Place kicking.

[The Sauce]

I was invited to try out for a semi-professional football team by a member at my gym. I am thinking I am a little to old (37) for the hard-hitting stuff and I was a soccer player through college. I bought a tee, holder and a few footballs. After a few practice sessions I am frustrated. I can kick fine but I wind up with horrible shin splints for days after every practice...even just kicking a few balls. I"m in pretty good shape otherwise, do a lot of lifting. I warm up and stretch before. Any suggestions?

 

[zebano]

I used to get shin splints from running. I've added 20 calf raises every morning and they seem to have gone away. I also spend about 15 seconds just stretching my feet in a variety of directions. Good luck, shin splints are a nasty nasty injury that doctors can't seem to do anything for.

 

[Titan]

For a stretch do you do ankle circles? They always used to help me when I did TKD and ran every day.

Pick up your knee, and rotate your foot 360 degrees, do 10 reps, then rotate the opposite direction. You front shin muscles should flex, this gets things moving. They are supposed to help with shin splints. My shins were usually just bashed from TKD, but daily hard running on pavement never made it too bad for me.