Effects of Integrated Dryland and In-Water Training on 50-m Freestyle Swimming Performance among PR Pusri Palembang Athletes

Abstract

Objectives: This study examined whether an integrated dryland and in-water training program improves 50-m freestyle swimming speed among athletes of PR Pusri Palembang Swimming Club.

Materials and Methods: A quantitative pre-experimental method with a one-group pretest-posttest design was used. The population consisted of 40 club athletes, and 15 athletes aged 10-15 years were selected through purposive sampling. The intervention was delivered across 16 meetings, including pretest, 14 treatment sessions, and posttest. Dryland exercises consisted of shuttle run, ABC drill, and resistance-band work, while in-water training used freestyle drills, paddle work, fins kicking, and sprint repetitions. The outcome was 50-m freestyle swimming time measured with a stopwatch-based SwimSpeed Test. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Shapiro-Wilk normality tests, and a paired-samples t-test.

Results: The mean 50-m freestyle time decreased from 32.37 +/- 1.28 seconds at pretest to 31.20 +/- 1.12 seconds at posttest. The mean reduction was 1.16 seconds (95% CI: 0.88 to 1.45), equal to an improvement of approximately 3.60%. The Shapiro-Wilk test indicated that both pretest (p = 0.472) and posttest (p = 0.204) data were normally distributed. The paired-samples t-test showed a significant improvement after the training program, t(14) = 8.858, p < 0.001, with a large within-participant effect size (Cohen's dz = 2.29).

Conclusions: The integrated dryland and in-water training program significantly improved 50-m freestyle swimming performance in PR Pusri Palembang athletes. For coaches, combining resistance-band work, shuttle run, paddle-assisted drills, fins kicking, and sprint repetition can be used as a practical short-term training approach, provided that training load and technical quality are monitored.