Why Agility Matters

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I recently had a patient who was was hit by an oncoming skate scooter. Remember when e-scooters and other mobility devices were really popular before being banned for causing too many accidents? They were a nuisance along pedestrian sidewalks where I live and probably everywhere else. 

See who catches it first

I was explaining to her how she needed some agility training to avoid a similar situation. Chances are if she was more agile, she would have had a higher chance of avoiding that skate scooter. 

Agility balls

Agilty is defined as a quick whole body movement with a change in speed or direction in response to a stimulus. Being agile means being able to start, stop, move, hold and quickly change your position.

For example, when you have friend near you who accidentally drops a pen (or worse, their phone), you react quickly to help them catch it. That means you can able to respond quickly to environmental cues. Like moving quickly out of the way on the pedestrian path when a cyclist suddenly swerves into your walking or running path. Being agile (or nimble) can help ward off injury for athletes and non athletes alike. With this skill, you can stay 'forever' young.

Don't mistake agility for speed as agility requires sharper reactions as well as smoother movements. You definitely need speed when running to reach the ball while playing tennis, but agility is what helps re-establish your on court position to prepare for the next volley or drop shot. 

While speed is definitely part of agility, it does not include mutidirectional changes and real time decision making processes. And that is critical to getting ahead in many sports, and in life too.

Other than speed, muscle strength and power as well as stability are important in agility. They also help with activities of daily living like getting the laundry, getting in and out of your car or walking on uneven ground since all of the above needs spatial awareness and physical control.

Agility also engages your brain since it requires mental acuity and awareness. So even non athletes need agility to ward off falls. You need to be mindful of your movement and not just be on autopilot. This helps to reduce the risk of injury as well as prevent falls since you are both mentally and physically spry.

While playing on court or field, agility can determine how a player reponds to different manoeuvers or reacts to an opponent. It can mean being beaten to the ball or scoring the winner. In all ball sports, anterior cruciate ligament (ACL)injuries most often occur during sudden deceleration and change of direction movements. So agility related training can decrease incidences of injuries. This could be the difference between staying healthy or getting injured.

For my patient, I would get her to do some work with deceleration first, to enable her to learn how to absorb impact and stabilize her body. Following that, we can work on agility. I normally get her to practise movements in 3 planes of motion. The sagittal plane (left and right), the transverse plane ( this divides the body into top and bottom sections) and the frontal plane (forward and backward movements).

Reference

Sheppard JM and Young WB (2006). Agility Literature Review: Classifications, Training And Testing. J Sp Sci. 24(9): 919-932. DOI: 10.1080/02640410500457109.