Last week we opened together with the Sporthochschule Köln (DSHS), University of Barcelona and the Finnish Societyof Sport Sciences complemented by Cosmed Inc our newest experiments on Evaluation of Swimming Snorkel Systems. This is a continuation to our previous study where we utilized gas exchange simulation (GESS) of the DSHS to validate swimming snorkel for spirometric measurements. Our intension was now to explore the validity of special equipment manufactured by Cosmed Inc (see figure 1.) and its comparability with a reference system without snorkel.
In the second figure you can see our group. My (in the middle) original partners to the study were Uwe Hoffman (second left), the professor of physiology from the DSHS and professor Ferran A. Rodriguez (first left) who is the professor of Sports Medicine from the INEFC of the University of Barcelona. Dr Tobias Draeger (first right) gave his service to the project as the operator of the GESS, Sergio Graziani (second right) from Cosmed Inc was our technical advisor concerning the snorkel and the Cosmed K4b2 technology. In two exhausting days we were feeding the GESS apparatus with thousands of liters of precision gases and could verify the systematic errors between the snorkel measurements as compared to reference. We could also verify differences between dry gases and moisture gas. These series of experiments will help us to continue further studies in subjects in aquatic environment.
During those days I was fortunate to meet with my good friend professor Walter Tokarski who is the Rector of the DSHS and the President of the European network of Sport Sciences, Education and Employment (ENSSEE). While the Finnish Society is a member of ENSSEE we share the same interest on the organization. During the four years of professor Tokarski's presidency in ENSSEE the organization has taken successful steps forward and the economy of the organization is healthy with increasing number of membership. Professor Tokarski informed me about the becoming Forum in Ragusa Italy next September. The General Assembly will be the checking point of the whole organization and its ongoing projects. ENSSEE will be awarded by the European Commission due to its most successful AEHESIS project which ended last year. Karen Petry and Walter Tokarski were behind this success story as well.
Later in the evening we had the honor to dine with professor emeritus Kurt Wilke. He is the man behind the world famous textbook “Coaching the Young Swimmer” which has been thoroughly followed by the swimming coaches world-wide since 1980's and the book is still valid for reading. Kurt Wilke’s influence on Swimming Science has been invaluable.
