The Problem With Agility Drills

The videos are all over Instagram and social media. A young athlete runs through an elaborate maze of pre-placed cones, obstacles, and foot ladders as  an overly enthusiastic coach yells something along the lines of “Slow feat don’t eat baby. Lets get this work!” When it comes to improving on field agility, these methods have become relatively common place, and accepted by most coaches, performance facilities, and even parents as a valid means of improving performance.  All it takes is a simple YouTube search, and you’ll find thousands of videos detailing different pre-planned movement patterns that you can set up with speed ladders and cones.  Many of these drills seem to “mimic” common activities in many sport, and look extremely athletic in nature, which is no doubt why they’re commonly associated with improving agility.  Try telling a parent or football coach that agility drills are totally worthless, and they’d probably look at you like you were nuts. I mean after all, there’s much more that goes into improving on field performance than just lifting weights. How could someone say that”fast feet” are of no benefit in most sports? Well, that’s EXACTLY what I’m saying.

Let’s examine why “fast feet” and other commonly used agility drills fall short when it comes to improving  performance. It’s time to put a nail in the agility drill coffin once and for all.

Reduced Force Into The Ground

When most people think of the word “Agility”, they think about the ability to rapidly change direction on the drop of a dime. In pretty much every team sport, this is absolutely essential. Take a look at the video bellow, and you’ll instantly understand why change of direction is so important.

So what do all these athelets have in common? The ability to absorb, and then apply large amounts of force into the ground. When it comes  to making sharp cuts, the ability to overcome inertia/absorb force, and then PRODUCE force in the opposite direction reigns king. Unfortunately, most agility drills performed in the gym completely neglect this. To effectively put force into the ground, athelets need to take big powerful steps, which are accompanied by slightly longer ground contact times. This is not what we see with commonly performed agility drills, which deemphasize force into the ground, and completely neglect the ability to absorb it. When was the last time you saw an athlete perform a bunch of short choppy steps while looking DOWN at the ground during a game?  Never! In essence, fast feet simply do not use the ground to produce force effectively. This is evident when we examine athelets who exhibit quick turnover, but lack the ability to accelerate or get off the line fast. Instead of focusing on the feet, coaches need to shift their attention to the real deciding factor: the legs. By improving the strength and force generating/absorbing capabilities of the lower body musculature, we build the foundation from which agility can be expressed. Studies done by Cal Dietz in his book “Tri Phasic Training” show that improving an athelets concentric, isometric, and eccentric strength qualities in the weight room had a significantly higher performance carryover to on field agility than those who only performed pro-agility drills. Watch the renowned strength coach Joe Defranco as he runs his NFL athelets through a strength and power based workout:

Footwork Drills Are A Low-Brained Activity

When it comes to all types of training, we have two distinct categories in relation to the brain: High brained activities, and low brained activates. Speed ladder and agility training (the conventional kind) would fall into the category of a low brained activity, while the expression of agility on the field or court would be a high brained activity. Both low and high brained activities/training methods should be implemented in your sports performance programming at some point. However, when training for improved agility, it is crucial that we train it with high brained activities.  This is because REAL agility is comprised of not only a change of direction component, but also highly integrated visual and auditory components, i.e high brained. For example, players must make split second change of direction DECISIONS (reacting to the sound or sight of another player) before PHYSICALLY reacting. Because speed ladder and conventional agility drills do not have a decision making component (the drills are pre-panned before the athlete actually performs them), they will not have carryover. Watch bellow as Joe defranco demonstrates some reactive agility drills that he uses with his NFL athelets:

Lack Of Sports Specificity

The majority of the training we do in the gym is referred to as GPP: General physical preparedness. Meaning that we are training general and foundational qualities (such as strength, power, speed ect) that will have performance enhancing effects. The key word here is FOUNDATIONAL. Then when we practice our sport, or play a game(running routes, shooting baskets ect) we are training at the highest level of sports specificity . When working with speed ladder and agility drills, no foundational qualities are being improved upon, nor do the exercises resemble or effectively mimic the sport itself (due to factors mentioned above). Instead of wasting time and energy taxing the CNS with unnecessary drills, athelets should simply practice their respective sport, which will yield instantly transferable, sports specific improvements in agility.

With all that being said, you might be surprised I do not completely condone the use of speed ladders and conventional agility drills! In fact, these drills DO have their place in a balanced training program. Some practical applications for the use of these drills could be:

1. A short warm-up designed to fire up the CNS before actual speed and agility training
2. As a conditioning tool for energy systems work, or as a low-impact/high-intensity fat loss method for those who cannot safely perform other high-intensity/high-impact methods

But PLEASE, do not use them for improving speed or agility, because they simply do not work. Coaches who market themselves as “footwork” or “agility” specialist are wasting both your time, and money. If you want to actually improve on field agility, spend it where it counts. As an athlete, there are multiple elements that go into improving your craft, and using training methods that give you the most “bang for your buck” is one of them.  Many athletic careers have gone down the toilet because of poor physical preparation. Do your research, and make informed decisions.