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Introduction: Australia is one of the largest surfing nations with over 10% of the population participating; yet there is a paucity of literature analysing the injuries from surfing participation, particularly injuries requiring orthopaedic care. This study retrospectively analyses surfing injuries presenting to a tertiary hospital Emergency Department over a ten-year period with aims of quantifying surfing injuries and investigating injury characteristics requiring orthopaedic input.Methods: A retrospective clinical audit of presentations to Gold Coast Public Hospital Emergency Departments over a ten-year period was conducted using electronic hospital databases. Broad search teams were used to identify presentations, followed by exclusion based on relevance. Subsequent analysis of data was performed to investigate patient demographics and injury characteristics.Results: A total of 2680 surfing related injury presentations were analysed. The median age was 30 years (range 2-77), with 455 females (17%) and 2225 males (83%). Lacerations were the most common injury type (37.9%), followed by ligament injury (21.3%), fractures (12.2%), and contusions (11.4%). The most common areas for lacerations were head/face (59.2%), lower limb (30%), and upper limb (26.5%). Dislocation rate was 4.9%, with shoulder dislocation (76.5%), and patella dislocation (12.1%) being the most common types. 1512 presentations (56.4%) required orthopaedic management. 93.5% did not require admission and were discharged.Conclusion: Over half (56.4%) of surfing injuries were orthopaedic in nature; requiring orthopaedic advice or management. Lacerations, ligament injury, fractures and dislocations were the most commonly managed injuries. This emphasises the importance of understanding the prevalence and characteristics of surfing injuries for an orthopaedic service. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the study was to determine the differences in hand-grip strength and strength-related anthropometric parameters between the highest-performance international paddlers (HILP) and other international paddlers (ILP) in canoe slalom. In male competitors (n=48; 23 canoeists and 25 kayakers) who took part in the 2018 European championship event in canoe slalom in Prague, Czech Republic representing 15 European countries were measured hand-grip strength and strength-related anthropometric parameters two days prior the event. Differences between the group of HILP (medallists from Olympic Games, world championship and European championship in the previous three years and European championship finalists at the same time) and ILP were found. HILP have significantly higher forearm, arm and chest girths than ILP. Moderate or high practical differences and margin statistic differences were found also for hand-grip strength, body weight, body mass index and age. The consistently high-performing paddlers are heavier, have more muscular upper body and are stronger than the other group, while keeping their lower body lean. Therefore, regular upper-body strength training to all canoe slalom paddlers is important but caution is required because body weight over 80 kg may be a limiting factor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water polo players require a high level of upper-extremity strength, flexibility and coordination to achieve a peak level of throwing performance. Increased levels of shoulder proprioceptive acuity, strength and range of motion (ROM) have been previously associated with higher sporting performance. A coach-rating scale, used to quantify an athlete's kicking proficiency in soccer; was adapted in the current study to measure each coach's subjective expert opinion regarding athletes' throwing mechanics, velocity, and accuracy. To examine this hypothesis shoulder proprioception acuity of 18 water polo players was measured both in-water and on-land using an AMEDA apparatus and correlated with coach-rated throwing performance and clinical measures of shoulder strength and ROM. There was a moderate positive correlation between the in-water and the on-land proprioception acuity (r = 0.47, p < 0.05). The in-water score showing a strong positive correlation with coach rated throwing mechanics (r = 0.68, p < 0.05) and velocity (r = 0.75, p = 0.02), suggesting that superior proprioception acuity contributed to fast, mechanically-efficient throwing. These findings support the notion that in-water proprioceptive acuity is an important determinant of the throwing performance achieved by water polo athletes and its measurement may be a valuable adjunct to current athlete screening. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In open-water swimming events with non-elite swimmers held in the USA, but not in Europe, women were faster than men. We examined the sex difference in elite long-distance open-water swimming races and the role of nationality by investigating 7,468 swimmers competing in 5 km, 10 km and 25 km FINA races held between 2000 and 2016. More men participated in 10 km and 25 km than in 5km races. Men were faster than women and the sex difference was similar in all race distances. Swimming speed was faster for 5km than for 10km, which in turn was faster than 25km. There was a major effect of nationality on swimming speed at 5 km and 10 km, but not at 25km. No dominance of a particular nationality was observed for all race distances. In summary, men were faster than women in all FINA race distances from 5km to 25km but nationality played no role in the sex difference. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The main purpose of this study was to analyze the coordination, propulsion and non-propulsion phases in the 100 meter breaststroke race. Methods: Twenty-seven male swimmers (15.7 ± 1.98 years old) with the total body length (TBL) of 247.0 ± 10.60 [cm] performed an all-out 100 m breaststroke bout. The bouts were recorded with an underwater camera installed on a portable trolley. The swimming kinematic parameters, stroke rate (SR) and stroke length (SL), as well as the coordination indices based on propulsive or non-propulsive movement phases of the arms and legs were distinguished. Results: Swimming speed (V100surface breast) was associated with SL (R = 0.41, p < 0.05) and with TBL tending towards statistical significance (R = 0.36, p < 0.07), all relationships between the selected variables in the study were measured using partial correlations with controlled age. SL interplayed negatively with the limbs propulsive phase Overlap indicator (R = -0.46, p < 0.05), but had no significant relationship to the non-propulsion Glide indicator. Conclusions: The propulsion in-sweep (AP3) phase of arms and their non-propulsion partial air recovery (ARair) phase interplayed with V100surface breast (R = 0.51, p < 0.05 and 0.48 p < 0.05) respectively, displaying the importance of proper execution of this phase (AP3) and in reducing the resistance recovery phases in consecutive ones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In La Traversée Internationale du Lac St-Jean, held between 1955 and 2012 in Canada, the fastest women ( r2 = 0.61, p < 0.0001) and men ( r2 = 0.66, p < 0.0001) improved swimming speed over the years but the sex difference remained unchanged at 8.8% ± 5.6% ( r2 = 0.069, p = 0.065). Annually, for the 3 fastest swimmers, both women ( r2 = 0.53, p < 0.0001) and men ( r2 = 0.71, p < 0.0001) improved swimming speed between 1973 and 2012 and the sex difference decreased ( r2 = 0.29, p = 0.0016) from 14.4% ± 11.0% (1973) to 3.7% ± 1.4% (2012). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]