Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport 16 (2013) 255–258 Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jsams Original research The volume of goal shooting during training can predict shoulder soreness in elite female water polo players Keane Wheeler c,∗ , Tamara Kefford a , Andrea Mosler b , Alexis Lebedew a , Keith Lyons c a AIS Movement Science, Australian Institute of Sport, ACT, Australia b AIS Physical Therapies, Australian Institute of Sport, ACT, Australia c National Institute of Sport Studies, University of Canberra, ACT, Australia article info Article history: Received 9 February 2012 Received in revised form 28 May 2012 Accepted 8 June 2012 Keywords: Injury Athlete monitoring Performance analysis Fatigue Activity Throwing abstract Objectives: Examine the association between measures shoulder soreness and the goal shooting volume in high performance women’s water polo. Design: Seven national level female water polo players were monitored across two training camps (squad selection and team game-based). Methods: Performance analysis coded all shots for each athlete during the training camps and the shoulder soreness information was gathered through an athlete self-rating survey. Residual maximal likelihood analysis was used to predict shoulder soreness. Results: It was shown that 74% (p = 0.013) of shoulder soreness was explained by the volume of goal shooting during training (R 2 0.743) with greater soreness associated with less rest time between shots (p = 0.032). Greater levels of shoulder soreness were reported in the squad selection training camp com- pared to team game-based camp (p = 0.002) with 29% of this shoulder soreness prediction based on individual athlete differences. Conclusions: Shoulder soreness increased with a greater number of shots in conjunction with less rest. Monitoring athletes on an individual basis seemed the most appropriate method of identifying increased shoulder soreness. © 2012 Sports Medicine Australia. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Shoulder soreness is the most common musculoskeletal com- plaint for water polo players. 1–3 Shoulder soreness has been associated with both the playing experience and performance level of water polo athletes. 3 Importantly, athletes that have a greater level of experience are more likely to experience shoulder soreness perhaps due to greater training loads experienced in this level of athlete. 3 Female water polo players experience significantly higher rates of shoulder injury than males. 4 Shoulder soreness may lead to injury and as such is an important health and wellbeing issue in water polo given the stress placed on this joint during match-play activities such as goal shooting. Despite this, previous research has focussed on the incidence and pathology of the general injuries that occur in water polo and not specifically considered shoulder soreness. 4–6 Shoulder soreness is commonly associated with overuse shoul- der injury and is prominent in water polo players. 2,7,8 It is believed ∗ Corresponding author. E-mail address: keane.wheeler@canberra.edu.au (K. Wheeler). URL: http://www.canberra.edu.au (K. Wheeler). to be the result of cumulative micro-trauma from the repetitive dynamic motions of overhead throwing and swimming. 2,7,8 Greater shoulder soreness has been associated with increased shoulder mobility as a result of imbalances in rotator cuff muscles. 9 The rel- ative increase in dominant shoulder external rotation observed in water polo players suggests that levels of shoulder soreness would be a result of throwing actions rather than swimming. 9,10 Building on this, biomechanical research on goal shooting has indicated that the forceful throwing actions from the water expose the shoulder to greater load than land-based throwing actions such as throw- ing in handball, cricket and baseball. 11–13 This can be explained by the reduced contribution of the lower extremity to the kinetic chain when throwing from the water as required in water polo. Less energy generation from the legs requires a greater amount of force to be produced at the shoulder when compared to equivalent land-based throwing. 3 Therefore, the repetitive throwing actions in water polo combined with the characteristic water-based activities may contribute to shoulder soreness. A greater understanding of shoulder soreness associated with throwing actions in water polo would be valuable for coaches in designing appropriate training programmes and health prac- titioners in monitoring the incidence of soreness in the sport. The design of current water polo training programmes are based 1440-2440/$ – see front matter © 2012 Sports Medicine Australia. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jsams.2012.06.006