Incidence of shoulder pain in professional and semi-professional disc golfers

Abstract

The aim of this thesis was to investigate the incidence of shoulder pain in active disc golf players. Prior studies suggested that the proportion of the disc golf players experiencing shoulder pain is high when compared to the normal population. Factors that might contribute to these incidences were researched in this study. These factors were years of playing, skill level of the player determined by the PDGA rating, and throwing techniques. Furthermore, the onset of the pain was investigated. The data for this study was collected through an epidemiological survey, which 63 active disc golf players took part in. The theory part of this thesis contains background information about the anatomy and the biomechanics of the shoulder joint. Furthermore, the biomechanics of the different disc golf throws are analyzed. The data of the questionnaire was analyzed using IBM SPSS and Microsoft Excel Addin provided by SAMK (Tixel). The data revealed that 53,3% of the participants have disc golf related shoulder pain. Additionally, the correlations of incidence of pain to active playing years and player rating were investigated. As were the onset of the pain and the action leading to the onset of the pain. The obtained data showed that players with a long career were more affected by pain, as well as certain throwing techniques were more prone to the onset of pain.