The Importance of a Sport-Specific Stimulus for Training Agility
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The Importance of
a Sport-Specific Stimulus
for Training Agility
Warren Young, PhD1 and Damian Farrow, PhD2
1
School of Health Sciences, University of Ballarat, Ballarat, Australia; and 2Institute of Sport, Exercise and Active Living,
Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia and Australian Institute of Sport, Canberra, Australia
ABSTRACT a change of direction (COD) speed In 2006, a review of the research relating
component encompassing technical, to agility highlighted the importance of
THE PURPOSE OF THIS ARTICLE IS
strength and power factors, as well as the perceptual and decision-making
TO REVIEW RECENT EVIDENCE TO
a perceptual and decision-making component (27). However, there have
HELP GUIDE THE TRAINING OF been several relevant studies in recent
component (29). More recently, the
AGILITY. AGILITY SKILL USUALLY years that provide new insights and
definition of agility has been revised
INVOLVES REACTING TO A STIMU- some important implications for train-
to reflect the fact that in most sports,
LUS BEFORE PERFORMING A such as invasion sports like basketball ing. Therefore, the purpose of this arti-
MOVEMENT WITH A CHANGE OF or soccer and racket sports like tennis cle is to describe recent research
DIRECTION OR VELOCITY. or badminton, CODs occur in response findings and provide practical applica-
RESEARCH HAS SHOWN THAT to a stimulus, usually from an oppo- tions for the training of agility.
BETTER PERFORMERS CAN BE nent’s actions. According to Sheppard Although the focus of this article will
DISTINGUISHED FROM LOWER and Young (22), agility is “a rapid be on invasion sports, the principles are
SKILLED ATHLETES BY THE ABILITY whole-body movement with change transferable to other sports requiring
TO QUICKLY AND ACCURATELY of velocity or direction in response to agility such as racket sports.
REACT TO OPPONENT’S MOVE- a stimulus.” For example, a defending
MENTS, BUT NOT TO A GENERIC soccer player may decelerate and per- RESEARCH ON AGILITY
STIMULUS SUCH AS A FLASHING form a side step in response to an One way to investigate if a test of agility
LIGHT. THEREFORE, TRAINING FOR attacker’s evasive movements or an at- relates to performance is to determine if
AGILITY SHOULD INCLUDE A PER- tacking basketball player may cut to it can discriminate between athletes of
CEPTUAL AND DECISION-MAKING one side if he or she perceives different performance or skill levels. For
COMPONENT INVOLVING REACT- a defender moving the opposite way. example, if a higher skilled group is supe-
ING TO MOVEMENTS OF OTHERS, Although agility movements are typi- rior in an agility task than a lower skilled
AND THIS MAY BE ACCOMPLISHED cally reactive, there are a few scenarios group, this provides some evidence that
WITH EVASIVE DRILLS OR SMALL- in sport where COD movements are the test may be related to performance
preplanned with no decision making. in that sport. Using this methodology, it
SIDED GAMES.
Examples include base running in base- has been demonstrated that higher
skilled players performed significantly
INTRODUCTION ball and softball, as well as running
better in an agility test involving re-
raditionally agility has been between the wickets in cricket, but
T described as the ability to
change body direction and
position rapidly (8).This view of agility
these examples are rare (15). For the
purposes of this article, the above def-
inition of agility will be adopted
sponding to an opponent’s cutting move-
ment than lower skilled athletes in
Australian football (12,23,28) and in
rugby league (9,20). In all these cases,
was extended by Chelladurai in 1976 whereby a reactive element is always
(5) who described the perceptual and present. In contrast, COD movements
KEY WORDS:
decision-making component of agility. that are preplanned with no reactive
agility; stimulus; training; perception
In 2002, a deterministic model was pro- element or decision making will be
and decision making
posed that defined agility as including described as COD speed.
Copyright Ó National Strength and Conditioning Association Strength and Conditioning Journal | www.nsca-scj.com 39
Stimulus for Training Agility
the higher skilled athletes were not signif- test based on video footage of an than the sports-specific perceptual
icantly better on tests of COD speed attacker changing direction as well as interpretation of visual information,
involving similar movement patterns. a test involving the same movement pat- and it is the latter that appears to be
These findings suggest that the reactive tern with a generic stimulus such as an the critical feature in distinguishing
aspect of agility is a vital component of arrow (28) or a flashing light (12). In both the visual perceptual skill of expert
performance. Indeed, Serpell et al. (20) of these studies, the higher level players and novice performers (2).
reported that a group of professional were superior to a lower skilled group in The superiority of highly skilled ath-
rugby league players possessed signifi- the task involving reacting to the sport- letes resides in their ability to perceive
cantly faster decision and response times specific stimulus of the attacker’s move- and use the context-specific informa-
to a variety of sport-specific cutting ma- ments, whereas the higher skilled group tion typically displayed in their perfor-
neuvers displayed on a large screen than did not demonstrate superior perform- mance setting. In the case of an agility
an elite U-20 group. ances when tested with the generic stim- task, the reactive condition needs to
ulus. Collectively, the results mentioned contain a simulated opponent (such as
The notion of agility being reactive above suggest that agility may have
appears to be more commonly an attacker) as they change direction.
a stronger correlation to performance
accepted, and as such, more research Consistent with previous research, it is
than preplanned COD movements,
and coaching reports are appearing that likely that the more skilled players use
and furthermore, it is a sport-specific
have recommended the use of a stimulus advanced kinematic information from
stimulus of an opponent’s movements
to initiate an agility maneuver. For their opponent’s movement pattern
that is most important for the athlete’s
example, a light stimulus has been used to anticipate the direction of the simu-
performance. The reasons for this are
in agility research (3,10,17) and recom- lated attacker and respond and move
likely to be related to perceptual and
mended for assessing tennis agility (6). more quickly. For instance, Jackson
decision-making skills.
One electronic timing equipment man- et al. (14) found in a simulated rugby
ufacturer claimed that reacting to their tackling scenario that the skilled play-
PERCEPTION AND DECISION ers advantage over lesser skilled players
flashing light system can train “critical MAKING IN INVASION SPORTS
athlete qualities such as reaction time, was most prominent approximately
The finding that an elite Australian
decision making, reactive COD, agility, 120 milliseconds before placement of
football playing group did not perform
peripheral vision, skills, endurance and the “stepping” foot. Generalizing from
any better than a lower skilled group on
even team work in reactive simulations coaching literature and anecdote, sim-
an agility test that involved a general-
and small sided games” (Fusion Sport, ilarly, rugby union players are often
ized visual stimulus (directional arrows)
Brisbane, Queensland, Australia). A told to try and watch the angle of
(28) builds on a well-established litera-
flashing light can be thought of as their opponent’s hips to anticipate
ture in the sport expertise field. This
a non–sport-specific or generic stimulus the direction of an opponent’s dodge.
demonstrates that elite performance is
because it is not used in any sports Lesser skilled players, however, are not
not only sports specific but also context
requiring agility. One study by Oliver necessarily attuned to the same infor-
sensitive (1,2,16). Generic visual param-
and Myers (17) compared 2 tests. The mation. This ability to use appropriate
eters such as visual reaction time have
first was a preplanned straight 5-m sprint visual cues and anticipate an oppo-
been examined to determine their rela-
followed by either a left or right cut and nent’s actions is likely to explain why
tionship to sports performance. The
a sprint for a further 5 m in the new high-level performers can react before
findings of these studies have been clear
direction. The second test involved the foot plant stimulus of their oppo-
and have generally been unable to dem-
exactly the same movement, but the nents (31).
onstrate a systematic reproducible link
COD was directed by a flashing light. between the visual parameter tested However, the exact visual cues that
The correlation between the 2 tests was and sports performance, particularly as guide elite performers in agility tasks
r 5 0.93, indicating a commonality of it pertains to expertise (11,25). For is not well known. One method cur-
87%. This very strong relationship instance, Helsen and Starkes (11) in rently used is mobile eye tracking tech-
suggests that the qualities assessed by a multidimensional approach to predict nology. This measurement approach
the reactive test with the light stimulus performance between expert, interme- documents the visual scanning behav-
were not very different from the pre- diate, and novice soccer and hockey iors (i.e., gaze fixations) of performers
planned version of the test. The authors players found that 84% of variance as they complete a task of interest. The
concluded that the test involving reacting was accounted for by sports-specific location of each fixation indicates an
to the flashing light “required limited capacities, and the only generic visual area of interest, whereas the number
perceptual abilities” and that the sport- component to even contribute slightly and duration of fixations provides an
specific perceptual factors “cannot be rep- (3%) was peripheral vision. The most index of the amount of information
licated by a generic light stimulus” (17). likely reason is that generalized (non– processed by the performer. The logic
Two recent studies with Australian sports specific) tests only measure the behind such an approach is that what-
Rules footballers have used a reactive visual reception of information rather ever aspects of the performance
40 VOLUME 35 | NUMBER 2 | APRIL 2013
Table
Characteristics of COD and agility training methods and their application to programming
Planned COD movements Agility activities with generic Agility activities with
stimulus sport-specific stimulus
Examples Cutting/side stepping, side Flashing lights, flashing arrows, Evasive drills, small-sided games.
shuffling, backpedaling. Cones, coach pointing, and coach
poles, and ladders may be calling out direction
replaced with “live” obstacles
where appropriate
Main benefits Development of footwork, Provides “time-stress,” natural Sport-specific movements,
balance, and general COD footwork movements develops perceptual and
techniques decision-making skills, holistic
development of agility. Good
transfer to performance.
Main weaknesses Can involve unnatural Does not develop perceptual and Difficult to control agility load
nonspecific footwork, no decision-making aspects of (repetitions) for all athletes in
perceptual and decision- sport, for example, anticipation games.
making development
Role in athlete Suitable for developing athletes Progression from planned COD Well-trained athletes, athletes
development and or athletes lacking basic COD movements lacking perceptual and
in a periodized technique decision-making skill,
program emphasize in precompetition
and competition phases.
a performer is visually attending is an PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS: also allow the coach to control the
area of relevance to solve the task at TRAINING AGILITY number of repetitions that each player
hand. Although not without limitation There have been numerous studies is exposed to in both attacking and
(26), such technology can certainly be that have investigated the effect of defending roles. A simple example
useful when trying to better understand COD training on COD speed in basketball is a 1 versus 1 activity,
the cues used by players in an agility (4,18,30), but no research has yet where an attacker attempts to evade
task. For example, Savelsbergh et al. described the potential benefits of agil- a defender as he or she drives to the
(19) found that skilled soccer goalkeep- ity training on agility or sports perfor- basket. The players swap partners so
ers possessed more efficient visual mance. Due to the importance of the they are required to observe a variety
search strategies than lesser skilled goal- perceptual and decision-making factors of kinematic cues, and they also swap
keepers when facing a penalty kick. In discussed above, there are 2 training attacking and defending roles.
short, whereas the novice goalkeepers modalities likely to be effective for agil- 2. Small-sided games (SSGs): This
spent a longer time fixating on the ity development in invasion sports. involves games that use a reduced
trunk, arms, and hips, the expert players 1. Evasion drills: This involves at least 1 number of players and field/court
focused on the kicking leg, non–kicking attacker and defender but may also area with modified rules. The pro-
leg, and ball areas as the moment of ball include additional players such as 2 posed benefits of SSG are the poten-
contact approached. This type of mea- attackers versus 1 defender. All play- tial to simultaneously develop various
surement approach provided insights ers must stay within a relatively small fitness components, skills, and tactics
into which important information sour- area that is marked out, and the objec- as well as being time efficient (13).
ces (e.g. kicking leg) skilled movers use tive is for the attackers to evade the Although there has been consider-
compared with lesser skilled movers defenders according to the rules of able research on the physiology of
when completing a reactive task. the specific sport. In these scenarios, SSGs, little is known about the effec-
Although the visual search qualities both attackers and defenders are tiveness for agility development. A
may still vary among athletes depending required to react to their opponent’s recent study (7) investigated the
on the sport and the specific scenario actions when performing a COD. influence of field size, player number,
(24), typically, the higher skilled per- Advantages of evasion drills are that and a rule modification on agility
formers search more systematically they are highly sport specific and are demands in professional Australian
and focus on the critical information competitive by nature, which encour- Rules football players. When tackling
to predict movements. ages motivation and intensity. They was replaced with a tagging rule that
Strength and Conditioning Journal | www.nsca-scj.com 41Stimulus for Training Agility
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