Are Adolescent Competitive Swimmers Cleverer? The Impact of competitive swimming and swimming training on cognitive function

The genesis of this report lies with a comment made by the headmaster of a high-performing state secondary school who said: “a school full of competitive swimmers would be fantastic: they are all hard-working and perform highly academically”. The dissertation tests the working hypothesis derived from this statement that adolescents participating in competitive swimming training have both short and long-term benefits in cognition compared to the wider population. If the hypothesis that adolescent swimmers are both cleverer and work harder is correct, the alternate hypothesis that young people who are more academic, better disciplined, or more determined to succeed
are drawn to competitive swimming as a sport will also be considered.

Cognition is defined by Esteban-Cornejo et al (2015) as “the mental function involved in gaining knowledge and
comprehension”. Cognition is a key factor behind academic performance but not the only factor. The quality and quantity of teaching and the socio-economic background of individuals also impacts on overall academic performance (Keeley and Fox, 2009). In addition to examining the physiological effects of swimming training on cognition in adolescents, there is a second aspect to the headmaster’s comment, the “hard working” component
which may be related more to psychosocial or psychological factors than cognition. If the headmaster’s belief that
adolescent swimmers are both ‘cleverer’ and work harder is correct, an alternate hypothesis that young people who are more academic, better disciplined, or more determined to succeed are drawn to competitive swimming should also be considered - i.e. do certain academic or personality traits attract people to competitive swimming as a sport rather than vice-versa?