Watching basketball players on the court can certainly leave you with your head spinning. They move this way and that, spin left and then right, and then move yet another way. It is no wonder these athletes need advanced agility training along with speed training. Football players also need agility training along with their strength and speed training.
Charging down the field at top speed is only half of the battle during a football game. Quickly getting around the defense requires agility. The skills for football players to improve their agility are designed in many different ways. Skills such as shuttle runs, ladder drills and cruise and sprints are amazing at helping develop agility. There is one drill that is also exceptional and really difficult to master – it is called Follow The Leader.
One player is designated to be the leader. This person runs, jogs, sprints and changes directions randomly. The remaining athletes need to shadow the leader as closely and quickly as possible making the exact same movements. Not knowing what is coming up also helps to develop their reaction time and speed endurance. To help with a player’s cardiovascular health each follower then takes a turn at being the leader.
Downer’s Grove custom strength, speed and agility training for football players creates drills such as these to help with speed and agility for football players.