I've also heard and read a lot about both sides of this discussion.

The common thread that everyone agrees on is that warming up incrementally is the way to go. Stretching too much can actually temporarily weaken muscles and throwing too hard right off the bat (no pun intended) can also weaken muscles.

A good warm-up should do two things: 1. warm up the body by increasing blood flow and the presence of oxygen in the muscles and 2. loosen muscles and tendons to increase the range of motion of various joints.

The common belief is that stretching is a universal absolute. But stretching in place doesn't improve the muscles' ability to perform with more power.
Stretching muscles while moving, on the other hand, can increase power, flexibility and range of motion. Throwing a ball lightly at first and building up speed and power is a good way to accomplish that.

Yes it is because if they pull a muscle they could come back to you and blame it on you for not making them stretch. My coach always makes us stretch before a game so we dont pull anything.

A simple throwing warmup can act as a stretch for a player. They should stretch before throwing hard.

it doesnt matter if a simple throwing warmup can act as a stretch for a player. you should always stretch beforehand

You should ALWAYS stretch before a practice and game and for softball LONG TOSS helps me and probably help your players warm up faster and stretch. LONG TOSS is when you start out throwing fairly close and as you get warm spread out at a very long distance to the point were you can barely get to you partner any more but have to crow-hop and shuffle... and you don't have to throw hard, just lobbing would be better in the beginning so you can get stronger as you go- pretty soon you get to the point were you can throw really far without a problem, and I'm always warmed up after this drill....

I said that... I said you should stretch BEFORE practice, and THEN do long toss, but ok....

You'll want to promote warming up to throw, not throwing to warm up. Have the kids to a dynamic warm up.....jogging, speed ladders etc.

Then have themdo a few exercises to flex the muscles in the joints. Tugging and pulling the joints doesn't really do anything. You need to use the muscles in the joints to wake them up.

Coach Bill

You should definitely warm-up first, but "stretching" may have different meanings to different people. I would NOT have players stretch before getting their body warm. Stretching cold muscles can definitely do more harm than good. However I would NOT allow them to throw cold either. They must properly warm-up first to prevent injury.

Many coaches are now going with a dynamic warm-up - more information on what that is and how it works here:
http://allaboutfastpitch.com/Blog/truth-about-stretching-video/

Stacie is right, (static)stretching before getting your body warm may do more harm than good. A light jog is a good start to get your blood flowing.

Doing dynamic warm-ups is currently what sports specialists recommend.

http://www.softballperformance.com/blog/dynamic-warm-ups-for-softball-further-proof/

http://www.softballperformance.com/blog/softball-training-are-dynamic-warm-ups-workouts/

I would say take a lap around the court and then do your arm stretches and make sore that you stretch your legs out so then you can be loose.

Warming up prior to throwing is important, by jogging and stretching you are getting your body temperature up, sweating a little. A warm muscle reacts better than a cold muscle.

That may be a question best left to a qualified trainer or physician. There are some good posts above, but you can get better results for a question like this by contacting your local trainer, doctor, pediatrician, or orthopaedist.

There is a lot of good advice from several people regarding this question. Please pay special attention to the answer given by Matt Wurst, Richard Todd, Stacie Mahoe, and others that give answers that support sweating before doing anything more difficult and dynamic type warm-ups.

Dynamic warm-up is the current terminology that professionals in the field of physical education and training will most often use. It is a means by which the body moves slowly through full ranges of motion. Much more effective then a static stretch, which is best used at the end of training and/or game, where a stretch is held in one position for several counts.

What you want to stay away from is throwing hard and/or long right away before the body has a chance to increase blood flow to "ALL" muscles that will be doing the work. And any type of ballistic, bouncing, type stretch. Ballistic stretching is not a wise choice in any situation. The old toe touches that used to be commonly used as a warm-up is one example.

In review:

1. Get the body working to a point of light sweat doing things that are easy and low on the strenuous scale.
2. Include dynamic type stretching as part of the warm-up.
3. Gradually build up through the warm up.

Lastly, doctors, pediatricians, and orthopaedist's are very very good at what they do, however, they are not necessarily the best experts when it comes to questions dealing with training and exercise. Those are best left up to exercise physiologists, athletic trainers, and even a good physical education teacher.

Seems to be a hot topic. I few things from my experience with stretching.
1. The amount of stretching done and when will be determine by the sport, skill level, Age and conditioning level of each athlete.
2. Evidence does show that stretching is important in increasing muscle and joint flexibility, in most cases researchers found little-to-no relationship between stretching and injuries or post-exercise pain.
3. Dr. Ian Shrier, a McGill University sports medicine specialist, says stretching before a workout may, in fact, make muscles more vulnerable to injury by tearing their fibers. What's more, despite popular perceptions, nearly all workout strains and pulls occur not when a muscle hits its limit of extension but when it is contracting -- so widening its range of motion has no theoretical reason for reducing the chances of harm.

So with these thoughts in mind.

Age- The window for flexibility is at its highest from ages 6-8 drops to about half of that at from ages 8-10 and at age 11 to 20 it is about half of that again. from ages 20 and up it stabilizes.

Sport- The type of sport you are in will determine when and how much and what type of stretching you do. In gymnastics, Diving and acrobatic type activities where range of motion is required in order to score well as well as get into the proper position in order to execute the move, stretching before may be important. Athletes that have limited joint range that affects their performance or health issues should properly stretch according to doctors orders.

Skill level- Elite Level Divers and Gymnasts once they achieve a certain level of flexibility will find that the warm up and stretching should develop and move away from static stretching and move more to dynamic stretching, where the movements they do to stretch and warm up will very closely resemble the movements they do in their routines/dives. PNF stretching will likely be used often.

Note: Dynamic and Ballistic stretching are different. Dynamic is a controlled movement through the whole range of motion while Ballistic is a bouncing/jerking motion used to stretch the muscles beyond there max. range of motion.

The focus on stretching needs to be a long term and slow. It should focus in areas of the sport that athlete's may need an increase in range of motion to execute proper technique. It needs to follow a complete warming up of the muscles. Unless you are in a sport or a position that an increase of range of motion is required to perform, consider moving your stretching to the end of practice. Or to a different time of day. If you do this do not neglect a proper warm-up before practice. Stretching done after a good practice and your muscles should still be properly warmed, if there has been a long period of cool down or inactivity do another warm-up phase.

yes it is

Yes,
It's always good to stretch some, prior to throwing. You never know when that little tweek may pop up in a shoulder or elbow.
Take it from me. I played 13yrs. of professional baseball, and had my share of injuries here and there.

I think personally that you could throw before you stretch. But don't throw hard. After about 10 minutes of throwing you can stretch. but then you can be a little warmer after you stretch.

Yes, you always want to strech! It doesnt matter hwta or how you do, just make sure you strech well. i went to a tryout they didnt strech! my leg hurts leg heck now! Maybe at one of the practices make up a routine thats what my team did at the beginning at the year! We have gone with it since then!

I recently did a research paper for my masters degree in coaching on the topic of stretching. A lot recent research indicates that static stretching provides little on no protection from injury and may, in fact, be detrimental to performance in some circumstances. The direction and recommendation currently is toward dynamic stretching.

you should stretch before and after because it will keep ur muscles warm and ready to move

Simply put....pretty much covered it.

yes it is. warm up throwing is important but so is stretching. when my season was going on we had less strecthing time that throwing so we could get get warmed up for the game. but until i pulled the muscles in my arm, my coach changed it to wear we have more stretching time than throwing time.

Hello,

Well in softball we strech and then we throw so there isnt any pulled muscles, so yes!!

~Megan

Some great comments here, just remember to never stretch mhen muscles are cold which sort of an old-school way. Players should be warm-up up BEFORE stretching, which includes some loosening active warmup excesices. See Alan Stein's take on this at StrongerTeam.com. He changed my concept of stretching, is approach much more effective!

You should always stretch so you dont pull a muscle or get hurt!

Rule: Never stretch "cold" Muscles. Static stretching has been shown, I agree, to do little or no good, and sometimes harm. Dynamic stretching that involves active warmups is the way to go. Stretching cold is not only old school, it's what I regard as stubborn-stupid. Again, some of the comments above support this, and it's based on scientifically proven results. One session at a Nike Clinic with Alan Stein, (strongerteam.com), who is an internationally regarded strength and conditioning coach, completely changed my view of stretching. Active, dynamic stretching is the way to go. Learn it before rejecting it. Your competition will be doing this, and they will have fewer injuries, and they will have an edge.

Also NEVER stretch a pulled muscle.

Unless the advice on something like this is coming from a physician, or a trained physical therapist or athletic trainer, I wouldn't rely on what ANYONE says regarding health.

Lots of people have misguided notions because they think they have common sense on their side, or that's the way they did it 30 years ago when they were a kid.

If you have a question about training, stretching, fatigure, injury, etc. rely on the advice of a professional, not people on a website.

Well, I applaud the discussion. It shows that some understand the evolution in modern sports training, while some don't have a clue. But the information is clearly available, and much of it is online, and I am grateful that it is. Agreed that one should seek advice of experts, not just anyone who tosses out an opinion. That's why I grew to trust Alan Stein, (Streongerteam.com), as he's on the cutting edge of sports training, and strength and conditioning training. He's not the only trainer who knows the time of day, of course, but, since he works with elite prep and NBA players, and he's the head coach at Montrose Christian - a prep basketball powerhouse where he coached and trained Kevin Durant, and since he teaches alongside of some of the best college coaches in the nation through his lecture sessions at Nike Championship Basketball Clinics nationwide, I figure he's a decent guy to learn from. Like I said, after one 90 minute session with Stein, my understanding of stretching changed. But there are some things I knew from my past experiences. Still, I began to employ some of Allen's dynamic stretching and warm-up excercises in our practices. One parent sniping from the sidelines was heard commenting, "Oh this is all wrong." But it wasn't. In fact, it was ALL EXACTLY RIGHT. Funny. The kids even enjoyed dynamic stretching more, we had no muscle pulls or tears during the season, and we ran a fast break running offense every game. You can learn to target specifically for a sport. As a former collegiate athlete, and later a triathlete and distance runner, and long-time coach, I learned many years ago that stretching cold was both dangerous and ill-advised. You just don't do it. You don't need to seek "advice of a professional" to know that, as any knuckle-dragging bubba with half a brain should know not to make their kids stretch cold. If they do, they're either uniformed, or idiots. Buyer beware.

In my opinion, every youth sports league ought to have a professional trainer to teach proper stretching and conditioning to all the coaches.

So for any coach who wants to see two things: 1) stretching for maximum performance, and 2) a reduction and prevention of muscle-related injury - do your research AND LEARN ABOUT DYNAMIC STRETCHING. There are several comments posted here that support this, and that ought to provoke every coach to learn more.

How important is proper stretching? Years ago a UC Davis study showed that senior elite swimmers were able to compete very close to younger personal bests, when employing a dynamic stretching and ballistic stretching regimen, that was sport specific. Trust me, it wasn't sitting around in a little circle, bending a little this way and that for three minutes. It was very intense, and only undertaken after being thoroughly warmed up. And again, these were elite athletes. Ballistic Stretching would rarely be used in youth sports, and never without expert trainer supervision. For most, dynamic stretching will bring the best results.

Every coach needs to learn what's happening in sports training. Dynamic Stretching technique is not new; but, old habits die hard. Think about this: There are more OVERUSE injuries being reported than ever before in youth sports. If old school thinking about stretching worked so well....duh...

Comments above, from Jack Huston, Kirk Mango, Stacie Mahoe, Matt Wurst, and Mike Topham are right on the money. Static stretching is fairly useless, and probably opens an athlete up to more harm.

Victoria hit a good note on stretching afterwards - which most athletes do not do. Reason: Post workout stretching, while still warm, will help break down lactic acid build-up after a hard workout (the reason why we can be so sore the next day, barring an injury, is usually lactic acid build-up), and stretching afterwards will greatly reduce post-workout soreness, especially in endurence sports training, but applicable after any hard session.

But be cautious, readers, about listening to any sports training or sports medicine advice tossed out by kids themselves, with all due respect to their input, on this, or any site. So, in that context, I understand Jeff's comment above. But Jeff's repeated reference to seeking advice from a doctor, pediatrician or orthopaedist can be ill-advised as I agree with Kirk above that often these guys are NOT the most knowledgable on this subject.

As Wil Rogers once said "Common sense ain't so common." I have common sense, but don't ask me to know how to use KENIESIC TAPING TECHNIQUEs without being trained to do so. Same with Dynamic Stretching. Learn it.

yes adn reseach dynamic streching

yes stretching is best to not get hurt..safety first!

YES!!!!not only can you pull the muscle.BUT, you can pop it.Streching is the best thing.not streching is taking a chance with your best players.

yes

strech ALOT

yes,because it really hurts if you dont during warmups if you dont.But it really hurts catchers the most even if they have knee savers

Dynamic warm up and stretches.

I like it when I stretch before that way I know I wont hurt myself and then I don't get hurt as bad.

Stretching is always good...It loosens you up. :-)

yeahhhh:))

No. You should never stretch "cold" muscles. they should throw some to warm up their muscles, and THEN you should stretch. this is a better choice.

Yeahh. You always should throw before you stretch and then jog/run! It helps the best i think!! :)

yes

You should stretch your legs first by simply touching your toes or something. Next jog next to the fence all the way around the field. After that throw for 5-10 min. Depending on how fast you warm up.

breakin sweat!

Dynamic warm up - http://www.seamusbaseball.blogspot.com

also.....

- it helps my team get pumped up and ready and we get good attitudes and are always in a good mood to win the game/games.....

Skylar,
That is one very good justification for stretching that nearly everyone commenting on this topic failed to mention. Great thinking!

Always good to stretch!

You would throw about 10 to 20 throws then streach for a long time get the mucels worked out then throw 10 to 20 more

Yes.

YYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS my friend broke her knee and can not play again for 6 months so do me a favor and always stretch your kids

YES!!! Strect b4... ANd every time you take a break to get water right when people start getting back if the whole team is not there sit down and stretch some more!!! :)

And drinking water along the way is very important...By the time you are thirsty it is almost too late if you are in the middle of a game or event...Stay Hydrated! :-)

YES!! if u do not u will pull muscles like i have before.

All research indicates that dynamic stretching is the way to go v. static stretching which can be detrimental to the players explosiveness and strength.