Absolutely. It takes time for them to adapt and prepare for the environment. This is one of those subjective things that you can’t measure with a stopwatch or goniometer.
“Put your shirt on because you’re turning me on!”
What’s the research say about that?
You’re all too young to remember when only static stretches were considered acceptable and coaches went around warning their athletes not to “bounce” when stretching. It’s a matter of going with the instinctive responses of the athletes themselves. their bodies are telling them something. If you keep the lines of communication open here, as well as everywhere else, you’ll get the athletes outlining what they want and need.
Hi
Doing static stretches in a warm up that involves dynamic actions is counterproductive.
-There is no evidence that when used pre workout they prevent injuries.
They increase pain tolerance.
When done on calves they reduce peak force, force rise rate and the half relaxation rate of the achilles tendon reflex.
If following static stretches you do a light jog or walk then this will decrease the negative efect somewhat. But why do something that will hurt performance by even 1% ??
My experience has taught me that because of the affect on coordination you cannot display your top speed or agility for about 10 miutes after static stretching.
Rosenbaum & Hennig have researched this extensively* and their results (though far more in depth than mine) concur.
SeanJos
*British Medical journal 1995 -
Seanjos,
Not knocking on your opinion, but if you posted a reference for your claim it may help your argument. All we are hearing is claims with nothing to back it up? Is this from Personal experience? I know all of these coaches here are quite experienced. I think CF, Number Two, etc may know a thing or two… ? I dunno though… Probably… 
I enjoy hearing what they have to say with all the credibility they all bring to the table… Just my two cents… You do bring arguments and good points up though…
Hi Sean Toss
I really want to invite you down for a day for a strength session and explain personally why I use static stretching. After that we can sort our personal indifferences out. I will even pay for your travelling expenses.
England are current World Rugby Champions and if you didn’t spend all day masturbating then I think you would find people did give a shit.
Anyway I really hope you will take my offer up.
This would be a terrific opportunity!!! This isa very gracious offer and one I would have killed for when I was starting out!
The athletes I work with do the same thing. I think it is because people what confirmation on a day to day basis that they are normal (thoughts/ideas/feelings)!!!
Tension reduction isn’t just physical!
If SeanJos does not what the offer, I will take it, I live in Canada though (flight is a little expensive)!
Your right,
Thanks very much for your time Charlie.
I agree that these are findings- but how are they found? What was done before the static stretch? Who were the athletes in the study, etc?
Personal experience is a great teacher and feeling the various stretches yourself throughout a warm up as described is the only way I know to see for yourself.
I can say for sure that the kind of static stretches once recommended for the poor schmuck joggers (stretch first, then jog!) out there were a nightmare that led to a staggering number of achilles injuries. As joggers only go about 2mph anyway and mostly first thing in the morning, there’s no doubt they’d have been better served by doing no stretching at all- and possibly these studies were designed to try to head them off.
This would be a terrific opportunity!!! This isa very gracious offer and one I would have killed for when I was starting out!- CharlieFrancis
I think what he has in mind is different to what you have in mind. LOL
Im starting to picture naked dips again…
I’m being very serious here, power is a salt of the earth kind of guy and I bet you’d end up liking him! And maybe the other way around as well! This is the whole point of having a community like this.
David Behm did research on this same topic and found that the MVC ability was reduced for up to one hour, but only after stretching each muscle for 20 minutes!!
After 3 30-Second (or maybe it was 90-seconds?) static stretches, force output was still reduced by 19-20%, but this still doesn’t prove significant if we don’t know the athlete (or client’s) current status.
And believe me I would take advantage of power’s offer. Even considering how much I dislike jeff madden (the university of texas football strength coach/director of S&C) if he were to invite me up to see them work, I’d be there!! What an opportunity to air things out!! But then again, that takes more courage than criticizing someone (or their methods) on forums!!
Hi Sean
Yes I would like you to come down and promise that no harm will come to you! And I believe you will be a more rounded person for the experience. And you will find that the conditioning of a professional rugby player is a very complex process working in a high pressured environment in one of the most violent games in the World.
You will see first hand why I use static stretching and also why I don’t use HIT and I’ve trained many athletes in other sports and applied many of my methods with them.
Thanks for the great info Charlie. Where do you place ART on the list of ways to address ROM issues?
Number Two,
Have you looked into Anne Fredericks or Guy Voyer’s stuff at all?
Flash has posted an article here about Guy Voyer’s work.
ART can certainly help address these issues if you have access to it.
I did see the article Flash wrote. Just looking for another opinion. I’ll actually open the Anne Fredericks question to anyone interested in commenting.