# Archery-related injuries



## archer982 (Jun 6, 2007)

I guess I'll post here instead of making a new thread.

My mom had shoulder surgery last year for a partial tear to her rotator cuff. I'm curious if there are any archer or someone you know who had a rotator cuff tear and opted for surgery. Is it hard to bounce back from this kind of injury in archery? I know in baseball, generally for a pitcher it's hard for them to be the same prior to this injury.


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## TomB (Jan 28, 2003)

I'll bite.

I have had two fairly competitive female archers with severe bicipital tendinitis. Here is a description I found that may be helpful.


> Bicipital tendinitis frequently occurs from overuse syndromes of the shoulder, which are fairly common in overhead athletes such as baseball pitchers, swimmers, gymnasts, racquet sport enthusiasts (eg, tennis players), and rowing/kayak athletes. Trauma may occur because of direct injury to the biceps tendon when the arm is passed into excessive abduction and external rotation. This pattern of shoulder injury can also occur in the left shoulder of right-handed golfers. Many overuse injuries coexist with some degree of bicipital tendinitis and rotator cuff tendinitis.
> 
> The athletic shoulder differs qualitatively from the biomechanics of the shoulder in daily life because of the higher energies and repetitive motions that are involved in athletic activities. Sports activities that require repetitive overhead motion with inadequate reparative time may cause the biceps tendon to break down.


Both of the ladies I worked with had to see a physician, put the bow down, undergo extenisive physical therapy to strenghten the other muscles in the shoulder girdle, and ultimately modify their draw cycle to prevent reoccurrence. In both cases overuse was a significant contributor to the injuries. The fact we had to modify technique after the rehab also indicates we were likely doing something wrong to begin with as far as mechanics were concerned.

At the first sign of significant pain (other than normal soreness) we stopped and sought professional help.


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## tylerbenner (May 29, 2009)

In 2003 I suffered a severe bicycle accident that broke my right (drawing) clavicle and caused extreme shoulder separation. I could not lift my arm above my head, let alone pick up a bow. Many rehab attempts were tried, but eventually (6 months after the accident with ZERO improvement), I had to get shoulder surgery.

I ended up having the broken/smashed section of my collar bone removed. Due to the extent of my injury, it was not possible to use a scope to do this surgery. A large incision was made on the top of my shoulder to remove the bone and repair additional ligament damage. I was also scoped to fix some labrum issues from the accident.

Whereas before surgery I could not lift my arm to even shoulder level, 6 days after surgery I had 98% full range of motion. Three weeks after surgery I was shooting! Two months after surgery I was able to go to the Collegiate National Championships and was fortunate enough to win a spot for the World University Championships.

Since then, I trained as an RA at the OTC for 2 years. I consistently shot hundreds of arrows a day, 6+ days a week, and did extensive cross training. I have completed the 1000 arrow challenge a number of times. I have done 3 hours of holding SPT with my competition bow (with no breaks). Not once did I ever experience any impingement issues, or suffer any acute injuries. Was I sore? Absolutely. Was I tired? Absolutely. Did I do DAILY therapy to recover from intense training sessions? ABSOLUTELY. (My regiment was a combination of active stretching, warmups, cool-down stretching, ice packs, ice baths, ice massages, normal massage, active release, deep tissue massage, key strengthening exercises, three-times a week Bikram Yoga (look it up if you are unfamiliar—in my experience, this was the most beneficial injury prevention for me (archery is a very compressive sport, making a lot of muscles very tight and unwilling to relax)), and cross-training).

I did experience one specific shoulder injury while at the OTC. It was an overuse injury. Leading up the second Olympic Trials, there was a period of around 16 weeks where I shot 7 days a week. Overboard, yes. Call it nervousness, but it was a risk I took. I felt that I was losing technique changes if I missed a day of practice. I developed a severe case of tendonitis. The way I felt this the most was it made warming up very painful. However, once I was warmed up, shooting was bearable. If I stopped for 15 minutes or more and let my muscles cool, it would hurt again. Even drawing a light bow (when my muscles were cold) was very painful. About two weeks before the Trials I had to take 4-5 days off with no/minimal lightbow training and all-day therapy to try and get me shooting ready for the Trials. In the end, it didn't really work that well. I was still in a lot of pain. The thing is though, had I timed things a little bit better, (12 weeks instead of 16), I likely would have been fine. My plan all along was to slow down after trials. It is hard to know exactly how you will react. Please know this program was not proscribed to me—I chose to shoot this much on my own volition. I think many Olympic hopefuls are willing to put a lot on the line to go after their dreams. After the Olympic Trials, I took some time to recover, and returned to normal condition in no time.

Of course, everyone is different. This is the story of my own injuries that relate to archery. Please take them as a single case.


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## JDT_Dad (Nov 5, 2008)

*This is more common than you think*



TomB said:


> I'll bite.
> 
> I have had two fairly competitive female archers with severe bicipital tendinitis. Here is a description I found that may be helpful.
> 
> ...


From what I understand, this type of injury is not uncommon, especially among those who are still growing. Kids tend to be very flexible partly because they have not matured to the point where the joints have strengthened. The shoulder seems to be very susceptible to injury partly because the joint is fairly loose and is not very stable in kids who haven't yet hit puberty.

May I ask how long a recovery period was required for your students?


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## TomB (Jan 28, 2003)

JDT


> May I ask how long a recovery period was required for your students?


One took 6 months before she was able to shoot again. The other about 4 months. Once they came back we modified the draw (no part of the draw arm could be above the chin during the draw cycle) and we started with very low draw weights.

Tyler's experience with tendonitis was similar to one I had pitching in baseball after college. I had an impingement in my throwing shoulder. Warm up was excruciating. Once warm I was ok as long as my team didn't spend too much time hitting. Once cooled down my shoulder throbbed and required aggressive ice therapy. My trainer brother told me that once you get going the natural endorphines help mask the pain but I was still doing damage with each pitch.

I think the message I get our of sports injuries is to admit what you don't know and get help as soon as injury is recognized. If you are truly injured the "rule of holes" applies: once you find yourself in a hole, stop digging.


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## Landed in AZ (May 11, 2008)

TomB said:


> I think the message I get our of sports injuries is to admit what you don't know and get help as soon as injury is recognized. If you are truly injured the "rule of holes" applies: once you find yourself in a hole, stop digging.


Kiley was hurt in the fall of 06 and required 3 months off due to a shoulder injury. We started back light & built up. The shoulder still pops but does not hurt. She is very flexible like I am and it was the smaller muscles not being able to support everything. She has not had too much problem since with injury specifically (not counting the knee injury/surgery which is not really archery specific). Having had 5 shoulder operations myself, I was wanting to be careful with her. We had thought the answer was weight training but the program set up for her is what really caused the ultimate injury. I don't think there are too many trainers out there that understand what these archers need. Chelsey is the exception to that rule and I am sure she could provide some interesting perspective in this discussion.


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## LoveMyHoyt (Nov 29, 2008)

Gotta keep in mind, too, that the young folk will heal faster than us "older" :mg: archers.


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## Jim C (Oct 15, 2002)

My best advice-don't shoot with pain-I wrote about my experience on Jason's thread


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## biblethumpncop (May 14, 2004)

I posted my experience a year or two ago, but I'll post again. I shot archery for the college team in 91-92. During that time frame, it was in vogue to draw the bow with a large, arching draw. I could feel the discomfort, which turned to pain in my drawing shoulder. The pain was a pinch. I was 19, and stupid. I didn't figure it out until years later.

I had injured my shoulder during that time frame. I played softball in the Navy a couple years later as well. When I would throw the softball, I would hear a popping noise. It usually lasted about a dozen throws, then it would go away. Fast forward another 10 years. I was playing softball for the church team. Same popping in the shoulder while throwing. Only, I couldn't move my arm above my nipple area the next day. Well, instead of getting it checked out, I just stopped playing softball. All along, I was shooting archery, but in the traditional form, not FITA style.

I picked up the FITA stuff a few years after that, and was starting to get competitive again. I didn't draw the same stupid way they taught us back in college, because it hurt. But, after making the AZ duel in the desert team in 2006, I couldn't move my arm above my nipple for 3 days! So, I got it checked out by a sports orthopedic surgeon. An MRI confirmed that I had an old injury. Torn Labrum and Biceps tendon.

The Surgeon told me after the surgery that my shoulder was pretty torn up. I had cysts, torn labrum, torn biceps tendon and a chewed up rotator cuff. The cysts were due to the 15 year wait that I had before I checked out the shoulder. I was able to shoot a compound and a recurve (instinctively) after about 6 months. I could not shoot the proper form for FITA with a recurve for almost 2 years. I have scar tissue built up in my shoulder that acts as a "clicker". I pull the bow to my draw, then have to rotate my drawing shoulder through the scar tissue with a little hump like feeling. It doesn't hurt anymore. Actually, it is a draw check now! 

I wonder if each of the latest and greatest ideas of draw techniques are completely thought out before being endorsed by everyone and their brother. Take care of your shoulder. You only have two...


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## osteo (Apr 26, 2009)

I am just getting into FITA style archery, actually having a difficult time finding bows, etc... up here in Ontario! but my search continues! so I figured I'd add some feedback to a community that I am interested in.

As stated above, the shoulder is a pretty simple, and yet complex joint in the body. As it is totally suspended from the clavicle (collar bone) and in some ways at the whim of the scapula (shoulder blade) any issues or problems with them will lead and create problems in the shoulder (glenohumeral jt) itself.

In general I tend not to put too much input into these kinds of threads (with the various forums I go to) as they can spiral crazy pretty easy - and as someone else also said, each and every case is individual and different. Yes, the pain may be in the same place, the range of motion might be the same (or lack thereof), but the causative or contributing factors can all be slightly different - and yet come up with the same symptoms.

One thing that is often overlooked with any shoulder injury is the relationship of some of the organs... (this is an Osteopathic point of view) as the liver has a relationship to the R shoulder. Actually, the relationship is really simple - the liver sits under the ribs on the right side. So, if you grab your shirt at the bottom rib level with your left hand and pull down, you should notice that the shirt creates tension over your right shoulder - simple. 

Now I am *not* saying that the liver is the cause, but in cases where all other therapies have not helped, it might be contributing.

The other big thing for correct shoulder function is the correct fluidic motion of the scapula over the ribs which is (amongst other things) affected by posture. If your posture is poor (even slightly forward) then the scapula will not glide as efficiently as it should, which in turn will affect the mechanics of the shoulder jt.

There is a really good exercise for correcting posture, that is extremely effective if done correctly. In my own case I have been having some issues with a bit of impingement in my right shoulder (not necessarily archery related) and in doing the exercise I have significantly decreased the pain as my posture has been getting rather slack. The exercise was developed by Shirley Sahrmann and given to me many years ago so I am not sure if it was modified for my case or not, but I do know it works and I give it to my patients with success.

Actually I have been meaning to type out instructions with pictures for patients of this posture exercise, maybe I'll actually do it and post them.

So - in the end, (and I apologize for being long winded) - posture is important that is the first thing along with ice, compression, proper warm ups, cool downs and stretches...

HTH

D
ps - I've been treating rec to national level athletes (all sports) for over 10yrs now just to give an idea that I have been around for a bit!

D


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## Vittorio (Jul 17, 2003)

TomB said:


> ...
> One took 6 months before she was able to shoot again. The other about 4 months. Once they came back we modified the draw *(no part of the draw arm could be above the chin during the draw cycle) *and we started with very low draw weights.


This is the key point in shoulder injuries and of course in their prevention.

I have had to face tens of cases were shoulder problems were related to bad way of doing traction and misalignment of the two shoulders during this phase. 
Unfortunately, many archers (and coaches) don't pay attention to this important point. For archers, drawing top-down, contracting and moving up the drawing shoulder or letting the bow shoulder up in relationship to the drawing one gives often a feeling of stability and power and makes sometime hard to convince them they are in the "danger" area... until they start feeling pain.
The basic of prevention is to keep both shoulders low and aligned during traction, as keeping them both low is much more controllable than any other sort of alignment. 
But, nowadays high grip is on fashion, and you can't easily keep bow shoulder low with high grip, so traction lines have to be controlled much carefully.
My suggestion is ever to do the traction keeping the arrow on an higher line than the bow arm, but lower than the chin direction. This anyhow protects front shoulder, but not the back one, as many are rising it during the traction, going again to the danger area. So, the other important point is to make sure that archers are not doing this during any phase of the traction .
At top level, in Italy we have had in the past at least two archers that have been submitted to drawing shoulder surgery to fix rotator’s cuff problems and pain caused by their way of moving drawing shoulder up and contracting it during traction.


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## archerymom2 (Mar 28, 2008)

ttt


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## Hank D Thoreau (Dec 9, 2008)

This is not intended to be glib but,

For those of us that have experienced life to the fullest (not youth, healthy athletes etc.):

It is important to understand the difference between acceptable pain and injury that requires treatment or rest.
The best way to do the above is to know your body and get professional advise when necessary.
The best way to avoid injury is to learn proper injury avoiding technique, right size your equipment and establish a schedule that provides sufficient recovery time between sessions.
Do what I do not do enough of: stretch !!!!!
I am sure that there are others that can add to this list.

I do few physical activities today that do not result in some sort of pain -- and distinguishing pain from injury is often difficult (last time I hurt myself it turned out to be a kidney stone !!!). This is from both previous injury and wear and tear from years of active participation in the adventures of life. If it were not for these injuries, I would have never taken up archery in the first place (I had no previous exposure to the sport). I have found archery to be something I can enjoy without causing further harm to my joints -- well, sort of.

Remember: For some of us, "Today is the best day we have left". Enjoy it to the fullest and --

Happy shooting.


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