Agility Drills for Football

In the game of football, building up agility helps in maintaining the balance while starting, stopping, changing direction and changing speed. Apart from maintaining the balance, kinesthetic awareness and neuromuscular coordination also is developed through these drills. Even if you are good at intercepting and stopping players from the opposing team, it is necessary to reach them quickly; for that you need to be agile. The agility drills for football are considered an important part of fitness training for both young and experienced players. Some of the useful drills are listed below.

Effective Football Agility Drills

The football agility drills are useful for making the movements of players quick. Increasing the muscle strength is also possible with the help of these drills.

Shuttle Drills: The shuttle run drills are helpful from the point of increasing the agility of football players needed for running sideways. These drills also build up stamina and endurance. The 20-yard drill is commonly used for improving lateral quickness of football players. In the 20-yard drill, one should first move to the left and cover a distance of 5 yards. From this point, the player must move 10 yards in the opposite direction and then back to the original position. This way, a distance of 20 yards is covered.

Pro Agility Drill: In the pro agility drill, the player has to sprint between 3 cones placed at an equal distance of 5 meters in a straight line. The player has to start from the middle cone and then sprint 5 meters in the either (left or right) direction. The player should then turn back and run 10 meters towards the cone placed at the end. After reaching the far end cone, the player must turn back and return to the original position i.e. middle cone. Starting position for this exercise is the three-point stance (in which both legs and one of the hands touches the ground). One should bend at the waist while maintaining a 15 degree angle between legs. If the player decides to start-off running rightward, the left hand should touch the ground and vice versa.

Steps-ups: In this exercise, a plyo box is used for stepping up. The exercise is performed by stepping on to the plyo box and balancing the body for 5 seconds. One should step down in a controlled manner and repeat the step 25 times - which completes a single set. Two sets of 25 steps each for a single leg must be performed during this exercise. The exercise is made a bit challenging by the use of weights.

Box Drill: To perform this drill, the field must be marked in a square shape by placing 4 cones at 4 corners. Fifth cone should be placed at the center of the square. Dimensions of the square should be 5 yard x 5 yard. In this drill, the player has to start at the middle cone. Sprinting towards every cone, touching it and returning back to the middle cone should be the routine that players must follow. To make the drill interesting, try to following a random pattern - i.e. ask one of the players to call the numbers assigned to the cones randomly.

Weave-in and Weave-out: In this drill, you need to turn and move at regular intervals. This exercise helps you gauge your quickness. To perform this drill, the field should be marked in a manner that players move ahead in a zig-zag path. First of all, the cones should be placed equidistant to each other in a zig-zag pattern; distance between each cone should be 3m. The drill must be performed by running along the path and touching each cone in the way.

Slalom: This agility drill is much more like weave-in and weave-out. However, in slalom you just have to sprint along a zig-zag path without touching any markers or cones placed in the way. You would need 10 markers for this drill with all of them placed in a line at a distance of 5m from each other.

Pairing Up: You would need a large area to perform the pairing up drill. For performing this drill, players need to be arranged in pairs. One of the players has to run in the field randomly. Other player follows him. The follower should maintain a certain distance from the leader; however, he must keep track of the leader and constantly follow him.

Vertical Leap: The vertical leap is an agility drill for football players which leads to muscle strengthening. It enables the players to make explosive movements that are especially useful in this game. In this drill, the players should leap vertically while in a squatting position. Five such leaps should be performed in succession; height of the leaps should also be measured.

One-legged Squats: The one-legged squats are performed by lifting either of the legs. Two sets of 25 squats each are performed with or without weights. A weight of around 15 lbs. is used for performing these squats.

Speed and Agility Drills for Football

The speed and agility needed for playing football can be brought about by means of ladder drills. In these drills, ladders or boxes (generally 18 x 18 inches long) are used for improving reflexes and balance. 'Forward 2-in' is one of the commonly used agility ladder drills for coaching in youth football. In the agility ladder drills used for football, it is necessary to run in such a manner that you step one by one in all squares with both feet (together). Arms shouldn't droop at the time of running; instead, they should be driven backwards.

The agility drills presented in the article above should help in making the players stronger and fitter for playing the game of football. There are many such drills that you could use to improve your skills. You may also think of devising your own drills by studying the ones listed above.