Soccer Training Tips: A Guide To Stretching
Did you know that soccer training tips has an important feature; stretching, that is highly recommended as well as practiced by almost every sports person? Talking about soccer, it is constantly growing and developing in its difficulty.
When it comes to kid’s training for soccer, two types of stretching i.e. static and dynamic stretching are included in it.
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.
This article discusses some benefits of stretching that go a long way in making a good player great.
Stretching reduces injuries: Constant stretching by players during the day and continuing it over a period of time helps the growth of their muscles, thus diminishing the risk of injury. Stretching also provides a way of improving the size and strength of muscles.
Stretching affects flexibility: Stretching prevents loss of flexibility. Nevertheless, stretching works best when performed for a greater length of time than for shorter periods of time.
Stretching a few minutes prior to any event is likely to increase flexibility. But the best of all soccer training tips is to spread a stretching program over a period of months, leading to a constant increase in range of motion.
Stretching enhances performance: Player’s performance improves when stretching exercises are designed to be soccer specific.
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 altering the warm up exercises that you do before stretching. Try to include games such as the tag game, ball tag, and keep away.
Focus mentally on stretching exercises, feel and recognize each stretch, whilst checking for body 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’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. 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.
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