A guide to stretching in soccer

When should your players start stretching?

It’s never too early, or too late, to incorporate stretching into your players’ training routine.

Vast research has shown that stretching can increase flexibility in children and adolescents as well as adults. The best time to start stretching is now. 

Although flexibility can be gained, it can also be lost. After the age of 20, flexibility reduces by 10% every 10 years, although this reduction is not linear. Therefore, it is important to try to include stretching in your weekly routine as you age. 

Whether you are using dynamic and ballistic stretching to enhance muscle performance prior to activity, or static and PNF stretching to improve flexibility, having scientifically backed, robust and simple protocols to follow will make it much easier to seamlessly integrate them into your players’ weekly routine.

Implementing stretching into training and matchday routines

Following are some examples of how to structure stretching within your training sessions and on matchdays.

Repetitions are the number of times the stretch is repeated. Sets are the number of times to do a group of repetitions. Hold is the time spent engaging in a single stretch. 

You should have breaks between sets – anywhere between 30 and 90 seconds depending on the group you’re working with. 

Stretching pre-training or match

Before training or a game, lead your athletes through a series of dynamic stretches as part of the warm-up to prepare their bodies.

This will increase blood flow and improve the range of motion, helping them perform better during activity. 

Consider following a routine like the one below...

Stretching post-training or match

After a training or a game, lead your athletes through a series of static stretches as part of the cool-down.

Below is an example of a static stretching protocol to help you achieve that increased flexibility, specifically targeting the lower limb muscles, calves, hamstrings and quadriceps – key areas for soccer players. 

However, this protocol can be used to target any specific muscle group, by simply changing the stretch and using the same hold time and sets.

Stretching for younger players

Stretching is a habit. It it is important to instil it into your players, and your training and matchday routines, from the early age groups.

You may find, though, that older age groups are more receptive to more traditional stretching routines, while younger age groups may get distracted more quickly. 

Some ideas to make stretching sessions engaging for the younger age groups include...

• Incorporating stretching into fun games: For some pre-activity dynamic stretching, play a game where players jog round an area, for example, and then, at various points, are asked to stop and perform dynamic stretches, with the last player to pause and start them having to do a fun forfeit.
• Think about the language you use: For example, in the post-activity static stretching, with a seated hamstring stretch, rather than asking players to extend their leg and reach out their arm, ask them to fold themselves in half and see how flat they can make themselves, to hide from an approaching monster.
• Ask different players to lead the stretching, under your guidance: This gives them a chance to develop leadership skills and put their own spin on things.
• Use stretches (both pre- and post-activity) as a time to chat: This gives you a good opportunity to check in with players, and for them to share stories. A stretching circle (players positioned in a circle around you in the middle) can be a useful way to do this. 

Overall, when trying to implement stretching into coaching sessions and on matchdays, aim to use the right stretching for the right purpose.

Use dynamic stretching integrated into a comprehensive warm-up as a precursor to activity to enhance performance, and use static stretching post-activity to try to improve flexibility in a targeted muscle.

This will provide you with a better-quality training session or matchday experience, and begin to improve your players’ flexibility for targeted muscles.

Stretching is a useful tool. However, as discussed, it is not a silver bullet to fixing all injuries and reducing risk of injury.

If you can develop your players’ flexibility to a level which helps them feel more comfortable performing exercise, or sport, you then have a strong foundation upon which to build their strength, power, speed and agility.