So how should you train for agility? Starting from a gym based point of view, faster performances in side stepping = a greater lateral movement speed during a side step [2]. Greater lateral movement speed involves being able to rapidly absorb force and quickly redirect it in your chosen direction. This takes a great deal of joint/tendon stiffness as well as large amounts of eccentric/concentric force. In comes strength/power training.
Strength/Power Training
Once base strength and power levels have been trained, developing lateral strength and power will potentially be of benefit to enhancing lateral movement speed. Some examples of lateral strength exercises:
- Lateral Lunge
- Lateral Box Step Up
- Lateral Slide Board Lunge
- Lateral Sled Drag
Some examples of lateral velocity exercises:
- Lateral Skater Jumps
- Lateral Bounding
These exercises are also very good at reducing the rate of knee injuries.
From a field based point of view, how should you train agility if pre-planned drills aren’t beneficial? Poles and cones aren’t ideal as athletes tend to get in weird body positions to manoeuvre around them. According to Young & Farrow [3], there has been no research yet to on agility and sports performance [5]. Rather, research has focused on change of direction (COD) training on COD speed (CODS) tests often touted as agility tests (e.g. t-test, L-run). However, there are 2 training modalities likely to be effective for training agility specifically in invasion sports [3].
Evasion Drills
Evasion drills can be done in a variety of different way such as 1v1 or 2v1 drills. It is important these drills are performed in a small marked out area so attackers can’t just run around the defender. The aim is for the attacker(s) to evade the defender by trying to deceive the defender. In doing so, applying the evasion manoeuvre the attacker feels is most appropriate based on the defenders movements. The defender reacts to the attacker to stop the attacker from progressing or depending on the sport, tackling or trying to attain possession of the ball. This provides the sport specific stimulus to both attackers and defenders and allows the athletes to solve the situations themselves. This way both athletes get a chance to attack and defend allowing them to develop both attacking and defending agility qualities.
Examples
1v1 rugby evasion drill
http://youtu.be/PMdrEQt_XcYSMXL
1v1 basketball drive to hoop (play at 0.55sec)
1v1 football evade and score
An important tip for these drills is to vary the angle the attackers and defenders come into the drill [5]. For example, attackers and defenders might start head on, next rep they may start with the defender coming in from the side or both attackers and defenders starting on opposite corners. This will provide a greater overall agility stimulus as you can cover more than one pattern or situation.
Small Sided Games (SSGs)
Small Sided Games are another great way to develop agility as they potentially develop various fitness components, skills, tactics and game awareness [3]. To give the SSG an agility focus, some general guidelines need to be considered. A study by Davies et al., [1] investigated the effect of playing area size, number of players per side and rule changes on total agility efforts. The researchers found:
- Reducing player numbers increases the total number of agility manoeuvres compared with a larger number of players (3 a side vs 5 a side).
- The greater the density of the game (more players in a given space), the greater the number of agility manoeuvres.
- Reducing the number of passes allowed before scoring increases the agility demand.
- Having the sport coach providing encouragement to the athletes during the game can help get the athletes that lack engagement more involved.
Notes for collision sports
SSGs can often not be full contact, so when tag is used instead of tackling, rules need to be modified to encourage evasive manoeuvres more-so than passing. According to Davies et al., [1], a 2 hand tag rule decreased evasive manoeuvres in favour of passing as well as decreasing the percentage of time spent accelerating and decelerating compared to tackle conditions. These could be limiting the number of passes before scoring or awarding points based on evasive actions [3]. These rules can also be adopted in non-collision sports such as basketball or football (soccer) to increase the number of evasive manoeuvres.
Denver Broncos’ C.J. Anderson (22) tries to sidestep Houston Texans’ Mike Mohamed (54) during the first half of an NFL preseason football game, Saturday, Aug. 22, 2015, in Houston. (AP Photo/George Bridges)
How about some evidence for the use of SSGs for agility development?
Young & Rogers [4] conducted a study with Elite junior Australian Rules Football players. Players were split into 2 groups. A SSG group and a COD direction group. Players completed 11x15min sessions over 7 weeks during the season of either just SSGs or just COD drills depending on the group they were randomly selected for. Researchers tested the athletes’ pre and post intervention on a planned AFL agility test for CODS and a video based defensive agility test reacting to an attacker.
The COD group did not improve on the planned agility test. Furthermore, they did not improve their total agility time (total time to complete the defensive agility test) and only slightly improved their agility reaction time (decision time) by 4%. Similarly, the SSGs group didn’t improve on the planned agility test. However, total agility time improved by 4% while agility reaction time showed a huge improvement of 31% post intervention. The SSGs group total agility time improvement was entirely due to the large improvement in reaction time. This is an impressive change from just approximately 10x15min SSGs training sessions over 7 weeks.
Summing Up
- Perform lateral strength/power training to enhance lateral movement speed once base strength and power is covered.
- Provide a sport specific context for your agility drills such as 1v1 evasion drills, not pre planned cone and ladder drills.
- SSGs are effective methods for enhancing decision making time and therefore, total agility time.
I hope this has shed some light on your own agility training or if you are a coach, shed some light on how you will implement agility training for your athletes. Stay tuned for Part 4 where I will cover training for speed and why not to use a ladder to do so.