Channel Your Inner Athlete with Agility Training

Whether you're an athlete, or just someone who wants to get in shape, fitness is, to me, about adaptability. Our workouts should help us become more resilient to the world around us. A potentially injurious situation can be avoided when you have the adequate strength and stability. Agility is one such trait that prepares us better for multiplanar movement.

This little guy is quite the athlete...

By definition, the word "agility" connotes changing directions with ease. An athlete who is particularly agile can more easily bob and weave around his opponents on the field. For others, someone who is more agile can avoid injuries like knee and ankle sprains, or broken bones. Adding more agility work into your training can improve overall athletic skills and minimize traumatic injuries.

Sports require that an athlete can cut corners, accelerate and decelerate quickly. Football, soccer, and tennis are just a few sports where agility is exceptionally helpful. Successful athletes need to move well in all three planes of motion (as depicted in the photo on the left). Developing movement in the transverse plane is especially important in sport.

One study on male college students found that agility training increased muscular power. "To enhance explosive muscle power and dynamic athletic performance, complex agility training can be used. Therefore, in addition to the well known training methods such as resistance training and plyometric training, strength and conditioning professionals may efficiently incorporate agility training into an overall conditioning programme of athletes striving to achieve a high level of explosive leg power and dynamic athletic performance." In order to excel in any sport, developing your agility is a must!

Injury prevention routines ensure that athletes don't miss out on weeks or months of training. Agility protocols are effective in avoiding contact injuries like ACL or MCL tears, which could potentially keep you benched for an entire season. "Multifaceted intervention studies that have included balance training along with jumping, landing and agility exercises have resulted in a significant decrease in ankle or knee injuries in team handball, volleyball and recreational athletes."

The benefits of agility training are not limited to the athletic population. For example, Liu-Ambrose et. al. performed a study on "98 women aged 75–85 years with low bone mass." The goal of the study was to improve balance, and hopefully reduce the incidence of falling, in geriatric women who suffer from osteopenia (which precedes osteoporosis). The ladies were either assigned to do resistance training, stretching, or agility training. "Both resistance training and agility training significantly improved balance confidence by 6% from baseline after 13 weeks ... This change in balance confidence was significantly correlated with change in general physical function." Once these women developed the requisite strength and agility, they were able to improve proprioception (limb awareness), and, thus, find a new sense of confidence in balancing-related tasks.

If you're looking for some exercise ideas to help you become more agile, here are a few of my favorites:

1. Diagonal sprints
2. High knee carioca (ideal for warm-ups)
3. SAQ ladder drills
4. T-drill or 4 cone drill
5. Speed skaters
6. Hurdle drills
7. Rebound jumps
8. Pro agility drill

Overall, shuffling, back pedaling, twisting, and cutting movements are great tools to improve your agility level.

Becoming more agile can minimize your risk of falling, while simultaneously maximizing your athletic performance.

1 Thing Athletes Could Learn from Dancers

Lifters and athletes should watch "Swan Lake" and take notes. In one Tchaicovsky's most famous works, the ballerinas hop lightly and gracefully across the stage. Every movement the dancers make is incredibly precise and effortless.

From a young age, dance coaches repeatedly drill this pattern within their students. The goal for a high level dancer is to appear weightless and be light on the feet. The ballerinas develop a tremendous amount of bodily awareness through years of intense training.

Channel your inner ballerina. Learn to be light on your feet.

Now, I've had the privilege to work with and observe both young athletes and professional or high level athletes. One of the most surprising things I have noticed in many of these individuals is the inability to absorb a load efficiently.

Basketball players, tennis players and other athletes do not know how to land well. I've seen many fast, agile, powerful and strong people who seem to have lead feet. I hear my friends stomping up the stairs or dragging their feet on the floor. I watch runners slam their heels on the treadmill with each stride.

For some, this fault is a matter of awareness, while others may need to work on motor control.

Safe, efficient movement necessitates control. Hurling your body onto the box for a box jump is not going to improve your athleticism. Instead, learning proper sequencing (heel-toe to toe-heel) will spare your joints and allow you to float over the box.

At NYU Langone, they performed a study on both athletes and dancers. “We realized that dancers aren’t getting ACL injuries, yet they jump a lot,” Dr. Liederbach said. In sports like soccer and basketball, ACL tears are common. Nearly 200,000 people per year are destroying their ACLs, and it may be preventable in some cases.

Look at the landing position of these two. Which looks more stable?

Many of the dancers in this study plantar-flexed (or pointed the toes) upon landing, whereas the athletes absorbed the impact with the entire foot. Additionally, there was less of a valgus knee in the dancers on a single-leg jumping test than with the athletes tested. These deficiencies may contribute to the higher percentage of ACL tears in athletes as compared with dancers.

Well-trained dancers preform drills learning how to land gracefully, and many of them practice barefoot or wearing minimal footwear. Athletes, however, may not (depending on the coach) have the same type of instruction.

Over the summer, I was working with tennis players at a camp from the ages of 10-13. One of the most important elements of our sessions was learning how to land properly. I had them do a series of different jumping drills, all with an emphasis on "quiet" landings. I reviewed the sequencing of the movement from the start until the finish of the jump, and I had them repeat the drills until I was satisfied with the outcome. I believe proper jumping mechanics are an absolute priority for athletes of all ages (and anyone who's looking to improve power output). My goal is to make my clients more explosive while maintaining control. There is no use in having someone try for a 45" box jump is he or she cannot control the landing.

If you are utilizing explosive movements (box jumps, jumping lunges, broad jumps, etc.) in your workouts, make sure you place an emphasis on bodily awareness and mechanics. You may save your joints from jarring landings and improve your overall level of athleticism! Channel your inner ballerina!