Agility

What is agility?

Agility is the skill of changing direction rapidly, in response to something that has just happened in a game scenario.

In a game, we change direction every 2-3 seconds, reacting to what is happening in a game. We may need to do this at a rapid speed, depending on the situation, such as-

• A sudden switch of play
• Making a sharp run into the opposition box
• Losing a marker quickly
• Reacting to a loose ball
• Making a recovery run back into our own box if we have made a mistake.

This article will introduce the three progressions to taking your agility to the next level. These include –

• Decelerating, and rapidly slowing down to a stop
• Learning the technique behind cutting to the left and the right
• Reacting to a partner to use deception to lose a marker.

Step 1 – Deceleration

Deceleration is the ability to slow down rapidly, and is needed to change direction effectively. This is really important for defenders especially, when pressing and jockeying.

It relies on eccentric strength, which is the ability to absorb and control force in order to slow our bodies down, as our lower body muscles lengthen under tension.

There are three different body positions that we can decelerate into, depending on what we want to do, but all of them rely on some general key points.

• Rapid short strides as we slow down to get into the position- think “attack the ground”
• Get low as we go into the position
• Sit back/away from the direction we are going into.

Below, the double leg, side/lateral, and split stance variations of slowing down are shown. It is important to work on all three.

How do I practice this?

Practice 10 m strides at 70% effort, and stopping in one of the positions, holding the end position for 3 seconds, then walking back to the start position. Practice each of the 3 positions for 6-10 reps.

Progress the difficulty of this by performing the strides at a faster pace (80-100%) and over a further distance (20-30 m). This increases the challenge by making it more difficult to slow down.

Step 2 – Cutting

Effective and sharp cuts when changing direction are a really important skill to learn for us to improve our change of direction speed and agility performance.

There are some key points to focus on when performing cuts.

How do I practice this?

The Arrowhead Sprint drill is an excellent drill to work on sharp, tight cuts round corners and target the key technical points of the movement.

Start at 70% effort, with 1 minute of recovery between sets of the arrowhead sprint. Over the course of a few weeks, build up to 100% effort.

Alternate between the left and right routes, performing 5 total sets of each route, building to 10 sets of each route, with 2 minutes recovery between efforts.

Getting a friend or coach to time your reps can be a really useful way to give you feedback, and motivate you to sprint and change direction. Not only this, but you can track and monitor your progress over time, which is really useful to see.

Step 3 – Reactive Agility

To rapidly lose a man, react to a change of pace, or create space, we need to be able to rapidly react to change the direction of our bodies.

Once we have built up solid change of direction technique, we need to learn to do it reactively.

How do I practice this?

The “chaos mirror” is a great drill to practice high agility at high speeds, in a fun way.

Place two cones or poles 10 metres apart to form a line. Stand opposite a partner either side of the line, and nominate one person to “lead” and one to follow.

For 10 seconds, the leader moves laterally (side to side) and the follower has to match their side to side movement, aiming to stay directly opposite the leader.

The leader should use deception, dropping the shoulder to aim to send the follower the wrong way, and aim to lose the follower as much as they can.

Summary

• Agility is the skill of changing direction rapidly, in response to something that has just happened in a game scenario.
• To improve your agility, learn to decelerate and slow down rapidly.
• Use the arrowhead drill and chaos mirror to improve your cutting and agility performance.