Comparing female adolescent and collegiate shoulder kinematics during a volleyball spike

Understanding the biomechanics of spiking a volleyball may enable new techniques for prevention and rehabilitation of non-traumatic shoulder injuries particularly in adolescent volleyball players. This study compares shoulder kinematics data collected from high school volleyball players with previously published collegiate shoulder joint angles during the spike. A shoulder-specific OpenSim model was used for Inverse Kinematics. The adolescent players had similar values but greater variability than their collegiate counterparts.