Easily one of the most confused areas of sports performance preparation is stretching.

Most players and coaches are aware that stretching is vital, but you may be unsure when to stretch, the type of stretch and for how long.

Over the last few weeks you have read about the warm-up and cool-down routines currently being adopted by David Beckham and the stretching techniques he uses.

On the topic of stretching, I received a number of emails, in particular from coaches of grassroots football teams asking to explain the difference between dynamic and static stretching.

Get this right and you can easily avoided injury and maximise your performance.

My advice to you on this topic is work out why you are stretching and what you want to achieve. Is it to prepare for activity, or to lengthen a muscle?

The first thing you need to do is understand the difference between the two.

Dynamic stretching involves using speed of movement to bring about a stretch and crucially the end position is not held. This is great for reducing muscle stiffness and hugely reduces the chance of injury.

Static stretching is the one that you will likely be more familiar with and is used primarily to lengthen a muscle or, as in the case of a post-match stretch, return it to its normal size.

Static stretching is when you hold the muscle at its end range for up to 30 seconds at a time. What you need to understand with this, and this something I stress to my patients, is that you will never lengthen a muscle with this type of stretch unless you are following vigorous daily stretching routine for at least three months.

If you're a coach preparing your team for a game, or are a player getting ready to perform, dynamic stretching is vital in the warm-up and you should always aim to be spending at least seven or eight minutes doing this type of stretching but, crucially, only after your players have done the equivalent length of time jogging to warm the muscles up. You should never stretch cold muscles and likewise you should never kick a ball until you have finished your dynamic stretching.

Although stretching lowers the chance of injury to muscles, it is not the only factor in reducing the risk.

Stretching and strength work are great and help, but one of the big factors is what is called muscle control. If the muscles are too flexible and too strong, with not enough control, it can lead to injury.

You will often hear of a footballer who has had a lengthy lay off with, let's say, a knee injury.

The player will tend to focus so much on strengthening the quad muscles of the knee that there is a lack of control at the hamstrings and subsequently his next injury is a hamstring strain.

I remember this would happen to Jonathan Woodgate regularly. After the knee injury that kept him out at Real Madrid for over a season, when he came to Middlesbrough he would be injured with other less significant injuries, such as hamstring strains.

If muscle strains are a problem to you consider looking at control exercises for that particular part of the body. If I can help, please get in touch with me at paul@paulgoughphysio.com