Three-Dimensional Upper Body Kinematics and Inter-articular Kinematic Sequence During a Canoe Polo Throw

Research output: Contribution to journalResearch articleContributedpeer-review

Contributors

  • Najoua Assila - , Universite Claude Bernard Lyon 1, University of Montreal (Author)
  • Cyril Delavallade - , University of Lyon (Author)
  • Yoann Blache - , University of Lyon (Author)
  • Christian Berger-Vachon - , University of Lyon (Author)
  • Philippe Collotte - , Centre Orthopédique Santy (Author)
  • Sonia Duprey - , University of Lyon (Author)

Abstract

Canoe polo is an increasingly popular discipline requiring both kayaking and ball-handling skills. While the kinematics of the upper body during throw has been investigated for several overhead sports, the canoe polo throw has still to be studied. Therefore, the aim of this study is to analyze the canoe polo throw kinematics in terms of angles and inter-articular sequencing to understand its specificity. A secondary aim was to investigate whether adding pelvis mobility has an impact. Nineteen male players of canoe polo were equipped with reflective body markers for the throw analysis. They performed 5 throws with the pelvis fixed and 5 throws with additional pelvic mobility in rotation around a vertical axis. Inverse kinematics was performed with OpenSim providing pelvis, trunk, and glenohumeral rotations. Angular velocities were calculated to build the inter-articular sequences relative to these throws. Statistical parametric mapping was used to assess the effect of pelvis mobility on the throwing kinematics. Similar kinematics patterns as in other overhead sports were observed, however, a different inter-articular sequence was found for the canoe polo throw with a maximal angular velocity occurring sooner for the thorax in axial rotation than for the pelvis in rotation. While the limitation of rotation of the pelvis around a vertical axis has an influence on the pelvis and trunk kinematics, it did not modify the kinematic sequence.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Article number777410
Number of pages10
JournalFrontiers in Sports and Active Living
Volume3
Publication statusPublished - 15 Dec 2021
Peer-reviewedYes
Externally publishedYes

External IDs

PubMedCentral PMC8714653
Scopus 85121987766
ORCID /0000-0002-8929-2526/work/150883854

Keywords

Keywords

  • Angular velocities, Overarm motion, Overhead sports, Pelvis mobility, Proximal-to-distal sequence