Developing Agility and Quickness National Strength and Conditioning Association Jay Dawes Mark Roozen EDitoRS Human Kinetics Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Developing agility and quickness / Jay Dawes, Mark Roozen, editors. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978-0-7360-8326-3 (soft cover) ISBN-10: 0-7360-8326-X (soft cover) 1. Sports sciences. 2. Sports--Physiological aspects. 3. Motor ability. 4. Motor learning. I. Dawes, Jay. II. Roozen, Mark, 1961- III. National Strength & Conditioning Association (U.S.) GV558.D45 2011 613.71--dc23 2011025357 ISBN-10: 0-7360-8326-X (print) ISBN-13: 978-0-7360-8326-3 (print) Copyright © 2012 by National Strength and Conditioning Association All rights reserved. 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Box 80 Windsor, ON N8Y 2L5 Torrens Park, South Australia 5062 800-465-7301 (in Canada only) 0800 222 062 e-mail: [email protected] e-mail: [email protected] Europe: Human Kinetics 107 Bradford Road Stanningley Leeds LS28 6AT, United Kingdom +44 (0) 113 255 5665 e-mail: [email protected] E4818 Developing Agility and Quickness Contents Introduction vii Key to Diagrams xi 1 Factors Determining Agility . . . . . 1 2 Factors Determining Quickness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 3 Testing Agility and Quickness . . 35 4 Agility Drills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 5 Quickness Drills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 iv 6 Agility and Quickness Program Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115 7 Sport-Specific Agility and Quickness Training . . . . . . . . . 127 References 161 Index 173 About the NSCA 179 About the Editors 181 About the Contributors 183 v This page intentionally left blank. Introduction For all athletes, the ability to quickly change direction is often the differ- ence between success and failure. Virtually all sports involve whole-body movements that require athletes to rapidly and instantly accelerate, decelerate, or change direction in response to game situations. The reality is that in most sports, the ability to quickly change direction is more impor- tant than great straight-line sprinting speed. For this reason, many coaches and athletes are interested in finding effective ways to improve agility and quickness. The purpose of this book is to assist sports coaches, athletes, and strength and conditioning professionals in accomplishing this goal. In 2002, Young, Jones, and Montgomery attempted to identify the most significant factors influencing agility performance. In particular, these authors divided agility performance variables into two main areas: change of direction speed and perceptual and decision-making factors.7 Within these two main components, several subcomponents exist, as outlined in figure 1. Agility and quickness are complex sporting skills that include both physical and cognitive components.1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 An example is a kick or punt returner in American football waiting patiently to receive a ball who must immediately decide which way to maneuver through the defense to gain yardage. Or, imagine a point guard who dribbles down the lane and must determine whether to continue dribbling, pass the ball, or shoot. These are prime examples of how athletes must move and think fast to achieve lightning quickness on the field or court. Therefore, to maximize performance, athletic training programs must address both the physical and cognitive components of agility and quickness. Only then will athletes be able to truly bridge the gap between practice and competition. Chapter 1 discusses factors that influence agility, such as change-of- direction speed, proper technique, body position, and physical attributes. It also covers the essential components of developing rapid force, high power output, and explosive movement, as well as how these fundamental attributes influence athletes’ ability to achieve high-level performance. Chapter 2 explores perceptual and decision-making skills (i.e., quickness factors), such as information processing, knowledge of situations, anticipation, and arousal and anxiety levels. Athletes with high-level agility performance are better at recognizing and capitalizing on task- and game-relevant cues that give them a competitive advantage over their opponents. In many cases, these skills separate elite performers from everyone else. vii viii ■ Introduction Agility Perception and Change of decision making direction speed Visual Pattern Straight Anthropometric scanning recognition sprinting variables speed Knowledge Anticipation of situations Leg muscle qualities Reactive Strength Power strength Technique Foot Adjustment Body placement of strides lean and to accelerate posture and decelerate Figure 1 Components of agility. Adapted, by permission, from W.B. Young, R. James, and I. Montgomery, 2002, “Is muscle power related to running speed with changes of direction?” Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness 42(3):282-288. As with any training program, athletes must be physically prepared for the demands of training. Agility and quickness training is no different. Therefore, prior to the chapters with specific drills to enhance agility and quickness (chapters 4 and 5), chapter 3 discusses techniques to evaluate an E4818/NSCA/Fig Intro F/412898/Tammy Page/R1 athlete’s readiness in detail. This chapter also presents methods for monitor- ing athletes’ progress with both qualitative-movement assessments and tests that predict agility performance. Chapters 4 and 5 present a wide variety of drills to improve agility and quickness. Many of these drills develop general motor programs and improve fundamental movement skills for future athletic success. These chapters also include suggestions and specific training drills that incorporate cognitive Introduction ■ ix decision-making tasks into athletes’ training programs once they have mastered the techniques. These unplanned, or open, drills require athletes to process information from the environment and to respond quickly with accuracy and precision. The selected drills provide a solid base of information to assist in the develop - ment of athlete-specific and sport-specific training programs. Chapter 6 explores the basic foundations of designing agility and quickness programs. In chapter 7, professionals from a variety of sports share their personal philoso- phies on agility and quickness training and their favorite drills for improving sport performance at a variety of skill levels. The drills in this chapter add sport-specific training stimulus to the program, which better prepares athletes for the chaotic nature of sport and competition. This book serves as a basic guide and resource for the safe and effective development of comprehensive training programs for agility and quickness. It is an absolute must-have resource for coaches and athletes who are seri- ous about taking performance to the next level. It is loaded with invaluable training tips and information that the experts in this book have taken a life- time to develop. The authors hope that athletes, coaches, and performance enthusiasts will gain an appreciation and a better understanding of what it takes to improve agility and quickness. Excellence is not an accident! This page intentionally left blank.