Nordic Throwing Shoulder Project (NTS - Project)

Plain-language summary

As a part of the Olympic program and with 150 countries in the international Handball Federation team handball has become a worldwide popular sport. Unfortunately, a large number of different types injuries have been reported among team handball players, and shoulder pain has some of the biggest incidence. In handball 44-75% of the athletes had a history of shoulder pain and a weekly prevalence of shoulder problems in 28% of the athletes. Shoulder pain has been reported to have an impact on the athletes' training activities, performance, and daily life. Several studies have established risk factors for shoulder injuries among overhead athletes, with a focus on the range of motion in glenohumeral joint (ROM), shoulder strength and scapula control. Injury occurrence results from a combination of possessing these different risk and the amount of throwing. Thereby training overhead sports must be considered a primary risk factor for shoulder injury. However, several studies have performed kinematics analysis of different throws techniques commonly used in team handball. But no studies havn't investigated kinematics and kinetics of different throwing techniques in relation to team handball players and the development of shoulder pain, and if a throwing technique or a wrong throwing technique stresses the shoulder joint more than other throwing techniques. In baseball it was found that youth pitchers throwing with a curveball was associated with a 52% increased risk of shoulder pain and the slider was associated with an 86% increased risk of elbow pain, and there was a significant association between number of throws and rate of shoulder pain. Two types of wind-ups are used in handball, and those different wind-ups also changed the throwing kinematics and throwing performance. Investigators found that the pelvis rotation was more important in the throw with the circular wind-up than in the whip-like wind up. In addition, the total throwing time was longer with the circular wind up. This could result in less stress and forces on the shoulder joint when compared with the whip like to reach the same performances. The questions arises whether the used throwing techniques of the handball players during training and matches are a risk factor for shoulder pain and if some throwing techniques cause bigger risk than other throwing techniques as the players could put more force on the shoulder and elbow joint.

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