What is speed
- The highest possible velocity reached through movement of the body
- Speed = stride length x stride frequency
- Stride = Support phase + Flight phase
Phases of speed
- Start, acceleration and max velocity
The Start Phase
- Position used to generate the power needed to overcome inertia and propel the body forward
- A good starting position has the lead foot’s heel just in front of the back foot’s toe, hands and shoulders vertically aligned and the hips held high
- where strength is most beneficial for speed
- critical for several sports as generating velocity from stand still is necessary
Acceleration Phase
- Phase which is used to continuously drive the body at a faster rate of velocity in an effort to reach max velocity
- greatest rate of acceleration is on the first step and early steps feature longer ground contact times due to large horizontal forces
- key is maintaining a forward lean position and slowly transition to upright running as velocity is gained
- Quickly accelerating the body to high velocities is key for any sport where movement is involved
Max velocity phase
- Highest possible velocity
- reached between 20m (novice) and 60m (elite)
- Maintain max velocity in upright running mechanics
- Cyclical patterning of the arms and legs and has minimal ground contact time
Multi-Directional Movement
- Whole body horizontal changes of direction such as faking and avoiding
- Whole body vertical changes in direction such as jumping and leaping
- Rapid movements of body parts that control movements of implements in sports such as tennis, hockey
- Rotational Speed is most important but least trained
- Acceleration and absolute speed in linear also important + Shuffle and cutting in lateral.
Change of Direction
A pre-programmed rapid whole body movement with change in velocity and direction of movement
- Closed skill
Closed skill
Skill that does not involve decision making or response
- Movements follow set patterns and have a clear beginning and end
- habitual skills
Establishing Proper Positioning
- Center of Mass
- The point within the body where all mass is equidistance - Bass of support
- Ground contact points where the COM can reside within, front or behind - Angle of attack
- Optimal angle of hip-knee-ankle positioning to produce force
Agility
A rapid whole body movement with change of velocity and direction in response to a stimuli
- open skill
Open skill
Skills that require decision making and movements in response to a stimuli
- Skills are predominantly perceptual
Spatial Anticipation
Person is asked to predict as fast as possible the direction or the landing point of a moving object
Temporal Anticipation
Person has to make a motor response coincident with some external event
Factors of Agility
- Mobility
- Biomechanics
- Coordination
- stabilization
- speed
- Strength
- energy system development
- elasticity
- Power
- Dynamic Balance
Opportunity to influence agility
- Improve mobility
- improve balance (static and dynamic)
- Improve strength( hips to torso)
- Improve body control (positioning)
- Improve elasticity (plyos, skipping)
- Drills (speed and agility)
Prescription Considerations for agility
Based on Time Motional Analysis
1. Training age
2. Direction of movement
3. Movement actions and muscles used
4. Sport specific positions
5. Team dynamics
6. Sport nature
7. Gender
How to teach agility
- Linear to lateral to change of direction
- one main component per training session
- slow to fast
- general to specific
- simple to complex
- closed to open
- Talk/demo movements
Continuous Tasks
No Apparent start or finish at low and mod speeds as cyclic/ongoing
Discrete Tasks
Definite start/finish, acyclical/brief, at high speeds
Serial Skills
Discrete skills in sequence - most athletic skills
Progressing stimulus in agility training
INCREASE
- volume, intensity
- distance
- speed
- complexity
- repetitions
- # of stimulus
DECREASE
- rest to tax capacity of phosphagen system
General vs special skills
General
- Develop 1 or more basic coordinative abilities
Special
- Unify coordinative abilities in a skill specific manner
Windows of trainability
Coordinative abilities - best developed in preadolescences
- improve movement patterns before puberty and strength after
Agility programming
- 1-3 sessions per week
- train power for performance and capacity for ESD of phosphagen system
- Dependent on intensity, fitness level, cycle of periodization
- Dependent on in-season vs off-season
- Incorporate into warm up as neural prep on a more regular basis instead of dedicated session
