Comparison of Upper Arm Kinematics During a Volleyball Spike Between Players With and Without a History of Shoulder Injury

Abstract

Volleyball players are at high risk of overuse shoulder injuries, with spike biomechanics a perceived risk factor. This study compared spike kinematics between elite male volleyball players with and without a history of shoulder injuries. Height, mass, maximum jump height, passive shoulder rotation range of motion (ROM), and active trunk ROM were collected on elite players with (13) and without (11) shoulder injury history and were compared using independent samples t tests (P < .05). The average of spike kinematics at impact and range 0.1 s before and after impact during down-the-line and cross-court spike types were compared using linear mixed models in SPSS (P < .01). No differences were detected between the injured and uninjured groups. Thoracic rotation and shoulder abduction at impact and range of shoulder rotation velocity differed between spike types. The ability to tolerate the differing demands of the spike types could be used as return-to-play criteria for injured athletes.

Shoulder 3D range of motion and humerus rotation in two volleyball spike techniques: injury prevention and performance

“…In terms of performance, values of ball speed, hand height and velocities matched values reported by other studies on high-level professional player spiking analyses (Coleman et al, 1993;Mitchinson et al, 2013;Wagner et al, 2014). While maximal hand height in jumping remained constant, hand velocity before impact had greater values for the AT in each of the three considered conditions.…”

“…The institutional ethics committee of the University of Milan had approved all methods and procedures, and the athletes gave their written informed consent before the start of testing. Based on data obtained from the literature (Mitchinson, Campbell, Oldmeadow, Gibson, & Hopper, 2013;Wagner et al, 2014), regarding shoulder kinematics (range of motion) and performance (ball speed), we fixed the sample size, with the goal to detect changes corresponding, to 5% and 10% of the mean respectively. The minimum number of participants for our study was evaluated starting from the mean and the Standard Deviation of shoulder flexion and ball velocity measured by Mitchinson and collaborator in 2013 on a group of 12 participants.…”

A Motion Analysis in the Volleyball Spike - Part 1: Three-dimensional Kinematics and Performance

“…No individual players' motion pattern is accurately represented by the mean, but it can still be useful for generating hypotheses and is easier to communicate to coaches. Previous work in volleyball biomechanics has analyzed correlations between angular kinematics and ball speed [3], [4], correlations between strength performance, body mass index and ball speed [5], the patterns and relative intensities of shoulder muscle activity during the spike [6], differences in 3D kinematics between players with and without shoulder injuries [7], spike differences between volleyball and beach volleyball [8], differences between several spike techniques [2], [9] and differences between a volleyball spike, handball throwing and tennis serves [10]. To our knowledge, no study has compared players of different skill level.…”

A comparison of the upper limb movement kinematics utilized by children playing virtual and real table tennis

“…The cameras tracked the position of the retro-reflective markers in threedimension and this system has demonstrated a reconstruction error of <1mm (Ehara, Fujimoto, Miyazaki, Tanaka, & Yamamoto, 1995;Richards, 1999). Participants were therefore fitted with a set of retro-reflective body markers on their preferred hand, forearm and upper arm in accordance with the calibrated anatomical systems technique, as previously described (Campbell & Alderson, 2009;Campbell & Lloyd, 2009;Mitchinson, Campbell, Oldmeadow, Gibson, & Hopper, 2012;Wu et al, 2005). A single static subject calibration trial was required to record the location of the anatomical landmarks (wrist and elbow epicondyles) (Cappozzo, Catani, Croce, & Leardini, 1995).…”