Acute effects of static stretching on hip flexor and quadriceps flexibility, range of motion and foot speed in kicking a football.
The purpose of this research was to determine the effect of static stretching in a warm-up on hip flexor and quadriceps flexibility as measured by a modified Thomas test and on range of motion (ROM) of the leg and foot speed at impact in kicking a football with maximum effort. Sixteen Australian Rules (AR) footballers performed two different warm-ups on different days. One warm-up involved five minutes of sub-maximum running followed by seven practice kicks, while the other also included 4.5 minutes static stretching of the hip flexors and quadriceps after the running. A modified Thomas test was conduced before and after each warm-up. Players performed maximum effort drop punt kicks into a net while being videotaped to determine the ROM of the kicking leg and foot speed at impact with the ball. There were no significant changes in flexibility (p > 0.05) as a result of either warm-up and there were no significant differences between the warm-ups in the kicking variables (p > 0.05). It was concluded that the Thomas test may not have been sensitive to possible acute changes in flexibility from the warm-ups, and that stretching had no influence on kicking ROM or foot speed, possibly because of the complexity of the kicking skill.
Young
W
W
School of Human Movement and Sport Sciences, University of Ballart, Victoria, Australia.
Clothier
P
P
Otago
L
L
Bruce
L
L
Liddell
D
D
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001315:Australia; D005528:Foot / Q000502:physiology; D006621:Hip Joint / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007719:Knee Joint / Q000502:physiology*; D007866:Leg / Q000502:physiology; D008297:Male; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal / Q000502:physiology*; D018583:Pliability; D016059:Range of Motion, Articular / Q000502:physiology*; D012420:Running; D012916:Soccer / Q000502:physiology*; D014741:Video Recording