Prevention of Shoulder Injuries in Aquatics Sports

The body of international sports medicine literature confirms that injuries to the shoulder are the most common injury for athletes in all aquatic disciplines. These translate into critical time lost from training and competition, a widely acknowledged factor in our sports. The FINA Sports Medicine Committee (SMC) strongly endorses prevention as the key to this issue and proposes educational initiatives to assist athletes and their support staff to avoid shoulder injuries.

The following video is a tool that can be used by all aquatic athletes to decrease the incidence of shoulder injuries in aquatic sports. The target audience is athletes, coaches, team physicians and other members of the health care team in the athlete entourage.

The video illustrates exercises to strengthen the areas that stabilize the shoulder joint. These are the core muscles, the rotator cuff and the shoulder muscles. All are well illustrated in the video. The FINA Sports Medicine Committee hopes that this can be of use to athletes in the aquatic sports around the world.