DYNAMIC STRETCH ROUTINE

Start with a JOG. 

Setup:  No more than 5 girls per line, each line about 5 yds. apart.  They should travel about 15 yards out and return back for each set.  Cones, Coaches, or field markings can be used to show how far.  Once a girl has reached the cone, they should turn to the right and step away from the original path to return so no one collides.

1.)  Lunges (out), Striders (back):  Lunges:  Torso should be upright, no bend at the waist. Stride out far enough so when you lunge down your front knee does not extend out to or past your toes (they will likely not stride far enough).  You should lunge down until your back knee is just about on the ground (but does not touch the ground).  They should stand back up with their feet still spread apart before stepping forward with the next stride.

2.)Striders:  Very simple, we want them to extend their stride and take as few steps as possible to get back to their start point.  A good analogy is it is like jumping over a series of puddles.

3.)  Knee to chest (out), High Knees (back):  Knee to chest:  Again torso should be upright.  Bring the knee to chest, grab with hands and pull hard to bring it as high and tight as you can.  Hold for a second and release.  Take a step and repeat with other knee.

4.) High Knees:  Should have weight back, but only slightly.  Drive knees as high up as possible while running back.  It is not a race back, but rather how high you can bring your knees.  It should almost look like they are running in place advancing slowly back.

5.)  Quads (out), Butt Kickers (back):  Quads:  Torso should always be upright.  Bring heal to butt and grab with OPPOSITE hand and stretch quad.  Hold for a second, release.  Take a step and repeat with other leg/hand.  Key points, grabbing with opposite hand prevents putting knee is a bad position.  Also, it is important they bring their heal to their butt and not reach down with their hand and pull their foot up to their butt.

6.) Butt Kickers:  Make sure they stay upright, do not lean forward, shoulders back is good to tell them.  Good coaching point is to say who can kick the most times on the way back (e.g. don't race back).

7.)  Lateral Lunges (out), shuffle (back):  Lateral Lunge:  Torso should be upright.  Facing sideways, step in the direction we have been going with your foot landing wider than shoulder width apart (they will tend to step too short).  Staying upright sink your hips like you are going to sit on a chair (e.g. a squat with butt back so their weight is not on their toes).  Go down as low as possible, but no lower than a 90 deg. knee bend.  Stand back up, rotate on your forward foot until they are facing the opposite direction, step and repeat with the other foot.

8.) Shuffle:  Shuffle sideways without bringing your feet together.  About half way back rotate to face the other direction and shuffle through the end.

9.)  High Kicks (out), Sprint (back):  Again torso should be upright, do not lean back.  Start with hands over your head.  With toes pointed and knees straight, kick as high up as possible while bring hands down, arms straight out and parallel with the ground.  The hands will help prevent them from leaning back.  Take a step and repeat with the other leg.  We call these Frankensteins which may help them remember if they know who Frankenstein is!l