"Overhead" sporting gesture: functional and technical-sporting factors of incidence

Edited by Doctor Alessio Capobianco

In the throwing disciplines of the "Athletics, the regulation requires the "athlete not to cross the" launch pad "even after having made the throw; the fact implies a certain number of adaptations of the sporting technique, such as the" roundabout "techniques in the shot put and the "special steps" in the javelin throw; in this last specialty the difficulties that the athlete encounters in reconciling the maximum expression of explosive strength with the stabilization of the whole body, therefore of the shoulder, are evident.
In handball, the shot in elevation, which represents the majority of the conclusions, is carried out in the absence of contact with the ground, with relative difficulty in stabilizing the body and, in sequence, the shoulder.

In water polo the aquatic environment in which the activity takes place determines difficulties apparently similar to those of handball shooting in elevation; in reality the situation, for the water polo player who makes a goal at the net, is made even more difficult by the need for a concomitant support-buoyancy action carried out by the lower limbs and, at the same time, by the contralateral upper limb to the shooting limb. The problem lies in the search for the ideal position to load the shot, depending on the game action; if we consider the finishing action hindered by the opponents, sometimes with the upper limb in the trajectory of the shot, sometimes with physical contact, the problem stabilization of the shoulder appears in all its difficulty: if the athlete wants to see more space in the opponent's goal, his action will favor the height, that is to say the exit from the water, losing stability and power.
Some sports specialties require that athletic performance due to them intensity, of their duration, or the presence of external variables, put shoulder stability at particular risk.

The regulations and the context of development can sometimes be favorable to allow sportsmen to maintain a correct joint homeostasis, as in the example of the volleyball attack; more often, however, they are further unfavorable; in addition, in many sports, some conditions relating to the methodology and intensity of inadequate sports training are capable of exacerbating a situation that is already critical in itself.
The presence of one or more biomechanical or technical aspects unfavorable to shoulder stability can reasonably be considered as a risk factor; some sports involve only one of these factors, others contain more than one.

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From the thesis: "THE SHOULDER OF THE" ATHLETE OVERHEAD ": BIOMECHANICS, PREVENTION AND SPORT-SPECIFIC TRAINING." by ALESSIO CAPOBIANCO - Perugia: March 2007