What is speed and agility?
An essential element of successful football performance is to accelerate, change direction quickly and deceive the opposition. Performing these movements while dribbling with alternate feet requires considerable effort and control. This requires development of speed and agility.
In football, the ability to accelerate, decelerate and change direction is more important than simply achieving high speed
How can speed and agility improve my performance?
Speed and agility training is an integral part of training for all top players, and can help you successfully perform the following football movements?
- dribbling
- evading tacklers
- chasing the opposition
- Retreating to referees and touch judge commands
- Avoiding injury and much more?
To analyse this element of fitness we need to consider the components of speed and agility separately. These are:
- speed strength - force required to facilitate acceleration and deceleration
- agility - ability to explosively brake, change direction and accelerate again
Decison making is an integral skill - you've made the right decision - now you need the speed and agility to get there! |
