You may be the type of soccer player who rides your bike or drives your car to the soccer field, pulls on your cleats and jumps right into the game. Older players especially need to rethink this approach to avoid pulling a too-cold muscle. And coaches work with even the youngest soccer tots to get them in the habit of stretching. Even though small children are quite limber, they need to get into the stretching habit sooner rather than later. Take a page from college and pro players to incorporate light jogging and stretching before and after you play.
Warmup
In "David Beckham's Soccer Skills," the LA Galaxy midfielder recommends light jogging at the start of your warmup to get the blood pumping. Professional players jog around the field in pairs and chat to catch up with each other, Beckham notes. With youth players, he suggests that the coach can shout out instructions to touch the ground, change direction and form groups of three and four as they jog around the field to get the youngsters focused on the practice to come.
Dynamic Stretches
Beckham notes there was a time when athletes performed static stretches, standing in place and working one muscle group at a time. College and pro coaches have moved to a preference for dynamic stretches involving movement and multiple muscle groups for many sports and especially soccer. Options include kicking each leg diagonally across your body and heel flicks, which involve flicking your heels up toward your buttocks. Knee raises can be performed while jogging lightly, as you bring your knees up to waist height.
Postgame
After a game, a correctly structured cooldown can help you avoid aches the next day caused by the buildup of lactic acid in the muscles. This flexibility and recovery work will gradually relax you after the intensity of the match, writes University of North Carolina conditioning coach Greg Gatz in "Complete Conditioning for Soccer." He recommends at least five minutes of light jogging and stretching as part of your cooldown.
Cooldown
Take an easy jog around the perimeter of the field as part of your post-game cooldown. Follow with walking toe touches, five held for 10 seconds each. Perform a sumo squat stretch, pushing your knees out with your elbows as you squat, for 10 seconds, and side lunges held for 10 seconds on each side. Standing leg swings work out the kinks as you swing each leg five times forward, back, out to the side, and rotating forward and back. Finish with a body-check stretch, performing additional stretches for any part of the body that needs attention, Gatz advises.
