Due to the Thanksgiving Holiday we only went Monday through Wednesday last week. On Wednesday we had morning open gym classes and we did some initial video testing of our reaction based agility with the athletes. In this test we used the Sportspeed System from Fusion Sport. The athletes started at the first gate and then sprinted through each gate as it lit up. The system was set for 30 seconds and the goal was to get through as many gates as possible in that time. Keys to success in this drill are:
- Keep moving and anticipate where the next light will come up
- Keep all gates in your field of vision
- Always been in a position to accelerate in either direction
- Have fast feet, body control and quick anticipation/perception skills
Here is a short video of some of our younger players (U10-U12) in this drill…
The best time we had in the U8-U10 range was 11 gates and the best time we had in the U16-U18 range was 15 gates. These are really good times considering that our U16-U18′s hit 1 gate every 2 seconds and there was a 1 second delay set after they broke a gate, before the next gate would light up.
Over the next 12 weeks we will be building off this basic drill and adding more analysis of reaction (how quickly they make decisions in both known and unknown directions), acceleration (how quickly they accelerate to the gate), transition (how quickly they change direction) and finally how quickly they can perform the drill with and without the ball at their feet.
In my opinion this is how we need to start measuring sport speed, or true agility. Instead of looking at how fast they can maneuver through a known pattern, we need to also monitor how quickly they make decisions and react to unknown stimuli. When we add a ball to this drill we will also see how confident they are with a ball at their feet.
Another great week of training in the books! This week we will be adding a “Homework” section that will be outlining our fitness program for the off-season. Most of the drills we will be doing within the Academy, but some of the drills will need to be done at home if we are to reach our goals. Congrats to Paige P., Evan P. and Bekah W. who set the standard for the fitness runs (on the Speedboard and on the Arc Trainer) for this week…Keep up the good work!
