Quick change of direction is a necessary skill in all competitive sports that requires the athlete to be mobile; from a football running back escaping a tackle, to a base-runner in a pickle. The two common questions in agility work are: What has the greatest affect on change of direction, and how does one improve their ability to change direction?
What has the greatest affect on change of direction
Research has shown that change of directions has a lot more variables than simply being quick and light on your feet. Change of direction is primarily a combination of agility, and strength (Baechle, 2008).
Agility is more than simply being fast, it is the athlete’s coordinative abilities which consists of being able to quickly modify movement upon observation or anticipation of a stimulus (visual, auditory, or physical), efficient balance, spatial awareness, and proper timing (Baechle, 2008).
Some of you reading this may be wondering where strength comes into play with quick change of direction. Change of direction may appear to be a skill where that athlete must be “light on their feet” to perform; almost as if the athlete hardly touches the ground to move. In fact, the opposite is actually occurring. Athletes with stronger legs are able to better propel themselves off of the ground (plant foot kinetics) while maintaining a proper lower body position which is pivotal in fast changing of direction due to a lower center of gravity which translates to better balance (Spiteri et al., 2013). So, instead of barely touching the ground, the athlete is actually aggressively planting, and then quickly accelerating off the ground utilizing a quick eccentric to concentric turnover in the legs.
How does one improve their speed in change of direction
To improve the skill of quickly changing direction, the athlete should focus on leg strength, primarily eccentric strength in the knee extensors, hip extensors, plantar flexors, hip adductors and abductors. Increasing leg strength will improve plant foot kinetics, meaning, the athlete will be able more aggressively propel off of the ground while maintaining a low body position (Spiteri et al., 2013).
The athlete should also focus on improving agility, which does not only mean foot speed. A common misconception is to rely on ladder drills to improve agility. The issue is, ladder drills help with foot speed, and foot-eye coordination and that is about the extent of its benefit. Ladder drills do not help improve agility because it has no real-life cognitive effect of spatial orientation, balance, or responding to stimuli, nor does it involve extreme change of direction; it is simply moving your feet quickly in a square. Athletes can better improve agility by performing drills that involve sprinting into quick change of direction, having a coach or teammate oppose you, sprinting and change direction based on coaches instruction, or even setting up different cone orientations. The trick to improving agility is thinking outside of the box; create drills that incorporate game-like decisions where the athlete cannot anticipate what will happen next and is forced to make quick cognitive decisions (Baechle, 2008). Also, don’t be afraid to have fun with the drills.
- Baechle, T. (2008). Essentials of strength training and conditioning (3rd ed., pp. 469-472). Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.
- Spiteri, T., Cochrane, J., Hart, N., Haff, G., & Nimphius, S. (2013). Effect of strength on plant foot kinetics and kinematics during a change of direction task. European Journal of Sport Science, 646-652.
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