Football training is surrounded by numerous myths. This is simply because in time our understanding of what it takes to be successful in training changed. Unfortunately, there are still many sports managers and coaches that do not adapt. It is really important to go through proper training routines that protect the athletes and help them to get to the highest possible athletic level.
Ryan Grigson, highly experienced sports manager, often sees myths that are believed by way more people than what would be expected.
For instance, a really common one is that football agility and speed will be increased when using cones, agility drills and ladder systems. Unfortunately, this is not as effective as people believe. In fact, modern practices are even more deceiving than they used to be.
The definition of agility is one’s ability to quickly change direction without losing speed. In order to be really agile, you need to be able to generate a lot of force and then apply it on the ground so you are propelled in the exact opposite direction.
The problem with modern agile training performed according to the old myths regarding this is that there are issues trainers are not aware of. For instance, in the event that your body is week, you cannot become more agile, no matter how much agility training is done. In football training we need to focus on maximum strength as the main foundation. When stronger, it is easier to gain increased agility.
Myths surrounding agility training in football training normally appear because better results are noticed as drills are done. In most cases the test times get better because form gets better. Also, there are different tricks that you can use in order to get better results in an agility test.
All you have to do in order to realize that the difference in results is highly impacted by form is to look at a beginner athlete go through a drill and a professional football player. When looking at cones you will see that the professional simply bends more and knows how to move to get better results. However, when you look at the actual football game, things change. You will rarely see a football player as tucked down as they are during the agility drills involving cones. If they would use the same positions, tackles would be very strong. The result could be a very serious injury, including a broken neck.
There are way too many coaches out there that do not take into account the fact that how a player runs automatically affects speed and form. An actual game is a lot different than the agility training course.
If you want to increase football agility, the best thing you can do is get stronger and lift weights. This will increase how much force you produce. You automatically become more agile and faster. The agility drills that you see in so many sports and that are used by many coaches should not be included in football training.
