Imagine being a speed and agility coach with an entire turf football field to work on...

and spending a good chunk of your time doing ladder drills in the corner.

How could anyone be so misguided?

Since that guy was me 20 years ago, I can tell you.

My original understanding of agility was that it was all about quick feet.

At the time agility ladders were new, and showcased often in pro athlete workouts, so I thought we were giving our kids a unique advantage.

While it's true that quick feet plays a role in agility, it is just one of many factors.

Proper foot placement on cuts.

Moving well laterally.

Awareness and reaction time.

Faking and changing pace.

Attacking opportunities before they disappear.

Knowing how to create space on offense.

Knowing how to close space on defense without getting burned.

These are all equally important to developing elite agility.

And you know what?

None of these skills are properly addressed using ladder drills.

Our other go-to agility weapon back then were pattern cone cuts.

Like a run-shuffle-backpedal-shuffle around a box type of exercise.

These did at least help with cutting footwork and lateral movement, but they neglected one critical element.

Athletes knew exactly where they'd make the cut, and where they were going next.

The chaotic aspect of sport, the environment where they hoped to apply all our training, was missing.

Our kids back then were memorizing, they. weren't learning.

If your coaches rely heavily on ladders and cone cut drills, you aren't learning either.

Meaning all that training will make little difference in your athletic performance.

True agility training is random, chaotic, and fast paced.

It challenges your mind just as much as it does your feet.

It demands your full attention to succeed, just as your sport does.

THAT is how you successfully train agility.

Reactive drills with partners.

Tag games.

Mirroring opponents in open space.

Small sided games.

The funny part of our sessions back then, after we did our ladders and cone drills, maybe sprints too, was that we finished with a game.

Ultimate frisbee, touch football, something like that.

The game was there as a motivator, a reward for the kids after doing all the technical training.

What I didn't realize back then was that these games were the most valuable part of the session.

Because it was the only time we were truly developing agility.