Music Synchronicity and Competitive Swimming
From September 2015 to May 2016 I studied the use of music synchronicity in competitive swimming. Music synchronicity is the process of using up-tempo songs with a strong beat that often times coincides with the repetitive movements of sports. Swimming being a very repetitive movement sport it seemed very likely to work extremely well. This was my final project as part of my Digital Audio Arts degree at the University of Lethbridge. During the first semester I mostly researched previous examples of music synchronicity in sports and took this time to plan my own experiment using swimmers from the Pronghorn Varsity swim team and the LASC swim team. Having planned out my project during the second semester I began to test this on swimmers aged 12-20 ranging in varsity level athletes to provincial level swimmers. If you would like to know more about the process I have a blog post linked here you can read. My research showed that athletes have an easier time concentrating, stroke making and stroke rhythm. Also after viewing the video work I did it was clear that even if the swimmers did not feel they where linking there strokes they where subconsciously linking to the music and due to the increased concentration there stroke making also improved. I also received a moderate amount of press and notoriety about my project. The University of Lethbridge wrote a small piece on me which was then picked up by CBC. I was also booked to present to the Lethbridge Rotary Club and present my findings to LASC as well. If you would like to run a similar program to this with your team feel free to contact me.
Spencer Simkin: Music Producer/Audio Engineer/Coach 