Developing Agility for Sport
Pat Dale
Agility is about speed. Fast movement, fast change of direction. If you want to improve your agility, first you need to increase your horsepower by training for strength & power in the gym, then you need a variety of speed and agility drills. In this article Pat Dale talks more on agility training principles and takes us through a few drills.
Strength and speed need to be trained in a variety of ways. explosive lifts in the gym, straight sprints on the track and and then explosive agility drills if you want to be able to apply the strength you are capable of in your sport of choice. This article discusses a number of explosive agility drills that will help you use your muscle and power where it matters most.
Agility can be defined as “a rapid whole-body movement with changes of velocity or direction in response to a stimulus” and includes such skills as a rugby player side-stepping past an opponent, a tennis player sprinting to the net to retrieve a drop shot, a footballer performing a tight turn to evade a tackle or a cricketer diving to take a catch. Agility is a skill that can be developed with training and in this article we will provide you with a workout to enhance your sports specific agility and quickness.
Quality is the key for successful performance of agility training and training sessions should not be exhaustive – save your conditioning workouts for the gym! Remember that agility is really a form of power training although it is often promoted as something quite different. There are numerous patented speed, agility, acceleration and conditioning programmes, systems and items of equipment commercially available that make numerous claims about improving your agility however the reality is that agility can be developed thoroughly and perhaps even more sports specifically by coming up with your own imaginative drills based on the elements of your particular sport.
For our purposes, the only equipment you’ll need is a 10 meter agility ladder, a few marker cones, a tape measure and some flexible canes. If you don’t have access to an agility ladder you can make your own using tape and canes. The distance between the rungs should be about 35cm and they should be 30cm across and the whole ladder should be around 10 meters in length. Alternatively you can mark out an agility ladder grid on the floor using chalk or tape
Agility training guidelines
1. Warm up thoroughly. Agility drills may not leave you out of breath but they do put considerable strain on your body.
2. Agility drills should be performed either on a separate day to other training or at the start of a training session after the warm up whist you are still fresh.
3. You will gain most benefit from agility drills if you have previously developed a solid strength and power base. If agility training is new to you, make sure you make progress slowly.
4. Your work to rest ratio should be 1:5 i.e. a 10 second drill should be followed by a 50 second recovery period. The aim of agility training is to enhance neuromuscular function and not improve conditioning!
5. 2 sessions a week of agility training is usually adequate. During the competitive season, 1 session per week may be enough although advanced competitors may benefit from more frequent sessions per week.
6. The agility drills below are suitable for most field sports. To make them more specific adapt them slightly to mirror the movement patterns in your chosen game.
The workout
Exercise 1 – agility ladder high knee running with follow through sprint
Aim – to improve foot speed, knee lift and acceleration
Start at the end of your ladder, standing with feet shoulder width apart and hands by your side
Run the length of the ladder making sure each foot goes into each square only once and that your knees are waist high whilst you pump your arms
At the end of the ladder “lean and go” to sprint to a marker 10-15 meters beyond the end of your ladder
Perform 3-5 sets with 90-120 seconds recovery
Exercise 2 – Agility Ladder Hopscotch
Aim – to increase lower body coordination and foot speed
Start at the end of your ladder, standing with feet shoulder width apart and hands by your side
Jump up with both feet and land on the left foot only in the first square
Immediately push off with your left foot and land with both feet in the second square
Immediately push off with both feet and land on your right foot only
Push off from your right foot and land on both feet
Repeat this pattern for the full length of the ladder
Perform this drill “low and fast” minimising contact with the ground and whilst attempting to cover the distance as quickly as possible
Perform 3-5 sets with 90-120 seconds recovery
Exercise 3 – T sprints
Aim – to improve forward, sideways and backwards sprinting speed
Mark out a T shape using cones – each line should be 10 meters in length
Stand at the base of the T in a “ready to go” position (aka athletic stance)
On the command “go” sprint forwards as fast as possible to the top of the T
Side step to your right until you reach the right –hand marker cone
Immediately side step to your left until you reach the furthest left-hand marker cone
Side step to the right to return to the middle
Run backwards to the start point
Rest for 90-120 seconds between reps
Exercise 4 – Zig Zag sprinting with follow through sprint
Aim – to improve sidestepping ability
Stick 10 flexible canes vertically into the ground at 1-2 meter intervals, making sure that any sharp ends are filed smooth or capped
With a 5 meter rolling start run through the canes staying as close to the markers as fast possible whilst avoiding touching the cones
Make a concerted effort to run in as straight a line as possible and push dynamically off the outside foot
At the end of the canes “lean and go” and sprint out to a final marker 10-15 meters from the last cane
Repeat 3-5 times resting 90-120 seconds between reps
Exercise 5 – deck of cards box drill
Aim – to improve reaction time and multidirectional speed and agility
Mark out a 5 meter box as indicated in the diagram
Label each corner of the box to correspond to a suit in a standard deck of cards i.e. hearts, spades, clubs and diamonds
The athlete stands in the centre of the box in a “ready to go” position
The coach randomly selects from a standard deck of cards and announces the suit to the athlete
The athlete then turns and sprints to the appropriate marker before “back pedalling” to return to the centre of the box
5 cards constitute 1 rep
form 3-5 reps resting for 90-120 between sets
On completion of the workout make sure you cool down by spending a few minutes jogging before stretching all of your major muscles focusing on the lower body especially the quadriceps, hamstrings and calves.
All of the drills above can be “tweaked” to make them more sports specific by adding skills associated with your particular sport e.g. carrying a rugby ball, dribbling a basket ball or completing a pass at the end of a drill all of which will contribute positively to your performance in your chosen sport.
Agility training is beneficial and enjoyable for all sportsmen and women and should definitely be included in your training week if you are serious about improving your game.
About the Author
Pat and this magazine were made for each other. Pat writes a blog - NoFrillsFitness trains his ass off and loves what we call ‘proper fitness’. He is a highly experienced fitness lecturer, running solar-fitness in Cyprus. What a place to go to qualify as a personal trainer! Pat will use this mag to let off a little steam – to talk fitness without the need to hold back or be polite. If you don’t like it….don’t use the squat rack for Bicep Curls! His site www.Solar-Fitness.com
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