Static Stretching In Sports

Words: 879
Pages: 4

Many athletes who play sports are advised to stretch before participating in play or in games. Stretching of the muscles allow the person to loosen up before initiating in play or games, increase the person range of motion, and it also decreases the risk of injury. Specifically in basketball, many players stretch before the game but only for small intervals of time. Some players even participate in games without stretching. Does the amount of stretching affect the torque and flexibility of the player during play or is stretching only a myth that is used to start a trend? I believe that different techniques of stretching are affective in different types of sports. For example, static stretching would be exercised in sprinting. On the other hand, …show more content…
The most common and studied types of stretching are static, ballistic, and dynamic. The most commonly used technique of stretching is the static stretching during the warm up phase. Static stretching is used to stretch muscles when the body is at rest. However, recent studies have shown that acute static stretching may affect the power and strength production which will negatively influence the muscle performance in jumping, sprinting, and strength endurance. Thus, some researchers believe that static stretching should not be recommended to be used by athletes instantaneously before activities that demands great levels of strength and power. On the other hand, ballistic stretching is another stretching technique that is a form of passive or dynamic stretching in a bouncing motion. A few studies informed that ballistic stretching does not have an influence in force production. There were no reductions found in jumping capacity after hamstring and quadriceps ballistic stretching exercises. However, a study has found …show more content…
Many of the studies had shown that both ballistic and static exercises improves the flexibility of the muscle and also improves the range of motion of the joint. In another case, Woolstenhulme studied four different warm-up protocols that involves ballistic stretching, static stretching, sprinting, and basketball shooting on the influences it has on range of motion and vertical jump height in basketball players. In Woolstenhulme’s studies, the researcher found that the ballistic stretch group had the greatest increase in range of motion. Anyhow, the results of the present study has also shown that the dorsiflexion range of motion has increased through static and ballistic stretching. In past studies, researchers used goniometry to confirm that stretching can improve joint range of motion. However, resistive torque was studied with the stiffness of the Achilles tendon to completely assess the effects of static and ballistic stretching. After six weeks of stretching, the passive resistive torque decreased by a small amount in the static stretching group but it remained unchanged in ballistic stretching group. Changes in range of motion and torque occurred due to an increase in stretch tolerance. However, after six weeks of stretching, there were no significant changes in tendon stiffness but the stiffness of the Achilles tendon decreased significantly in