How are you doing? I am Ryan McCann and I'm going to talk to your about how to stretch
before a big football game. When you are getting ready to play a football game you want to
stretch. You want to stretch every part of your body because, it's very vital, because
football is a contact sport and it's a very physical game. You want to make sure that
all parts of your body are loose and stretched out. It will also make you more in tune with
your body. So when you are running down the sidelines, trying not to step out, you will
be much more in touch with yourself, your body and you will prevent injury. What I normally
do is to do some laps, not necessarily laps but kind of jog and get the blood flowing
and then I'll start with a nice stretch down the middle and let it hang there for a good
thirty seconds, move to the right leg for a good thirty seconds. Keep it nice and stretched,
you don't want to bounce just kind of nice and easy. Gradually increase the stretch as
you go. Come up, lean back, get the groin stretched nice and good, you might want to
do it a few times, don't want to be stretching until it hurts, just a good stretch is what
you want to feel. Move up, stretch the back, get everything loosened up take it to the
legs, you want to go to through the quad stretch both legs, get up on something and do a nice
calf and Achilles stretch 'cause you'll be doing a lot of work with your legs today.
Then you move it up to the upper body. Then we get the arms stretched, a quarterback will
want to stretch a little extra time stretching the arm. You want to stretch the rear deltoid
of your shoulder, bring it up and over and then stretch the under arm, the lat, work
it into the tricep and then you want to pull it behind your back grab your elbow, kind
of a full stretch in the front, get it nice and loose then when you grab the football
just start playing some nice easy catch nice and close everything starts kind of slow and
you kind of increase as you get warm and get loose. It's very important as a football player
to stretch your neck, especially as a defensive player you are going to be taking some hits
and hitting people so you want to slowly stretch your neck like this, both ways, kind of get
it nice and loose and then when preparing for a football game when you are doing your
weight training your coach will have you doing a lot of neck stretches and neck exercises
where you are crushing against and you want to have a good strong neck as it's a vital
part of your body, the spine. Don't forget a very important part of your body to stretch,
especially in football, because you are doing a lot of running is the hip flexors, if your
hip flexors are tight, they are going to create problems and tightness in your back and your
quads and your knees so you want to make sure that everything is stretched out. You want
to work up into the low back good nice stretch and straightening up until the time of the
game, you want to work it up to all parts of your upper body: your arms, your triceps,
your biceps, your forearms, your fingers all the way up into your neck and relaxation and
the good piece of mind. Like Vic "the Brick" Jacobs says "the bamboo you want to be like
the bamboo, strong but the hollow center, you want to be very mellow".
