Beyond the Gym: The Importance of Speed, Acceleration and Agility Drills For Preseason Training
As most sports players and fans know; speed, agility and mobility are incredibly important in sports (particularly in rugby, which, we are partial to…)
With this in mind, we are going to talk about what they are and some drills that you can do to improve these aspects of your game.
Speed is classified as: the ability to move part of, or the whole body quickly.
In other terms, if you can move your arms and legs quickly then you can get to greater speeds. Outside of just sprinting down lengths, there are two drills that are strongly associated with improving your top-end speed; skips and high knees. The former helps to promote ‘bounciness’ and ‘leg power’ whilst you bounce on your toes, whilst the other promotes a faster leg drive to improve your stride frequency.
Acceleration is classified as: the ability to increase velocity (speed and direction) in as short a time as possible
There are two drills that are synonymous with improving acceleration in sport: plyometric exercises (explosive movements that often involve, jumping, leaping or bounding) and tempo changing such as sprint starts or jog-sprint lengths. The former helps with the explosive reactivity of muscles, increases how quickly and how strongly they contract, and the latter is a specific drill that can be referred to as “functional” as you are practicing the movements that you would be doing.
Agility is classified as: the ability to quickly change the body’s position or direction of travel during movement whilst maintaining balance.
There is a drill called the “Illinois Agility Test” that has become one of (if not the) leading tests for measuring agility, it is also an extremely good way of improving your agility. Simply set up cones or other marker and repeat the test, having 45 seconds of rest up to 90 seconds depending on how tired you are after each one.
To Summarise These Points:
Being able to get around quickly on a rugby pitch is important in every part of the game, whether you’re a line breaker, kick chaser or cover tackler. So being able to improve your speed, how quickly you can reach it and being able to follow the ball without breaking stride will massively improve your work rate and therefore give you a bigger impact on the team.
