The assessment of trunk and shoulder girdle symmetry of young athletes engaged asymmetric sports

Sports competitive participation may cause changes in body posture in the frontal plane as well as in the sagittal and transverse planes. It should be assumed that performing asymmetric sports will primarily affect the symmetry of posture. The aim of this paper is to study the relationships between the participation in asymmetric sports and the symmetry of posture of athletes. The study material consisted of 128 young male and female athletes engaged in asymmetric sports (tennis, shooting, fencing, swimming (crawl) – exhaling on one side of the body only) and a comparative group of 57 subjects not participating in sports competively. A photogrammetric assessment of posture was performed for all subjects, using the Świerc method which is based on the use of the Moire topography. It was found that the group of athletes taking part in asymmetric sports was characterised by poorer results of the test of body posture in the frontal plane than the control group. For each of the assessed variables the frequency of deviations from the norm and their size indicate greater asymmetry of the trunk of the subjects participating in asymmetric sports. The variable that differentiates the athletes taking part in asymmetric sports from the control group was the difference in the height of the inferior angle of the scapula and asymmetry in the distance of the scapulas from the spine. The results of the tests should cause a revision in the perception of the effects of physical activity on posture of athletes and in the development of methods of preventing adverse changes resulting from sports of asymmetric character.