Does it sound familiar when I say that stretching forms an integral part of soccer training tips and is widely recommended and practiced by almost all sportspersons? Talking about soccer, it is constantly growing and developing in its difficulty.
There are two kinds of stretching; static and dynamic, that are slotted in planning training for the soccer season.
Static stretching requires players to stretch their muscles to a point of resistance and hold for a given duration of time. When it comes to dynamic stretching, recurring motions, rhythmic bouncing, and rebounding is what the player does. In comparison with static stretching, it is more risky and less useful.
This article discusses some benefits of stretching that go a long way in making a good player great.
Stretching reduces injuries: Stretching helps bring down the risks of injury when performed over a period of time by stretching the muscles daily, thus promoting their growth. Stretching provides a way of growing the muscle mass and strength as well.
Stretching affects flexibility: Stretching prevents loss of flexibility. However, the support is more convincing for a long-term stretching line up than for shorter periods of time.
Stretching increases flexibility when it is performed for a few minutes before any soccer activity. When it comes to soccer training tips, the best bet is to distribute a stretching program over a predetermined length of time to continuously increase the range of motion.
Stretching betters’ performance: When the stretching program is planned after considering the player’s soccer specific needs, their performance improves.
Make stretching fun for the kids: You can do this by including a variety of soccer drills into your training regimen. Keep changing the type of warm up exercises that you perform before stretching. Try to include games such as the tag game, ball tag, and keep away.
Focus mentally on the stretching and feel and understand each stretch, checking for stiffness or soreness.
In most of the cases a single 15-30 minute stretch for each muscle group is enough for kids but some may need longer stretches or more repetitions.
The reason for this is that when the temperature of muscles is higher than normal, stiffness decreases and extensibility increases. Players who want to maintain or increase their flexibility can partly achieve this goal by stretching. It’s advisable to perform stretching exercises when the body temperature is higher than normal as it is safer and more useful.
This is why some coaches tend to make their kids perform stretching exercises after a workout as well. After practicing soccer skills, if kids are made to do some stretching for 5-7 minutes, it’ll prevent their muscles from tightening too fast.
In general, players who do an active warm-up before stretching get an improved range of motion than kids who only stretch. So if injury prevention is your aim, stop stretching before exercise and increase the warm up time.
Some food for thought; one of the most important soccer training tips is that hurried stretching is meaningless and boring and doesn’t help your players gain flexibility, so allow them some extra time when they are feeling inflexible or stiff. Join to our youth soccer coaching community and you can get access to numerous articles, videos, and periodic newsletters.
Andre Botelho is the author of “The Expert Youth Soccer Coaching Guide” and he’s a recognized expert in the subject of youth soccer coaching. Learn how to explode your players’ skills and make coaching sessions fun in less than 29 days! Download your free pdf guide at: Youth Soccer Drills.
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