Hi,

You might have seen the training videos of a player's run around cones that shows off impressive ability to change direction quickly.

And you might think "that looks like a player who can move quickly in games".
Perhaps you are right and that player can translate that change-of-direction ability into performance on the pitch.

But in my experience, agile players on the pitch are often not the fastest around the cones in practice sessions.

Why is that?

Well, the ability to change direction and agility are two different things. They are related, but not the same:

The change-of-direction ability is more of a pure physical skill. It's about who can get into advantageous mechanical body-positions and produce force quickly. That's also important on the pitch, as getting into these positions are also correlated with avoiding serious knee-injuries.

Agility is what happens in the context of a game. Like I said, it's not always the fastest mover that's the most agile player on the pitch. Agility also requires perception, reading what happens around a player in the game, anticipating what is likely to happen, and to act and move in a way to take advantage of that. Having great change-of-direction ability is no hindrance to this, in fact, it can be a super-power if someone is great at both the physical ability to change direction and to fully take advantage of that in a game-situation.

That's why training the ability to change direction with cones has limited transfer to what happens in the game. It can develop better body-positions and force-generation, but not in a game-like context. And in the game, to the chagrin of the physical coach, these techniques and body-positions somehow seem to break down.

If your child is training agility, try integrating it into some kind of play- or game-situation. Have them interact with a ball, a teammate and/or attacker, get them to make a decision that means something (as in, if they make a poor one, they don't score or concede a goal).

When done this way, the highlight videos might be less impressive-looking on instagram, but the impact in a game will probably be much bigger.

Best,

Hans Martin

P.S. I read all replies, so if you do have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask me by replying to this email!

How can I help you?

If your goal is to support, not sabotage your child's youth football career, check out how we can work together so that your child have the best possible chance of reaching their potential as a football player: https://www.hmbjorkevoll.com/apply​