This descriptive laboratory study used electromagnetic tracking to measure 3D scapular kinematics in 21 competitive throwing athletes versus 21 matched controls during scapular-plane humeral elevation. The goal was to establish what scapular positions and orientations are normal adaptations in healthy throwers — baseline data that did not previously exist.
When you see a baseball pitcher with a prominent medial scapular border and what looks like a 'dropped shoulder,' do not reflexively call it abnormal. This paper established that healthy throwers chronically develop increased scapular internal rotation — the exact motion that creates that visual finding.
The clinical decision rule: compare the pattern to this normative data before labeling it dyskinesis. Increased upward rotation and retraction in a thrower are likely adaptive and protective. Increased internal rotation is a gray zone. Present in healthy throwers but also the defining feature of the SICK scapula in symptomatic athletes.
In rehabilitation of throwing-related shoulder injuries (impingement, labral tears, rotator cuff lesions), restoration of scapular upward rotation is a primary goal. Loss of upward rotation is the kinematic signature of impingement, the direct opposite of the healthy throwing adaptation.
This paper is the foundational normative dataset that makes scapular dyskinesis evaluation in overhead athletes clinically meaningful. Without it, you cannot define what is actually abnormal.
This descriptive laboratory study used electromagnetic tracking to measure 3D scapular kinematics in 21 competitive throwing athletes versus 21 matched controls during scapular-plane humeral elevation. The goal was to establish what scapular positions and orientations are normal adaptations in healthy throwers — baseline data that did not previously exist.
When you see a baseball pitcher with a prominent medial scapular border and what looks like a 'dropped shoulder,' do not reflexively call it abnormal. This paper established that healthy throwers chronically develop increased scapular internal rotation — the exact motion that creates that visual finding.
The clinical decision rule: compare the pattern to this normative data before labeling it dyskinesis. Increased upward rotation and retraction in a thrower are likely adaptive and protective. Increased internal rotation is a gray zone. Present in healthy throwers but also the defining feature of the SICK scapula in symptomatic athletes.
In rehabilitation of throwing-related shoulder injuries (impingement, labral tears, rotator cuff lesions), restoration of scapular upward rotation is a primary goal. Loss of upward rotation is the kinematic signature of impingement, the direct opposite of the healthy throwing adaptation.
This paper is the foundational normative dataset that makes scapular dyskinesis evaluation in overhead athletes clinically meaningful. Without it, you cannot define what is actually abnormal.