PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICES OF AGILITY TRAINING

What do we know about agility training? Not a lot. Young, et al. (2001). Journal of Strength

and Conditioning Research serves to represent state of knowledge.

Agility Research, cont.

Young, et al. (2001). Studied 36 men with

some sprinting /change of direction athletic experience.

Subjects divided into speed training group, agility training group, control group.

Young, et al. (2001).

2 sessions per week for 6 weeks

Young, et al. (2001)

Results:Sprinting group got

better at sprintingAgility group got better

at change of direction tests

Little cross over between speed and agility training

Improving Agility is Difficult Factors that influence:

StrengthAccelerationMobilityReaction timeFundamental Skills

FUNDAMENTAL SKILLS

Fundamental Skills

Starting Stopping Shuffling Backpedaling Running Curves “Cutting”

Starting

Explosive first step Emphasized every time a forward step is

taken Acceleration!

Learning to Start

First step need to be explosive

Progression:Falling Starts, standingStanding StartsCrouching StartsSport-Specific Starts

(2 or 3-point stances) Which foot goes

back?

Stopping

“Get low” Chop the steps Best emphasized through drills that

emphasize starts and stops

Shuffling

Staying low to the ground (I.e. “Ready” position)

Staying on the balls of the feet “Push and step” Avoid crossing feet

HOW TO USE THIS INFORMATION?

Argument: Practice Variability vs. Practice Specificity Variability: practicing a number of different

tasks results in greater retention or transfer of performance than practicing only one task.

Specificity: maximal retention performance of a task is facilitated by practice conditions that mimic retention conditions (Maslovat, et al., 2004).

No point in talking about practice specificity...

The Bad News: Transfer of Skills... Transfer specificity: the larger the

number of shared elements, the greater the transfer (Rosenbaum, et al., 2001).

Transfer asymmetry: failure to transfer despite having similar elements

Transfer and Motor Learning Motor transfer is small (Schmidt & Lee,

1999)Similar tasks correlate very weakly leading

to small transfers unless the tasks are virtually identical

The amount of transfer depends upon the “similarity” of the tasks

What’s a “similarity?”Motor transfer not well understood today...

Transfer Example: Agility May Be Weakly Related to Speed...

Little & Williams, 2005 106 professional soccer players Tested on:

10m sprint (acceleration)Flying 20m sprint after 30m run-up

(maximum speed)Zig-zag run (agility):

○ 4 5-meter sections○ 100 degree turn at end of each section

Little & Williams (2005), results

Relationship R-SquaredAcceleration and maximum speed .388Acceleration and agility .119Maximum speed and agility .209

Implications for training and for testing...

The Challenge

If this is true, there are two problems: Improving one skill won’t lead to

improvements in all.The drills that have been covered only teach

the drills. They may not apply to real life. We don’t know a lot about agility

training, so we have to turn to exercise science to help us out.

Agility training is about learning motor skills...

Motor Learning is Challenging…

Motor Skill Classifications Based upon beginning and

ending: Discrete motor skill:

arbitrary beginning & ending (shuffle 5 yards)

Serial motor skill: a series of discrete motor skills (drills covered)

Continuous motor skill: beginning and ending points determined by performer (swimming)

Environmental stability continuum: Closed motor skill: fixed,

unchanging environmental conditions. The object or environment in each of these situations waits to be acted upon…

Open motor skill: temporally or spatially changing environment. Performer must act according to the action of the object or the characteristics of the environment.From MaGill (1993).

How Researchers Assess Motor Learning Practice

observations:Performance curvesKinematic data

Retention tests Transfer tests

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

Pre-Test

Week4

Performance

Fitts & Posner’s Stages of Skill Acquisition Declarative (cognitive) stage: basic rules

of task are learned Associative stage: procedures of task

become more fluent Autonomous stage: procedures more

rapid, greater immunity from disruption from outside events (from Rosenbaum, et al., 2001).

What Happens as we Learn a Motor Skill? Changes in knowledge structure of skill Changes in error detection/correction Changes in how goal of skill is achieved Changes in coordination Changes in movement efficiency Changes in muscles used Changes in visual attention

From Magill (1993)

Schmidt’s Schema Theory of Motor Learning/Control

How learning transfers to performance:Schema: rule or set of rules that provide the

basis for a decisionGeneralized Motor Program (GMP): General

memory representation of the action to be controlled, controls a class of actions (like throwing)

Motor Response Schema: Specific rules for an action in a given situation

Motor Response Schema, Cont.

Recall schema: adds specific response instructions to GMP and initiates the execution of the intended action

Recognition schema: enables athlete to evaluate and correct

TEACHING MOTOR/AGILITY SKILLS

Teaching Skills

Modeling the skill Providing feedback Organizing practice

Teaching Agility Skills: Modeling

Modeling works best when:It is someone similar to the athletes or of

higher-status (I.e. elite or pro athlete)The skill is modeled correctly

(imitation)unless athletes get to view feedback as well

Skill is demonstrated frequently:○ Before practice○ During practice

Internal vs. External Focus and Feedback? Example: focusing on the motion of the

golf club (external) vs. focusing on the motion of the arms (internal)

External believed to be more effective for learning motor skills (Wulf, et al., 2002).

Internal focus may interfere with automatic processes used in executing the skill.

More Thoughts on Feedback Athletes won’t be perfect initially Avoid overanalyzing beginners Avoid overcorrecting beginners:

generally focus on 1-2 things each session that the athlete can correct

Focus on the most important things initially

Provide feedback (good and bad) early and often

Teaching Agility Skills: Whole vs. Part Whole vs. part depends upon the

complexity of the skill:Low complexity skillsHigh complexity skills

Common sense here...

Part Practice

Fractionization: practicing separate components of the whole skill (sprint drills)

Segmentation: practice parts, after first part has been mastered practice first part and second part together, etc.

Simplification: reducing the difficulty of the different parts of the skill

Types of Practice

Variable practice Blocked practice Random practice Serial practice

Variable Practice

Practice that provides a variety of experiences for performing a skill

In theory, should result in better retention and better novel performance - increases generalizability.

Variable Practice and Closed Skills Relevant stimuli (I.e. the skill) should be

held constant Non-relevant stimuli should be varied For agility, examples include use of a

ball, use of auditory stimuli, etc.

The Next Step

Fundamental skills eventually become great warm-up drills.

After they have been mastered, combine skills, for example:Backpedal + turn + sprintShuffle + turn + sprintDrills which combine skills

COMBINING SKILLS

Agility Pattern: Drill 1Starting/Stopping

1

23

Agility Pattern : Drill 2Starting/Stopping/Backpedaling

5 10 15 20BaselineStart

25

Forward Run Direction

Back Pedal Direction

Finish

Agility Pattern: Drill 3Starting/Stopping/Backpedaling

Start Finish

7-10 yards

5 yards

Agility Pattern: Drill 4Running Curves

Finish

Start

1

2

3

4

5

6

10 y

ards

5 yards

ADVANCED AGILITY DRILLS

Advanced Agility Drills

React to the coach, ball React to another athlete Sport-specific drills

Agility Pattern: Drill 8Start/Stop/Backpedal/React

Start

Shuffle/ Backpedal

Agility Pattern: Drill 9React

Defense: Shuffle Only

5 yards

Offense: Change Directions, Break Way

Blocked Practice

Variable practice not appropriate for beginners.

One skill is practiced repeatedly before moving on to practice another skill.

Random Practice

No specified order of occurrence for practicing several skills.

Serial Practice

Several skills are practiced in a specified and repeating order during each practice period.

Sample Practice Schedules

Type ofPractice

Time Session 1 Session 2 Session 3 Session 4

Blocked 5555

All starts All shuffles Allbackpedals

All zig zags

Serial 5555

StartShuffleBackpedalZig zag

StartShuffleBackpedalZig zag

StartShuffleBackpedalZig zag

StartShuffleBackpedalZig zag

Random 5555

StartShuffleBackpedalZig zag

ShuffleZig zagShuffleStart

Zig zagBackpedalStartShuffle

StartStartBackpedalShuffle

Types of Practice, Conclusions

Blocked practice most effective for short-term gains

Random practice most effective for long-term retention (Lee & Wishart, 2005)

Problem: Random practice may produce the impression among athletes that learning is not proceeding well and may produce the opposite impression with blocked practices.

Contextual Interference

A more difficult training/learning environment, although initially detrimental to acquisition, results in more retention and transfer (Maslovat, et al, 2004).

Contextual Interference, cont. Research on CI is good on lab situations

but mixed on real-world sport skills. Theory is that CI may be more beneficial

for individuals in higher levels of skill acquisition (Brady, F., 1998).

After extensive practice, individuals may be bored at which point high CI may be beneficial to learning

Implications for CI

There may be a progression to follow in the learning of motor skills...

Types of Practice, Conclusions cont. Beginners: Alternating blocked practice

with observation improves both performance and retention (Lee & Wishart, 2005).

Massed vs. Distributed Practice

Massed: rest:practice intervals of <1 Distributed: rest:practice intervals of >1

(I.e. more time spent resting) Distributed seems to result in better

retention (Shea, Shebilske, & Worchel, 1993).

Common sense for agility and speed training...

After All That: Agility Guidelines

From Twist and Benicky (1996)Need a fitness baseEnsure players

understand techniquesPerform drills in ready

positionKeep drills to 2-15

seconds initiallySimple to complex

Gradually add distance, # foot contacts, etc.

Add stimuli while keeping drills constant

Reactive drills Drills under fatigued

conditions (real life) Encourage failure to

challenge athletes

Applying the Guidelines Focus on fundamentals (start, stop, shuffle, etc.). Combine skills (I.e. patterned drills, blocked

practice with little CI) Transition into sport-specific movements Combine skills, sport-specific movements, and ball

handling (I.e. make them process more information) (I.e. variable practice with CI)

Can be done daily! When speed and technique suffers, end the drill!

ReferencesBrady, F. (1998). A theoretical and empirical review of the contextual interferenceeffect and the learning of motor skills. Quest, 50, 266-293.

Lee, T.D. & L.R. Wishart. (2005). Motor learning conundrums (and possible solutions).Quest, 57, 67-78.

Little, T. & A.G. Williams. (2005). Specificity of acceleration, maximum speed, andagility in professional soccer players. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research,19(1), 76-78.

Magill, R.A. (1993). Motor Learning Concepts and Applications 4th Edition. Madison,WI: WCB Brown & Benchmark.

Maslovat, D., R. Chua, T.D. Lee, & I.M. Franks. (2004). Contextual interference: Singletask versus multi-task learning. Motor Control, 8, 213-233.

Rosenbaum, D.A., R.A. Carlson, & R.O. Gilmore. (2001). Acquisition of intellectualand perceptual-motor skills. Annual Reviews of Psychology, 52, 453-470.

Schmidt, R.A. & T.D. Lee. (1999). Motor Control and Learning A Behavioral Emphasis3rd Edition. Champaign, Il: Human Kinetics.

Shea, C.H., W.L. Shebilske, & S. Worchel. (1993). Motor Learning and Control.Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Wulf, G., N. McConnel, M. Gartner, & A. Schwarz. (2002). Enhancing the learning ofsport skills through external-focus feedback. Journal of Motor Behavior, 34(2), 171-182.