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ABSTRACT

Background: There are many studies of stretching and its effects on the body. Research shows that stretching can have both positive and negative effects on the body. Meantime there are no qualitative studies on stretching and how the opinion of stretching is among soccer players. Female soccer players are a group that is rapidly growing and that is injured to a great extent.

Purpose: To describe stretching exercising female soccer players’ opinion of stretching.

Method: Ten stretching exercising female soccer players over fifteen years of age from two teams were interviewed in a semi-structured interview. The recordings were analyzed through a qualitative content analysis containing a process of abstraction.

Results: The participants’ said that there are specific body- and surrounding factors that affects them to exercise stretching. The participants say that when they exercise stretching they follow a specific pattern. They also said that they have been given to little and that they would like more information of stretching. The participants’ talk about the knowledge they have about stretching from their own experiences of exercising stretching.

Conclusion: The participants’ opinion of stretching varies like results found in previous research. This study also shows that the participants’ would like more information about stretching and that they find that other people largely affect them to exercise stretching. Further research is needed about to be able to generalize the results found in this study and to deepen the understanding of the topic.