The volume of goal shooting during training can predict shoulder soreness in elite female water polo players

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 compared 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.