Testing and Training Agility in Sports [Part 1]

Mladen Jovanovic

21/04/2016 at 16:14 #17820

Testing and Training Agility in Sports [Part 1] Introduction Most sports played on the field, such as soccer, handball, basketball, volleyball, rugby,
[See the full post at: Testing and Training Agility in Sports [Part 1]]

Brandon Moran

26/04/2016 at 00:49 #17840

I’m the head of sports science for Seattle Sounders FC Youth Academy. For the same reason’s mentioned above. I’ve always had a problem using closed skill activities to test agility.

That said finding a way to reliably and objectively test for improvements using an open-skill activity or setup is a challenge. By definition, for a test to be repeatable, it needs a degree of predictability.

A good compromise, I think, is using a quasi-closed skill activity or test. Modifying a T agility test, for example. Have the coach point out the direction to go (last second). Or use a combination of visual and auditory signals to direct a player?

B-

Mladen Jovanovic

03/05/2016 at 16:00 #17878

Hi Brandon,

Sometimes by trying to replicate this we create more issues than we solve. I would still do some closed tests, but we just need to accept the limits and assumptions of such a test.

Russell Rayner

11/05/2016 at 07:50 #17933

Hi Brandon,

I’m a PhD student currently doing research in Agility for Australian Football. I think the big take-away, as Mladen mentioned, is to be very wary of drawing conclusions from closed change of direction tasks such as the T-test. There are a few tests which do incorporate a cognitive stimulus and may be of some use but it is important to use a sport specific stimulus rather than just pointing/ arrow/ flashing lights. A great article which discusses the importance of the sport-specific stimulus is this one here (https://www.researchgate.net/publication/271794743_The_Importance_of_a_Sport-Specific_Stimulus_for_Training_Agility).

A new test which I have used recently, and may be of some interest is in this article (https://www.researchgate.net/publication/299938871_Correlations_between_attacking_agility_defensive_agility_change_of_direction_speed_and_reactive_strength_in_Australian_Footballers?ev=prf_pub” title=”in this article). It is modified from this study (https://www.researchgate.net/publication/301692324_Reliability_of_a_field_test_of_defending_and_attacking_agility_in_Australian_football_and_relationships_to_reactive_strength). Be wary though, it may be of limited use in a coaching setting as it takes a relatively long time and it’s impossible to create “benchmark” scores.

On another topic, I would be very interested in what drills you use at Seattle Sounders FC to train agility, as that is where my research is focused at the moment.

Regards, Russell