Shoulder injuries

Ray · Post by **Ray** » Fri Nov 24, 2006 9:01 pm

Background

On the Sunday of the first Llangollen weekend, I, inoccuously (no dramatic rolls etc.), hurt my shoulder (no previous known injury). The physio now suggests that I partially dislocated it. I know between what gates (11 and 13) I hurt it but have no real idea of how. The Welsh chief coach saw my run and saw nothing untoward. Thus the injury would seem not to have been due to any major direct cause.

This sort of injury seems to be relatively common in canoeing, indeed, I believe there were also two full shoulder dislocations at the Llangollen events this year. In my case I believe that the shoulder was unstable after decades of swimming (seriously until age 20) and water polo (national league) and this is probably a (the?) major contributory factor. Certainly I have had 'swimmer's shoulder' problems with the other shoulder.

Questions

I wonder how many paddlers specifically do exercises designed to maintain/improve shoulder stability?
Indeed do coaches encourage such?

Probably futile plea

If anyone happens (unlikely I know) to have video footage of the start (I was first judge down in the afternoon) of second runs at the inter-regionals, please can I have a copy. I really would love to know what happened!

Geebs · Post by **Geebs** » Sat Nov 25, 2006 12:06 am

You are not on your own on this try looking Here

Ray · Post by **Ray** » Sun Nov 26, 2006 5:12 pm

Thanks Geebs - lots of other shoulder injured paddlers out there.

However, my thread is aimed at initial prevention. I.e. what exercises are coaches and paddlers doing to reduce the incidence of such injuries in the first place?

Further thought, does anyone know of any canoeing injury statistics or related research?

phatboy-lister · Post by **phatboy-lister** » Sun Nov 26, 2006 7:15 pm

i have been doing some shoulder prehabilitation to prevent such injurys i could send you some things through if you'd like

Ray · Post by **Ray** » Mon Nov 27, 2006 8:38 pm

Prehab - yes please

AnitaB · Post by **AnitaB** » Sat Dec 23, 2006 2:30 pm

Hi Ray,
Hope your shoulder is feeling better, I have a couple of refernces for articles about canoeing and shoulder injuries that I got from the internet that may be of interest to you, they are:
Injuries in whitewater kayaking (2003) British Journal of Sports Medicine Vol. 35 by Fiore & Houston

Shoulder pathoanatomy in marathon kayakers (2004) British Journal of Sports Medicine Vol.38 by Hagemann, Rijke & Mars

Shoulder muscle recruitment patterns during a kayak stroke performed on a paddling ergometer (2007) Journal of electromyography and kinesiology Vol. 17

Injuries associated with whitewater rafting and kayaking (2003) Wilderness & environmental medicine Vol. 14 Fiore

Hope this gives you some interesting reading!