Effects of Static and Dynamic Stretching on Injury Prevention in High School Soccer Athletes: A Randomized Trial

Objective: To determine if there is any benefit to static stretching after performing a dynamic warm-up in the prevention of injury in high school soccer athletes. Design: Prospective cluster randomized nonblinded study. Setting: 12 high schools with varsity and junior varsity boys' soccer teams (24 soccer teams) across the state of Michigan. Participants: Four hundred ninety-nine student-athletes were enrolled, and 465 completed the study. One high school dropped out of the study in the first week, leaving a total of 22 teams. Interventions: Dynamic stretching protocol vs dynamic + static (D+S) stretching protocol. Main Outcome Measures: Lower-extremity, core, or lower-back injuries per team. Results: Twelve teams performed the dynamic stretching protocol and 10 teams performed the D+S stretching protocol. There were 17 injuries (1.42 +/- 1.49 injuries/team) among the teams that performed the dynamic stretching protocol and 20 injuries (2.0 +/- 1.24 injuries/team) among the teams that performed the D+S protocol. There was no statistically significant difference in injuries between the 2 groups (P = .33). Conclusions: There is no difference between dynamic stretching and D+S stretching in the prevention of lower-extremity, core, and back injuries in high school male soccer athletes. Static stretching does not provide any added benefit to dynamic stretching in the prevention of injury in this population before exercise.