Soccer Training Tips: 4 Action Ideas On Stretching
What if I told you that stretching as a part of soccer training tips is highly recommended by professional soccer coaches and is widely practiced by players in almost every sport? Talking about soccer, it is constantly growing and developing in its difficulty.
There are two types of stretching that can be incorporated in kid’s training for soccer; static and dynamic stretching.
When doing the static stretching, players draw out their muscles to a given point of resistance and hold it right there for a given amount of time. Rebounding, rhythmic bouncing, and recurring motions are involved in dynamic stretching. In general, it is not considered as effective as static stretching and more dangerous than static stretching.
There are some advantages of practicing stretching discussed in this article that improve a player’s ability to become an exceptional player.
Stretching reduces injuries: Continuous stretching during the day and performed over a period of time may promote muscle growth that, consecutively, could reduce the risk of injury. Stretching also provides an effective way of enhancing the muscle size and strength.
Stretching affects flexibility: Stretching prevents loss of flexibility. But, stretching is more beneficial in the long run when performed continuously rather than during the shorter periods of time.
Stretching for some minutes prior to any occasion is liable to improve flexibility. 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 perks up performance: When stretching program is designed specifically to suit soccer needs of the players, their performance improves.
Stretching can be a lot of fun: For this, you need to add variety in your soccer drills and focus a lot on performing them. 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.
Concentrate all your energy on stretching, experience and identify with each stretch while checking for soreness.
One 15-30-second stretch for each muscle group is sufficient for most players, but some kids require longer stretches and more repetitions as well.
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 is better, safer, and more productive to do stretching exercises when the body temperature is higher than normal.
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.
Normally, players who perform an active warm-up previous to stretching get an enhanced range of motion than the ones who simply stretch. So if injury prevention is your aim, stop stretching before exercise and increase the warm up time.
When feeling stiff or inflexible, the most important soccer training tips is to allow kids to warm up sufficiently, as doing stretches would not help them become flexible, and will become boring and futile. You can subscribe to our youth soccer coaching community and get your way to innumerable 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.