One of the most butchered skills in athletic performance has to be agility. Poor knowledge around the topic and gimmicky products have led to a complete misconception about what agility actually is. Today, I’m going to give a quick breakdown of what agility is and is not, why it’s important, some key physical factors and drills to help improve your agility. As with speed, agility is a skill that needs time to develop and needs to be refined weekly.
What is Agility?
Agility is commonly associated with cutting alone, when player A approaches player B and side steps them. However, if we look at the definition it appears to be much more than that.
“Agility is used to describe any dynamic sporting action that involves a change in body position.”
Deceleration, acceleration and change of direction are all encompassed under the agility umbrella.
Check out this video of ex-Seahawk, Marshawn Lynch, using all three skills to ‘juke’ Ray Lewis. Watch the angle from behind, he approaches Lewis, moving right, slows down (decel), quickly changes direction twice and re-accelerates right again. This is a great representation of agility and how it’s not just who can move their feet the fastest. Joint angle and limb position are key to a good cut. My good friend Loren Landow, head S&C to the Denver Broncos and owner of Landow Performance, is widely renowned for his coaching ability aground agility and quickness. He always says, joint angle will determine muscle function. Can you position your joints and limbs in such a way will allow the muscle to function correctly. That means we need to learn how and where to place the foot, knee and hip for an optimal change of direction.
Why is this skill important?
Agility is a key skill to possess whether you play attacker or defender. As an attacker, having the skill of agility will give you another tool to use against the defender. Ultimately, your job is to score. Having good agility skills will give you more time and space to either shoot or pass to a teammate in a better position.
As the defender, a lot of the time you’re shadowing your attacker. Remember, agility is the skill to slow down, stop, change direction and go again. You are going to have to use all those skills in reaction to the environment facing you in order to position yourself in such a way as to make a play on the ball or tackle the attacker.
Keys to cutting.
Most agility and change of direction cuts occur in the frontal plane, basically it’s a lateral movement. Therefore, for me, on of the first keys is spending time in that movement plane and developing strength there. In the gym, lateral movements can often go untrained but by incorporating some lateral movements you are strengthening the muscles used to change direction and reinforcing good joint angles and positions.
Refining your skills in a closed environment before expressing yourself on the pitch is number 2. Do you get in a car day 1 and go straight out to race in Formula 1? No, you get a driving instructor and learn how to drive. Taking the time to learn exactly how to decelerate and cut can move you from average athlete to ankle breaker.
Drills to help
As with speed, wall drills are a great place to start developing and honing the correct positions and patterns needed to become a cutting master.
· Wall Drills
o Posture Holds
o Load and Lifts
The two drills above are great for developing good mechanics in an extremely controlled environment. For the holds, reps of 15, 20 seconds are ideal. For the load and lift I recommend 5 E/S.
· Movement Drills
o Lateral push to base
o Shuffle to stop.
o Shuffle, cut, stop.
o Continuous shuffle to cut.
o Forward acceleration to cut (Pre-determined)
o Forward acceleration to cut (Random)
Whether you play in a forward position or as a defender, refining your agility will increase your chances of success of the field.
Remember to check in every Sunday for my weekly blog and every second Wednesday for blogs aimed towards athletic performance.
Rory.