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? Soccer is a sport which is continuously growing and developing in its intricacy.
There are two kinds of stretching; static and dynamic, that are slotted in planning training for the soccer season.
Static stretching requires the kids to extend their muscles as far as they can and hold for a given duration of time. Recurring motions, rebounding, and rhythmic bouncing are performed by the players while doing dynamic stretching. It is generally considered as more dangerous and less effective than static stretching.
This article discusses some benefits of stretching that go a long way in making a good player great.
Stretching reduces injuries: When players do stretching every day and keep doing it for a long time, it promotes their muscle growth that reduces the risk of injury. Stretching provides a way of growing the muscle mass and strength as well.
Stretching affects flexibility: Stretching does prevent loss of flexibility. Still, the effects of stretching are way better when it is done for a long period of time than for a shorter duration.
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 perks up performance: When stretching program is designed specifically to suit soccer needs of the players, their performance improves.
Make sure that the kids enjoy stretching: Make stretching fun for the kids by including a variety of soccer drills into your session. Keep varying the warm-up activities you do before stretching. Try various activities like tag games, ball tag, and keep away.
Contemplate on the stretching, sense and know each stretch, along with checking for stiffness in the body.
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.
This is because when the temperature of muscles is higher than normal, tightness decreases and extensibility increases. Those players who wish to sustain or increase their flexibility can partially attain 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. To prevent muscles for tightening too fast, make your players do some stretching after they’ve practiced soccer skills.
Generally, players who exercise an active warm-up prior to stretching get a better range of motion than those who only stretch. So if injury prevention is your aim, stop stretching before exercise and increase the warm up time.
One of the most important soccer training tips to keep in mind is that stretching, if done hurriedly, does not help kids gain any flexibility, and becomes worthless and repetitive, so give them sufficient time to warm up before stretching. You can get more such tips and tactics by subscribing to our youth soccer coaching community that has several relevant 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.
Tags: soccer drills, soccer skills, soccer training tips, training for soccer