Stretching in the prevention of hamstring strains: Attitudes, beliefs and current practices among football coaches in Mauritius

Abstract

Context and Objective: Hamstring strain is a common injury in football and it causes a sig-nificant amount of time lost from competition and training. Since poor flexibility is thought to predispose to muscle strain, stretching is rou-tinely recommended during warm-up routines by coaches to prevent injuries. However, avail-able evidence suggests that pre-exercise stretch-ing (PES), especially static stretching, has no benefit on injury rates and may even reduce per-formance in explosive type activities. We de-signed this study to assess the attitudes, beliefs and practices of football coaches regarding stretching in the prevention of hamstring strains. Design: A cross-sectional survey. Setting: Mau-ritius Football Association (MFA). Participants: 26 football coaches registered with the MFA. Intervention: Questionnaires were distributed to football coaches of the MFA via sports officers. Questionnaires were then collected two weeks after distribution. Main Outcome Measures: At-titudes, beliefs and practices of football coaches regarding stretching in the prevention of ham-string strains. Results: MFA coaches held gen-erally positive attitudes and beliefs towards stretching. 88% of coaches felt that PES is bene-ficial and 93% believed that PES prevents ham-string strains. The majority of coaches recom-mended stretching after warming up (81%) and after the training session (93%). 76% of coaches also advised stretching outside the training sessions. 96% of coaches used static stretching to stretch the hamstrings. The hamstrings were stretched on average for 4 times at each training session and the mean duration of a static stretch was 12 seconds. Conclusions: Nearly all coaches believed that PES prevents hamstring strains al-though evidence is limited. Some of the coaches' beliefs and practices were not in line with cur-rent recommendations. Coaches reported that their stretching practices would be most likely influenced by scientific research. Thus there is an urgent need to devise awareness and training programmes in this area.