The TACTICAL PLAN - ANOTHER PRE-GAME SWOT APPROACH IN SOCCER PLAY

Abstract

Soccer coaches, fitness professionals, and athletic trainers have long believed and taught that sports
would keep them out of the doctor’s office. Are they right? Researchers recently began to examine how muscles respond to stretching and how this relates to exercise performance and injury risk. Many studies found that reaction time, movement time, and balance were reduced after 20 minutes of standard stretching before exercise. At the elite level, even the smallest reductions in these important variables can have a significant effect on soccer players; therefore, stretching before training is vital.
Consequently, many athletes experience feelings of guilt and regret, perceiving a need for more frequent stretching, particularly due to variations in muscle development at the age of 16. These findings suggest that it may be time to update the old rules about stretching. Moreover, this article emphasises that a suitable warm-up program resolves the problem when an appropriate muscle-stretching workout is performed, thereby strengthening muscle flexibility.