From chronic shoulder injury to world pole sport champion

A 20-year-old shoulder injury that left Paul Bradley unable to lift his arm was fixed so effectively by a pioneering rehabilitation study at the University of Southampton that he is now a world champion in pole sport.

Paul, a former powerlifter, learnt to live with his injury by only ever using his ‘good’ arm to reach above his head. But when he took part in a groundbreaking shoulder study and received bespoke physiotherapy at the university’s Biomechanics Laboratory in the School of Health Sciences, he not only achieved full rehabilitation – he took up pole sport and is now the world record holder in his category. It was in the early ‘90s that Paul fell whilst playing chase with his two young sons, dislocating his shoulder and snapping the ligaments. For 20 years after that, he lived with the injury that meant he couldn’t raise his right arm above shoulder height without considerable pain.

Paul, now 66 and from West Wellow near Southampton, said: “My main hobby until the injury was powerlifting and instructing weightlifting. I still remember the doctor saying, ‘You’re going to need to find a new sport’. I was gutted.”

MOCATS study

Paul turned to running and cycling, but then he took part in the MOCATS (Motor Control Retraining Exercises for Shoulder Impingement) study in 2012, which used new methods to assess shoulder blade movement and shoulder muscle function.

Peter Worsley , Professor of Assistive Technology and Tissue Health at the University of Southampton, co-led the study. He said: “You need all the big muscles and all the little muscles in your shoulder to be working coherently for it to move properly. Using surface electrodes and our motion capture system, we measured muscle activity and shoulder blade movement to create tailored interventions for people suffering shoulder pain.”

The team was able to pinpoint the cause of Paul’s shoulder impingement, where a tendon was catching on bone. From there, they identified exercises for Paul to improve his posture and teach his body to hold his shoulder in a corrected position.

“It was amazing,” said Paul. “After all those years, it started to improve within a week. It then took several months to train my body to naturally hold my shoulder in the correct position. I was so happy and I found I could start to do more and more exercises.”

The study was conducted by the university’s Active Living Research Group , led by Professor Maria Stokes . A team of researchers worked with local physiotherapists to develop the intervention.

Dr Martin Warner , who leads the Biomechanics Laboratory, said: “Through using technology, we aim to promote optimal movement to reduce the risk of injuries and to help with rehabilitation.”

Pole sport

Shortly after starting the MOCATS trial, Paul discovered a love of pole sport after a friend invited him to try a class at Emma Simmonds’ Pole Performers Dance School in Southampton.

“I thought I was fit and strong – but it was such a tough workout that I ached for nine days afterwards,” he recalls. “I couldn’t accept I wasn’t strong enough for all the moves, so I saw it as a challenge and took it up as a hobby. As the physio improved my shoulder and I improved at pole, I could do harder and harder moves that I could never have dreamed of before.”

Now retired from his job as Head of IT at Southampton’s National Oceanography Centre, Paul is a pole sport instructor and President of the British Pole and Aerial Sports Federation.

He has travelled the world to compete in pole sport competitions, representing Great Britain at three world championships. In 2022 he was the male 60+ world champion, and today he is the over 60s male world record holder.

He said: “If I hadn’t taken part in the MOCATS trial, I would never have achieved any of this. I’m so grateful – it quite literally transformed my life for the better.”

Professor Worsley added: “Paul’s experience is such a fantastic outcome of our study, and it’s wonderful to know that the work we did is still having a tangible impact today.”