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Maintain agility training year-round

This is an excerpt from Complete Conditioning for Basketball by National Basketball Conditioning Coaches Association.

Yearly Training Schedule

Agility training should play a major role in a yearly conditioning program.

Off-season: During the off-season, players should make their greatest gains because they have more time to train. The off-season is the time to learn new drills and develop proper technique for all drills. Entire workouts can be devoted to agility training. Agility training should be done 2 or 3 days a week.

Preseason: Agility training continues, but the workouts are shorter and the work gets sharper. Agility workouts should be once or twice a week, depending on the needs of individual players.

In-season: Agility training is limited to a few drills that may be done as part of the daily dynamic warm-up. Players who do not play many minutes can continue agility training throughout the season. The amount depends on the needs of individual players.

Guidelines for Agility

Agility training requires proper footwear (basketball shoes) for agility drills. Drills should be done on a nonslip surface, such as a clean gym floor.

Perform drills at slow speeds first, beginning with proper technique and footwork. When you can perform repetitions successfully and under control, you can increase speed.

For every agility drill, start in the ready position: feet shoulder-width apart; ankles, knees, and hips flexed in a quarter-squat position; head and shoulders slightly forward with hips and ankles in a straight line. Keep knees and hips flexed and your center of gravity over the feet. The body cannot move quickly when it is standing straight up. From this position, you are ready to move in any direction and can hold this position if bumped from any angle. This ready position is the most efficient position for moving and reacting.

Agility drills should be short in duration (anaerobic), approximately 10 to 20 seconds. Each workout should include a variety of drills that involve multiple changes of directions as well as sprints, backpedals, shuffles, hops, skips, turns, rotations, and jumps. Workouts should start with a good warm-up and flexibility program and finish with a cool-down.

This is an excerpt from Complete Conditioning for Basketball.

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