Agility Training for Sports

Definition of Agility

Agility, in terms of sports performance, refers to an athlete's ability to change direction quickly and appropriately while maintaining maximal speed, balance, and power.  Agility can also refer to how well an athlete changes directions laterally.  An athlete requires many different characteristics to reach their optimal agility levels.  So now that you have a better grasp on what agility means, how are you going to improve your agility for your sport?

Agility Training Components

There are three main components of agility that need to be trained in order to achieve maximal agility sports performance.  The first quality an athlete needs to posses to have optimal agility is optimal core strength.  Optimal core strength will allow the athlete to transfer power from the feet and legs to the upper body and transfer that energy from the upper body back down to the lower body.  This will help make changes of direction go more smoothly.

Exceptional core strength ties in to the next component of agility training:  balance or body control.  An athlete must be in control of their body at all times in order to make the right moves for their sport.  Let's examine hockey: you're on the ice, which is very slippery, if you slip and fall you could go from being the best on the ice to being about as useful as a fan in the stands, but if you have excellent control of your body on the ice, you can make transitions in direction flawlessly, increasing your overall game speed.

The final component an athlete needs to improve their agility is flexibility.  Flexibility will allow an athlete to move their body in an efficient manner through the required range of motion.  Flexibility training directly improves movement fluidity by loosening up tight muscles.  Eliminating tight muscles means less force will be required to overcome natural muscular tension because the optimal length-tension relationship has been restored.

Final thoughts on Agility Training

Agility training requires specific focus on three separate skills in order to produce maximal sport agility; however, this is not to say that core training, balance training, and flexibility work are the only ways to improve agility.  There are actually a wide variety of drills that will help you improve your agility.  These drills will address the movement patterns required for your sport.  So learn about these agility drills, and take an integrated approach to your agility training.