College
College of Health Professions
Date of Last Revision
2025-05-06 06:38:41
Major
Exercise Science
Honors Course
Honors Project
Number of Credits
2
Degree Name
Bachelor of Science
Date of Expected Graduation
Spring 2025
Abstract
Competitive swimming is a sport that athletes traditionally start at a young age, training for many years to build up an aerobic base, learn the best techniques of the sport, and gain experience racing. While this increases the ability to perform and adapt to training in the sport, it also can lead to shoulder tightness, soreness, and even injury. PURPOSE: To investigate any correlation between the perceived shoulder discomfort of adolescents to flexion and extension measurements. METHODS: Participants (N=25) were recruited in person from a swimming club. Swimmers were between 13-18 years old and varied in participation level from recreational to national level competitive swimmers. A brief survey was conducted to record age, sex, the number of swim practices they report attending, and previous shoulder injuries. Shoulder flexion and extension measurements in degrees were then recorded bilaterally, and swimmers rated shoulder soreness on a scale of 1-5. RESULTS: Higher symptom ratings were statistically significantly correlated with lower degrees of both flexion and extension (R= -0.542, -0.631), meaning that once symptom ratings increased, extension decreased. There is enough evidence to suggest that the extension is significant in the regression model and can be used to predict symptom score (p< 0.001), but not in flexion (p>0.10). CONCLUSION: Higher symptom ratings were found to be correlated with lower degrees of both flexion and extension. There were no trends observed to be significant relating to sex. Further studies are required to validate these trends found with larger sample sizes.
Research Sponsor
Melissa Smith
First Reader
Brian Armelli
Second Reader
Ronald Otterstetter
Honors Faculty Advisor
Rachele Kappler
Proprietary and/or Confidential Information
No
Recommended Citation
Daniel, Abigail, "Perceived Shoulder Discomfort in Adolescent Swimmers" (2025). Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects. 2014.
https://ideaexchange.uakron.edu/honors_research_projects/2014