This excerpt from Developing Speed demonstrates a fun drill aimed to develop the ability to make a cut step in response to a stimulus and to accelerate from this direction change.
This book excerpt explains how to perform the box step-off landing assessment, which is used to determine an athlete’s readiness before beginning a program in agility and quickness.
Athletes in field and court sports require reactive agility—they must accelerate, decelerate, and change direction in a constantly changing environment. These requirements result in technical differences between sprinting in a field or court sport and sprinting the 100-m.
Acceleration and maximum speed are terms used in speed development programs, and when developing a program, it is vital to differentiate between the two. This allows coaches to target their training to the capacity most important in their own sport.