Speed and Agility Training

Most field/court sports are power sports require speed and the ability to fluidly change direction. As someone whose job it is to help athletes in these sports develop the physical characteristics required for them to succeed, our training programs at STS are geared to help athletes to become faster and more agile. The question is how?

The primary way we go about improving speed and agility for sport athletes is by improving the function of the joints/muscles that facilitate sprinting and cutting. When I say improve function I mean getting them more mobile, stronger, and faster to act when we need them to.

Here’s one small example: Having strong, mobile ankles is a really good recipe for better change of direction. So we’ll dedicate time in an athlete’s training session to utilize the ankle in some ranges of motion it doesn’t usually get exposed to because of the repetitive nature of most sports. Additionally, we’ll load the ankle stabilizers with various types of barefoot hopping, pivoting, marching, or regular strength training to get them stronger.

**Digression: We do a lot of warming up barefoot because the stabilizing muscles of our feet tend to weaken from wearing super cushioned shoes most of the time. Comfy? Yes. Good for when you need to slam on the breaks and change direction in the 4th quarter? Not so much.

Lastly, we’ll have the athlete do a little bit of sprinting or agility drills with as much speed as possible so their body can learn to apply this new found ankle function to the sport specific skill they are trying to improve. “Why just a little?” you ask. Because we only have so much time in the gym and they’re already sprinting/cutting a ton during practice and skill sessions. We get the most bang for our buck by improving function (something they’re not usually doing) and then giving them a few, maximum speed repetitions before moving on to other important aspects of their training.

The point is, we believe the limited amount of time the athlete has in the gym should be spent on improving their raw physical foundations and capabilities so that when they go to compete, they're doing so with improved weaponry.

Training systems that put a huge emphasis on doing more and more reps of sprinting and cutting with less time spent on achieving improvements in function can still probably get an athlete faster. Sometimes you’ll even see these systems doing so with added load or increased complexity. I’m not convinced that this is necessarily better speed and agility training.

Trying to get faster or quicker with a suboptimal focus on improving muscle/joint function is similar to attempting to cut down a tree with the same axe you’ve always used. You hack at the tree enough times and it will eventually fall. The same way as if you do enough cone drills and sprints with fancy lights and timers you’ll probably improve speed to some degree.

The type of speed/agility training we do at STS is more akin to upgrading to a better, sharper axe than simply practice swinging the same one we’ve always had a bunch more times. Personally, I’d rather have the sharper, harder axe than practice swinging the dull one more and more.

Best of luck with your training today!

With Thanks,