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 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. Generally, static stretching is considered as more effective and involves less risk than dynamic stretching.
In this article, you’ll find some good points of stretching that can help average players become great players.
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 influences flexibility: Stretching puts off the loss of flexibility. But, stretching is more beneficial in the long run when performed continuously rather than during the 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 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 warm up activities that are performed before stretching. Try games like the tag game, ball tag, and keep away.
Focus mentally on stretching exercises, feel and recognize each stretch, whilst checking for body soreness.
For almost all players, one single 15-30 minute stretch for each muscle group is sufficient but some may need longer stretches and more repetitions.
The reason is that when the temperature of muscles is higher than normal, tension decreases and extensibility increases. Kids who hope to retain or boost their flexibility can somewhat reach this goal by stretching. When their body temperature is higher as against normal, it makes it safer and more productive to stretch.
This is the reason why some coaches make kids stretch even after a workout. If your kids stretch for 5-10 minutes after performing soccer skills, their muscles will not tighten 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.
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 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