The Beneficial Effects of Bracing on Shot Put Performance

Background/Purpose: The action of a put, in the shot put event in track and field, is an overhand throw or cast with a pushing motion from the shoulder that places a significant amount of stress on the musculature and joints in the wrist that may lead to injuries. The purpose of this study was to determine if the incorporation of a wrist wrap, either small or large, has an impact on the throwing distance of a shot put thrower. 

Method: The participants were 18 male Division I track and field athletes in the United States who are (age: 21.1yrs±3.7; height: 187.7cm±5.1; weight: 120.8kg±19.6) experienced in the shot put event.   The athletes reported to a competition shot put venue 3 separate times with no less than 24 hours between meetings. Each visit required the subject to complete an agility warm up routine (15 minutes of general warm-up and dynamic stretching) prior to testing. Once warm up was completed the subject was permitted 3 unmeasured warm up throws followed by 3 measured throws wearing the predetermined wrist wrap (light or heavy) or control for that particular test day. The throws were measured using an open reel tape measure.

Analysis/Results: The average (t₁₇ =1.89, p = 0.038) and maximum (t₁₇ =1 .94, p = 0.035) throw distances while the athletes were wearing the heavy wrist were significantly greater than when the athletes were not wearing a wrist wrap.  Improvements in average (1.9%) and maximum (2.2%) throwing distances for the heavy wrist wrap condition exceeded the criterion of 0.9% to 1.5% for smallest worthwhile improvement in the shot put event.

Conclusions: These results provided insights on the beneficial effects of taping and bracing on “real world” sports performance that has not been previously evaluated.  Based upon these findings, the use of power lifting style wrist wrap is advisable for the shot put athlete to enhance sports performance.