The overhead athlete

Abstract

The overhead athlete with a painful shoulder may have many causative factors contributing to the symptoms. This chapter will present an overview of the mechanisms through which shoulder symptoms develop and provide guidelines for evaluation and treatment. The term “disabled throwing shoulder” (DTS) is a general term that describes the limitations of function that exist in symptomatic overhead athletes - from baseball players to tennis players - in that they cannot optimally perform the task of throwing or hitting the ball. In the large percentage of cases, the DTS is the result of a “cascade to injury,” a process in which the body’s response to the inherent demands of throwing or hitting result in a series of alterations throughout the kinetic chain can affect the optimal function of all segments in the chain. These alterations of function, termed dysfunctions, can have anatomical, physiological, and/or biomechanical causative factors.