Coaches Exercise Tip #20 – Static stretching decreases power development
I am unaware of how many individuals in our club are active basketball players. I know there are a few and I know that they are competitive players, which means that they should be taking every opportunity to “own the boards”, “box out”, or “win the tip off” …… I know little of basketball lingo, but I do know that a proper warm-up will allow players to better perform and jump higher, which in many sports is of utmost importance.
Researchers tested a group of collegiate basketball players on lower body explosiveness with vertical jump and standing long jump tests after a static or a dynamic warm-up protocol. The results were significant and very important to any one who exercises or plays sport. Researchers found that the mean height of the a vertical jump (VJ) with a dynamic workout was 66.49cm and for the static group it was 62.72cm. This is a near 4 cm different in performance. The group also tested the standing long jump numbers, the dynamic warm-up group jumped 231.99cm and the static group jumped 219.69cm. These results are incredibly significant as they truly influence the players performance in their game. Adding nearly 2″ to a basketball players vertical jump is fairly significant.
One must also think of the various other sports that this research would influence. Football, baseball, tennis, golf, and sprinting to simply name a few are all influenced by lower body (hip and thigh) power development. A dynamic warm-up should be used for all these sports, so if you coach or play on a team that requires lower body power have you team mates or athletes perform a dynamic warm-up pre-game and practice as it is much more influential towards performance. The use of the Synergy warm-up would suffice for nearly all teams.
Our gym warm-up is a full body warm-up as we typically focus on full body workout protocols and exercises, so again the use of the Synergy warm-up can be done for all teams in sporting environments. It takes little time and no equipment, which makes it very portable.
Journal of Stength and Conditioning. 2011;Nov;25(11); 2985-90
