Exercises to Train Speed Agility in Football

Speed and agility are two very important qualities for any athlete, especially if we talk about football. Both qualities are different but closely related. Speed ​​can make you leave defenders behind or reach faster forwards. Agility makes you dodge defenders' limbs more easily to score a goal or get the ball if you are the goalkeeper. With the combination of working and improving both qualities, any player can improve their ability to change direction or position in the shortest possible time, which will lead to move and stop faster and avoid opponents with better results.

The objective of agility exercises: The objectives that we will achieve with these exercises are to improve the ability to change direction, body position, rapid transitions between skills and the ability to make quick turns.

Use these four exercises that we recommend developing your footwork, increase your strength and maximize your agility. To improve and optimize agility and speed, it is necessary to improve balance, coordination and reaction times.

Here are some SAQ training guides that will help you work on these aspects, with the only need for training material such as cones, sticks or an agility ladder. If you can try the following exercises, you may perform better.

10-meter test

Place 3 cones in a straight line separated about 5 meters away from each other. The player starts at the central cone, he will have to run towards one of the other two external cones, touch it with his foot, and return to the other external cone through the center. Touch the cone again and return to the first external cone. You can take the test and record your time at the beginning of the season and occasionally do it again to improve the weather.

Zigzag sprint

Place 10 cones or flexible rods in a straight line separated approximately by 1'80m of distance from each other. Start from the first cone and run through them in a zigzag as fast as you can and as close as possible to the obstacles so that you avoid them without getting too far from them. If you want to complicate the training, you can approach the obstacles or include a soccer ball.

Agility in the square

This exercise serves to improve both physical and mental agility. Place 5 cones forming a square of 10 m sideways with the fifth cone located in the center. The goal is to leave from the center and touch each of the four corner cones and return to the center in the shortest possible time. If you want to complicate the exercise, you can put numbers to the cones and having to follow an ascending or descending order and if we want to improve the exercise we can use elastic bands holding both knees.

Agility Stairs

Place an agility ladder on the floor and have players imitate a pattern of steps through the ladder. You can include typical hopscotch steps by placing the right or left foot or both inside and outside the step. You can jump with either feet or one of the steps you step on and repeat the patterns forward or back again.

They are examples of exercises that serve to train agility and speed and can be done both in the training field and in a gym or sports area since they are relatively simple and do not require a lot of training material for it. Each exercise can be adapted depending on the athlete and their physical preparation by modifying their intensities and training volume.

In addition to working agility, speed, and coordination, we can work our cardiovascular capacity and improve our performance.