Do You Know Stretching?
Of -cos you do. All athletics had done stretching. Most sports trainer put stretching exercise as a part of warming up regiment during a training session. Local Sports Wushu Trainer (SWT) also practise such without fail, without knowing what they are doing, actually. Do they (SWT) really understand what is the stretching aiding the exponent. In fact, does stretching aids the exponent, actually?
For decades, coaches and gym teachers have insisted that stretching helps athletes perform better, suffer fewer injuries, and feel less sore the next day. From the health club to the football field to the gymnastics mat, everywhere you look, people stretch.
Now, research suggests that stretching may not do your body as much good as people thought. After reviewing more than 350 scientific studies, researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that stretching may not reduce the chance of injury.
“There’s insufficient evidence to demonstrate that stretching is effective,” says Stephen Thacker. He’s director of the CDC’s epidemiology program in Atlanta, Ga.
Many local SWT are not trained in sports science or sports related subjects, are they really equipped with the correct “know-how” and train these kids or teenager correctly?
Sure they attended the NCAP. I attended the NCAP too and I tell you – NCAP Level 1 is bullz. It only give a person who wish to become a trainer an entry level of how to be a coach. In simple words, it is only a Trainee Trainer certification.
Sports Wushu is not just a sports. It include understanding of Chinese history and culture. Knowledge of human muscles groups and skeleton movements. Ability to impact moral and ethic values. We can discuss about this later, but now… lets talk about Stretching!
Stretching is fun. It should not be painful. It should helps to relax the muscles, not stretch to the limits. So the key word is relax. A sports person needs to build the muscles, to gain strength and explosive power. A wushu exponent need the muscles to be strong too, but they also need it to be able to s t r e t c h~
Warming up should be warming up, not after 10 mins of body heat-up exercise and then sit down to do some stretching. And many SWT focus on stretching very much, after the warming up. This will in fact helps to stretch the muscles, true, but it will also cool the trainee down, making the trainee not ready for the next hour of training.
SWT should put emphasis on the warming up to ensure that the body is heated up nicely and go into the training. Stretching should be done concurrently during the training. Dynamic Stretching is recommended, but take note on the wushu movements and incorporate such.
SWT should take note that stretching, by itself, will not improve the flexibility of the trainee. Building the muscles together with stretching will.
Last but not least, there are plenty of dynamic stretching available online, just google for it.
For those who are still wondering, don’t worry about stretching cold muscles. They not really helpful. If you wish to stretch I recommend doing it after about 5-10 minutes of warm up and then post work out.