athlete eligibility and sport class for these Para athletes.
Keywords
paralympic, sports for persons with disabilities, swimming, freestyle, classification, cerebral palsy
Date
2019
Type
Journal article
Journal
Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport
Book
Volume
22
Issue
5
Page Range
526-531
Article Number
ACU Department
School of Allied Health
Faculty of Health Sciences
School of Behavioural and Health Sciences
Faculty of Health Sciences
School of Behavioural and Health Sciences
Collections
Relation URI
Source URL
Event URL
Open Access Status
Published as green open access
License
File Access
Controlled
Open
Open