Effect of stretching on the proper performance, joint range and prevent muscle overload football player

The bachelor thesis deals with stretching and its influence on Budweis Hellboys, American football players. As a part of this work is a development of ideal stretching plan and verification of its effectiveness. Therefore, this work maps how the stretching plan operates in terms of prevention of the low back pain and how it affects the total performance and joint range of the American football players. This is a qualitative research work and it is divided into two parts: theoretical and practical section. The theoretical part describes the nature of American football and its pitfalls of the possible injuries of players, basic and functional anatomy of the muscles. Besides that it differentiates tonic and phasic muscles and describes muscles in the pelvis and lower extremities. Furthermore, this work portrays certain types of stretching, divides stretching on dynamic and static and explains the stretching exercises in both categories. The last chapter describes the measurement methods used in the practical part of the thesis. The practical part of the thesis examines the chosen stretching plan and its possible impact on four probands. The probands are American football players. Prior to the initial measurements, they were split according to the key if they will stretch or not in order to be able to compare their results. This work describes the initial and control measurements, and determines dynamic and power performance of the players. Furthermore, by using kinesiological analysis it explains basic anamnesis, aspection, examination of tonic and phasic muscles, goniometry, anthropometry and records the perception of pain in the lumbar spine on Melzack scale. Another part of this thesis is the Discussion where the individual results are compared in order to come up with logical conclusion. After reading the discussion, the reader should be able to make his own picture and understand what effect the stretching plan has. The positive impact can be seen especially in the joint range and improvement of the probands' performance in various disciplines. The stretching plan has minimal impact on the muscle imbalance, especially in disparity of circuits of thighs and calves. Regarding to the perception of pain, any improvement did not occur, however, we can see a positive impact on the position of the lumbar spine at aspection. At the end of the thesis I explain the possible cause of the measured results. I think over possible shortcomings of this work and further exploration of the potential probands in order to achieve the most objective results. As the largest possible cause of bias I mention that American football is played at an amateur level, which means that the brobands have their jobs and other everyday load. The bachelor thesis consists of annexes with visual illustration as an addition of dynamic and static stretching, and comparison of probands during the initial and control measurements. The bachelor thesis could become a guide for American football players. It describes how the stretching plan should look like and how to best phase dynamic and static stretching. In addition, it can help to increase public interest in dynamic stretching. It can also serve future physiotherapists in practice as well as a good source for general public