20/05/2022
You ask most people what the definition of agility is and you will hear something along the lines of "being quick on your feet" or "being able to change direction quickly"
It's a bit more complicated then that unfortunately
Your ability to change direction of course feeds into your agility, but the key difference between being agile, and being good at changing direction, is that agility is used is response to an external stimulus, whereas you can change direction whenever you want, not whenever is required
With that, you can break agility down into two sections, physical (i.e. how fast you can change direction) and cognitive (for example, how fast you can decide which direction to go, and how to get there)
Traditionally, athletes would be trained to become more agile using things like agility ladders, now I'm not saying agility ladders are useless, but they will aid in developing your plyometric/CoD ability, not in your ability to make decisions and generally, it tends to be the cognitive side that sets the greats apart from the good
It's easy to get good at changing direction, it's a hell of a lot more difficult to learn what direction to go
So how do we develop agility as a skill? 🤔
Research has shown that top players read an opponents body language in order go develop an appropriate response before the opponent ever moves
Therefore, one of the best ways to get more agile is through the recreation of game like scenarios such as through small sided games, these small, fast paced, games will challenge you to develop the skill of reading your opponent and making the correct decisions for the desired outcome
It's not that good to be able to quickly change direction, but to go the wrong direction. What's sets the elite apart is the ability to use their CoD ability effectively to produce the desired outcome 🔥
So to become more agile:
1. Get really good at changing directions ✅
And possibly even more important...
2. Get really good at deciding what direction to go ✅