Profiling Shoulder Strength in Competitive Surfers.

James Furness,Tim Cottman-Fields,Brendan Solia,Ben Schram,Josh Secomb

doi:10.3390/sports6020052

James Furness, Tim Cottman-Fields + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/sports6020052

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Journal: Sports	Publication Date: May 30, 2018
Citations: 5	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: Bond University, Edith Cowan University

Abstract

The shoulder region has the highest incidence of acute injuries in the sport of surfing. Little is known about the strength profile at the shoulder in a surfing cohort. The primary aim of this study was to establish the reliability of a rotator cuff strength testing procedure for surfers with a secondary aim of providing a profile of internal and external rotation strength in a competitive surfing cohort. Shoulder internal rotation and external rotation isometric strength was measured using a hand-held dynamometer in 13 competitive surfers. Intra-class coefficient values ranged from 0.97 to 0.98 for intra-rater reliability and were lower for inter-rater reliability ranging from 0.80 to 0.91. Internal rotation strength was greater than external rotation strength bilaterally (dominant, p = 0.007, non-dominant, p < 0.001). No differences (p < 0.79) were found in internal rotation strength between the dominant and non-dominant arms. External rotation strength was weaker on the non-dominant arm compared with the dominant arm (p < 0.02). The non-dominant arm external rotation to internal rotation ratio (0.82 ± 0.15) was lower (p = 0.025) than the dominant arm (0.88 ± 0.14). The current procedure is reliable with the same clinician, and results indicate musculature asymmetry specific to the external rotators.

Highlights

Over the past 14 years, global involvement in the sport of surfing has more than tripled, from an estimated 13 million participants in 2002 [1] to 37 million recorded in 2013 [2]
This study has identified a reliable method to assess isometric External Rotation (ER) and Internal Rotation (IR) strength when used by the same clinician
The authors recommend this assessment method is used to profile and monitor athletes involved in competitive surfing to assist in their management

Summary

Introduction

Over the past 14 years, global involvement in the sport of surfing has more than tripled, from an estimated 13 million participants in 2002 [1] to 37 million recorded in 2013 [2]. An epidemiology study conducted by Furness et al [3] found the primary acute injury-prone location was the shoulder (16.4%) This high incidence of shoulder injuries could be attributed to the activity requirements of surfing. Several time motion analysis studies have reported paddling comprised up to 42 to 54% of the total time spent surfing with the average paddling time ranging from 16 to 25 s in duration [4–6]. This paddling requirement places significant demand on the shoulders, as the surfer uses an alternate arm action to propel the board forwards. To the authors’ knowledge, there is no evidence investigating strength profiles in a surfing cohort

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