61 Pacing behavior development in adolescent swimmers 4 Introduction The goal-directed decision-making process regarding effort distribution (i.e., pacing) is a decisive factor for performance in exercise tasks (Edwards & Polman, 2012; Smits et al., 2014). The outcome of this process, the athletes’ pacing behavior, is commonly quantified by registering a measure of effort (e.g., power output or velocity) during sections of an exercise task (Smits et al., 2014; Foster et al., 2003). Pacing seems to be learned through a cyclical acquisition process, in which experience gathered during a previous task is used to inform the athlete in future iterations of the task (Elferink-Gemser & Hettinga, 2017). The awareness of the benefits of distributing effort to reach a set exercise goal is first observed at 5-8 years old (Micklewright et al., 2012) and the capability to do this effectively continues to develop during adolescence and into adulthood (Wiersma et al., 2017; Menting et al., 2020). With age, the pacing behavior of children and adolescents develops to feature an increasing fit to the task demands (Wiersma et al., 2017; Menting et al., 2020). Previous longitudinal studies considered the pacing behavior exhibited by elite level adults as the endpoint of this development (Wiersma et al., 2017; Menting et al., 2020). Moreover, it was revealed that athletes who reached a higher performance level in adulthood, exhibited a pacing behavior resembling that of adult athletes at an earlier stage of adolescence, compared to their less successful peers (Wiersma et al., 2017). Knowledge about the development of pacing behavior is therefore of great interest for both scientists and practitioners. Unfortunately, the limited amount of available research into the pacing behavior of children and adolescents consists mainly of cross-sectional studies with small sample sizes, often including individuals from one specific country, region, school, club or team (Menting et al., 2019a; Menting et al, 2019b). To provide further insights into the development of pacing behavior, more rigorous longitudinal studies with large sample sizes are needed. One sport in which the topic of pacing behavior has gained increasing scientific interest in the last few years, is competitive swimming (Menting et al., 2019a; McGibbon et al., 2018). Given the highly resistive properties of water compared to air, and the low mechanical efficiency of the swimming movement, it has been argued that adequate pacing might be more important in swimming compared to land-based sports (Menting et al., 2019a; McGibbon et al., 2018). Moreover, competitive swimming is a popular, global sport in which the gap between the gold medalist and the last finisher in international competitions is decreasing (FINA, 2021). In light of this, optimizing pacing behavior plays an increasingly important role in elite swimming performance (Menting et al., 2019a; McGibbon et al., 2018). Systematic literature reviews have shown that pacing behavior of swimmers is primarily determined by the race distance and stroke type (Menting et al., 2019a; McGibbon et al., 2018). In races over a short distance (50-100m), elite swimmers adopt an all-out pacing behavior, attempting to achieve a high velocity through rapid acceleration and trying to maintain this velocity throughout the race (Robertson et al, 2009). During 200m
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