About Quickness Agility Drills

There are many sports that require a lot of hand/eye coordination and fast lateral movements. Some of these sports include soccer, basketball, football and tennis. The way to sharpen these skills and improve your performance is by deploying training strategies that are similar to the actual game. Quickness agility drills are one of those such methods. When incorporated into a training program, they can turn a good athlete into a great athlete.

In a game atmosphere, there is a lot of sprinting with sudden stops, turns and changes of direction. In order to be ready for this type of action, it is important to train specifically to match these demands. Developing quickness and agility in a non-game setting is significant to the actual game itself.

The main function of quickness agility drills is to give you more explosive speed, not just forward, but in all directions. It is also used to create awareness in the body that translates into the game. This is called sport specific training.

Quickness agility drills are performed with sets, reps and rest periods just like weight lifting. Before engaging in them, there is a warmup consisting of light jogging and dynamic stretching. They are usually performed on alternate days of other training or before training and after a good warmup. When doing the drills, the rest periods are usually five times the length of the work period. For example, a 10 second drill would have a 50 second recovery period.

Sprints are one of the most basic types of quickness agility drills. They are done for a set distance or a set time. To make them more sport specific, they are also done running backwards, sideways, uphill and with various start variations. For example: lying on the ground at the starting line, jumping up in the air, turning around and then sprinting. This would simulate action in a soccer or football game.

Ladders are very popular training tools in a lot of team and individual sports. They are set up in gyms, on fields and on tracks and they can be used by one or more people at the same time. Some drills that are done with them are one-ins, two-ins, bunny hops, side steps, shuffles, skips, diagonals and stutter steps. These movements are done forwards, backwards and sideways.

Cones are also used for quickness agility drills. One basic routine is called a snake drill. A series of cones are set up in a straight line several feet apart from each other. You then start at one end and weave your way through the cones as fast as possible. Then turn around and come back. Another common cone drill is called a box drill. To do this drill, you set up four cones an equal distance apart in the shape of a square, or box. You then start at one cone, sprint to the second, shuffle to the third, backpedal to the fourth, then turn and sprint back to the starting cone.

To maximize quickness and agility, take into consideration your other training as well. If you do weight training and develop a strong core and overall musculature, this will not only enhance your agility drills, but it will enhance your performance in the game as well.