Stretching is an essential part of playing field hockey. A good stretching routine can help to minimize muscle imbalances, prevent injury, and improve your exercise tolerance and your field hockey performance.
Unless you are coaching at elite level where qualified specific sports trainers accompany teams coaches have important role in implementing functional stretching in the warm up and warm down of their team. Coaches know of its importance but may lack the knowledge or be ill informed as to implementing a hockey specific stretching program. This article looks at hockey specific stretching.
When is the Best Time to Stretch?
When your muscles are warm and relaxed! For optimum performance you should stretch after you have done a general body warm up of about 5-10 minutes (light running or cycling.) You should also stretch after your match and between matches if you are playing in a field hockey tournament.
The role of Dynamic and Static Stretching
Field hockey is a dynamic sport so you’ll need to do both dynamic and static stretching. Dynamic stretches form part of your pre-match or training warm-up. They are used to prepare your muscles for the rapid elongation they will incur during the game. On the other hand static stretching works well at helping to restore length to tight muscles. Therefore, static stretches, are most effectively done at the end as part of your cool down when your muscles are tight. If being performed as a pre-activity warm-up, make sure to use static stretching only on tight muscles because static stretching muscles that are not tight can cause a decrease in performance and/or increase injury risk.
Therefore the days of instructing your players to go for a run then taking them through a range of static stretches only (e.g., a hamstring stretch ) is ‘dead and buried’. New research indicates that the flexibility that is a by-product of pre-run static stretching may be a biomechanical factor that hurts running economy, which is a measure of your overall efficiency. Do something to worsen your running economy before a game, and you’re going to go slower. That’s why dynamic stretching is the foundation for pre game stretching and static stretching having a more subsidiary role.
There is mutliple research evidence to support the value of dynamic stretching. One such study published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research in 2009 explains the logic behind the switch. Researchers at Nebraska Wesleyan University enlisted male and female collegiate distance runners to complete sit-and-reach tests to measure flexibility, and then put them on a treadmill to determine running economy. The result: An increase in hamstring flexibility generally correlated with a decrease in running economy.
As the researchers wrote, “[T]he less flexible distance runners tended to be more economical, possibly as a result of the energy-efficient function of the elastic components in the muscles and tendons during the stretch-shortening cycle.”
Ralph Reiff, a licensed athletic trainer and director of sports performance for St. Vincent Hospital of Indianapolis, has worked with collegiate and elite runners for many years. He explains that static stretching isn’t all bad, but from a performance perspective, “static stretching causes an inhibition or a breakdown of the excitability of the muscle tissue.” The immediate effects from static stretching actually include decreased muscle function.
“To get a good static stretch you are asking the body on a subconscious level to relax,” says Reiff. “From a muscle-recruitment standpoint, you don’t want to turn the muscles off in a relaxed state prior to asking them to perform. The elastic energy of a tighter muscle is going to have more recoil and power than a heavily stretched muscle.
The caveat is that simply eliminating static stretching won’t necessarily increase performance and decrease injury. This is where dynamic stretching comes in. Rather than standing in one place and forcing your muscles to stretch, this type of stretching trains the muscles to warm up and fire the way you want them to through a series of dynamic movements.
Under the tutelage of Reiff, Team Indiana Elite, a post-collegiate program out of Bloomington, Ind., has adopted a regular dynamic stretching routine. Speaking about a set of dynamic stretches and pre-activation drills developed by Reiff, Team Indiana’s Stephen Haas says, “I think it has really helped. I’ve done more mileage and better workouts than I ever did in college and I’ve somehow been able to stay healthy.”
Overall, the 13-member team has had no major injuries since forming three years ago. Haas, a 2:18 marathoner and 130-mile-aweek runner says, “It’s all about getting every muscle in the lower leg, upper leg, hip, butt, and glutes activated.” The team performs dynamic stretches before every run and race.
Team Indiana’s coach, Robert Chapman, explains, “Basically, by engaging in these activities, we can neurologically activate specific muscle groups prior to running, which helps us minimize injuries and perform better in the subsequent workout.” As seen with Chapman’s runners, dynamic stretching can assist in bettering performance, while simultaneously reducing injuries.
On a physiological level, Reiff also describes dynamic stretching as a way to stimulate the neurological system, which in turn activates the muscles. This, he explains, makes them more resilient to external stimulus, which leads to a quicker neurological response, “so the muscle is standing ready when called upon to run faster, jump higher, and do what the athlete wants it to do.”
Rules for Dynamic Stretching:
- Warm up your body first, then stretch while your muscles are still warm.
- Move through your range of movement, keeping control of the movement with your muscles. Do not allow momentum to control the movement by “flinging” or “throwing” your body parts around.
- You may feel light resistance in your muscles, but you should never feel pain during a stretch.
- Start with slow, low intensity movements, and gradually progress to full-speed movements through range of motion. Complete these motions for several repetitions (10-15 times.)
- Finish with simulated quick field hockey movements such as lunges and reaching. Repeat for several repetitions (8-10 times.)
Essential Dynamic Stretches for Field Hockey:
These muscles are your prime movers for field hockey. You’ll need to stretch these muscles each time you play. Don’t forget to stretch both sides. The stretching program shown below will take about 15 minutes to complete.
Dynamic Stretches:
For further explanation review the below video
Static Stretches to implement for tightened muscles particulary as part of the warm down
Rules for Static Stretching:
- Warm up the muscles first.
- Slowly take your muscles to the end of their range. You will feel slight resistance in the muscle, but you should never feel pain during a stretch.
- Hold the stretch in a static position. Do not bounce.
- Maintain each stretch for 20-30 seconds. Repeat each stretch 3-4 times.
SOURCE: adapted http://www.physionam.com
