• Journal of Life Science
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.325-330
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• 2022

While swimming is a very popular competitive sports activity, swimming injuries are unique due to the repetitive nature of the swimming stroke and demanding training programs that can result in upper limb overuse. Therefore, the primary objective of this review was to analyze swimmers' injury areas, injury types by stroke type, and swimming rehabilitation, as well as to discuss safety management for improving swimming performance. In this study, the injuries incurred in swimming events were discussed in the order of upper limb injuries (neck, shoulder, arm, and wrist), lower limb injuries (knee and ankle), and waist injuries. An analysis by stroke type found that shoulder injuries occurred most often with freestyle, backstroke, and butterfly strokes, followed by rotator cuff injury, impingement syndrome, and SLAP (superior labral tear from anterior to posterior) lesions. Knee injuries were associated with the breaststroke, whereas spinal cord injuries occurred with the breaststroke and butterfly stroke. Finally, back injuries were associated with the butterfly stroke. During the freestyle stroke, the shoulder undergoes repetitive overhead movement; hence, shoulder and musculoskeletal pain are the most common and well-documented complaints of swimmers. For safety management, coaches and instructors must ensure that athletes do sufficient warm-up and cool-down exercises to avoid injuries. In case of an injury, they should be familiar with first aid measures so that secondary damage can be prevented with its quick application. In addition, coaches and instructors need to be trained in injury prevention and treatment so that they can provide appropriate rehabilitation treatment for athletes. Although swimming-related injuries cannot be completely eliminated, to reduce them to a minimum, leaders need the knowledge to apply scientific and systematic training principles and methods individualized for each athlete.