Youth stretching with bands

When should a young athlete begin stretching?   That is a very debatable question that I feel would have several strong arguments for and against.  Personally, I have never felt doing band stretching with athletes younger than 14 was a good thing because of the hypersensitive their nervous system had to passive over pressure stretching.  Passive over stretching of young athletes for years seem to be very noxious to the neuromuscular system and resulted in kids just putting their body through unnecessary stress that the body was not mature enough to handle.  Plus emotionally, young teenage athletes were not ready to handle the focus needed to avoid compensation.

I still find many of these circumstances still exist but recently with the help of my son Carter I am starting to relook at this aspect of youth training as something that could be successful if implemented correctly.

Carter is 13 years old and will be going into 8^th grade.  Carter moves very well for his age but recently went through a 2 inch grow spurt which dramatically increased hamstring and hip rotation tightness.  Carter plays soccer as well as football.  He has become very interested in being a kicker for football which is why we decided to pursue implementing a more rigorous stretching program.  Interestingly after 6 weeks of consistent band stretching we have seen    his accuracy and consistency in distance go from 20 to 30 yards.  Now I am not discrediting the importance of practice but based on his improved movement quality, I believe his increased hamstring and hip rotation mobility has definitely assisted in his improvement.

Youth stretching with bands recommendations

If you are going to start a youth (age 12-14 years old) stretching program, here are a few recommendations.

1.  Begin by using a micro orange band before progressing to a red band.  Very important to not over tension them but instead allow them to easily perform the movements without the band dominating them

2.  As their trainer or parent, you need to help them learn the movements and positions.  They will need manual guidance for at least 2-3 sessions before they can do by themselves.

3.  Start with 1 or 2 stretches and gradually implement the others as they master the initial stretches.  Again keep in mind, this is not fun stuff and the motivation to perform will probably not be there early on.  Until they see improved results, getting them to do this will take some one on one support

4.  Stretch slowly but actively.  2-3 second holds at the most and going through very rhythmical movement is important.  Let them know that this takes patience and cannot be rushed through.  Carter very often stretches out while watching a show on television.   All I ask is that he make sure he pushes into those restricted regions.

5.  Stretching the hip flexor – quad mechanism is not one of the stretches because to effectively do that stretch, the athlete must have optimal stabilization awareness.  I find young athletes struggle with this and do much better stretching out those muscles doing a more active lunge-reach approach.

The video below will take you through what stretches I feel you should start with.

Good luck and feel free to shoot me your comments below.

Getting BETTER with BANDS

Dave Schmitz

PS… If you are interested in purchasing bands to being this stretching routine, I recommend the Small Single Band Package.    The Black and Purple bands that come with this will be effective for lower body strength training and speed training if not for the stretching program

Be Sociable, Share!

•