Abstract Objective: The purpose of this study was to explore the effects of core combined lower limb strength training on medley turning technique of adolescent swimmers. Methods: Ten female adolescent swimmers were selected for 8-week core combined lower limb strength training. The swimmers completed the core endurance, squat jump test, and 200 m individual medley race before and after training. Core endurance test included trunk extensor and flexor endurance tests; the Kistler MARS (5695BQ2, Kistler Instrument, Winterthur, Switzerland) system was used to perform squat jump test to evaluate the lower limb power. Underwater and digital video cameras and one TritonWear sensor (Triton 2, LUCID Vision Labs, Richmond, BC, Canada) were used to collect the turning parameters. Results: Compared with pretraining, the time of extensor and flexor endurance increased by 49.5 s (p = 0.005) and 47.5 s (p = 0.005) respectively. Squat jump height, relative peak force and relative peak power increased by 0.02 m (p = 0.042), 0.26 N/kg (p = 0.003), and 3.74 W/kg (p = 0.003) respectively. The -5 m to 5 m times in all swimming turns had significantly decreased by 0.70 s (p = 0.004), 0.53 s (p = 0.018), and 0.53 s (p = 0.002), respectively. The tuck times in backstroke to breaststroke and breaststroke to freestyle turns significantly decreased by 0.26 s (p = 0.028) and 0.24 s (p = 0.034), respectively. The hip joint angle in butterfly to backstroke turn decreased by 8.50° (p = 0.005), and the knee joint angle decreased by 4.87° (p = 0.009). The hip joint angle in breaststroke to freestyle turn decreased by 7.83° (p = 0.016). The maximal acceleration in all swimming turns had significantly increased by 2.73 m/s2 (p = 0.031), 3.47 m/s2 (p < 0.001), and 2.12 m/s2 (p = 0.040), respectively. Conclusion: An 8-week core combined lower limb strength training can improve the core strength and lower limb power in adolescent swimmers, optimize the tuck technique, reduce the -5m to 5m time, and increase the maximum acceleration during the swimming turns in 200 m individual medley.
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