Acute effects of dıfferentıal stretching protocols on physıcal performance in young soccer players

Objective: The aim of this study was to examine the acute effects of dynamic, static and no stretching within a warm-up on vertical jump, agility, maximal speed, anaerobic power and reaction time of young elite soccer players. Material and Methods: Twenty-one young soccer players (mean ± SD; age, 16.9 ± 0.63 years; height, 175.8 ± 5.89 cm; weight, 66.5 ± 6.13 kg; BMI 21.5 ± 1.48 kg/cm2) from Turkish Away Super Young League volunteered to take part in this study. Subjects applied 3 different warm-up protocols in a week on three nonconsecutive days. Three warm-up protocols differentiated by their stretching content were used: dynamic (DS), static (SS) and no stretch (NS). Then, applied stationary vertical jump, 35 m sprint, zig–zag agility and leg reaction test. Results: Post-hoc analysis of each of test revealed that dynamic stretching results were better than results of static stretching and no stretching. There was significant difference of the agility test (dynamic vs. static and dynamic vs. no stretching; p0.05) Conclusion: The findings of the present study indicated that young soccer players performing dynamic stretching during warm-up were more beneficial on acute performance than static stretching or no stretching. Static stretching performing for short time as 20 second does not decrease vertical jump, agility, speed, anaerobic power and reaction performance. However, using static stretching does not gain advantage for these components of performance. Therefore, after general warm-up exercises have been suggested for young soccer players to prefer dynamic stretch versus static stretch techniques or no stretching.