High Levels of Hamstring Flexibility May Enhance Physical Fitness Performance in Elite Soccer-Players

There is growing confusion of whether stretching training (static or dynamic) affect athletes’ performance. Studies suggested that acute pre-competition stretching, may diminish maximum speed and muscular explosiveness performance in very short but powerful athletic trails/events. Similarly, studies suggested that by increasing the range of motion, with flexibility training, may negatively influence performance in long-distance runners. However, how safe is for soccer scientists/coaches to generalize results from studies that did not utilize soccer players and without taking into consideration the demands, needs, environment and the nature of soccer as a sport? In this opinion, we will focus specifically on the effect of sit-and-reach flexibility levels on elite young and mature/professional soccer-players’ physical fitness performance. Studies from our laboratory observed positive results of the effect of “good†levels of sit-and-reach flexibility on elite soccer players’ physical fitness performance.