Soccer Training Tips: Discover The Benefits Of Stretching
Let me tell you that stretching is an vital part of soccer training tips and professional coaches highly recommend it along with almost every player in every sport practicing it daily? As a sport, soccer is growing and developing incessantly in its superiority.
There are two types of stretching that can be incorporated in kid’s training for soccer; static and dynamic stretching.
Static stretching requires players to stretch their muscles to a point of resistance and hold for a given duration of time. Dynamic stretching involves rhythmic bouncing, rebounding and recurring motions. It is generally considered as more dangerous and less effective 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: 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 an effective way of enhancing the muscle size and strength.
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.
Performing stretching for a few minutes before starting any playing activity is likely to enhance 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 improves performance: Stretches, when designed to be soccer specific can greatly improve a player’s performance.
Stretching can be great fun for the kids: If you include a lot of different types of soccer drills in your practice sessions, it can be a lot of fun. 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.
Contemplate on the stretching, sense and know each stretch, along with checking for stiffness in the body.
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 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.
For this reason, some kids are made to do stretching even after their workout also. If your kids stretch for 5-10 minutes after performing soccer skills, their muscles will not tighten too fast.
Usually, players who practice an active warm-up ahead of stretching get a superior range of motion than those kids who just 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.