With a large part of the country in quarantine, or shelter in place, a lot of strength and conditioning facilities are closed. Even though facilities are closed, athletes still need to stay in shape because sports will eventually resume. The last two posts have focused on what you can do in terms of strength and conditioning if you are stuck at home without equipment, the last post focused on power training without equipment. This post is going to focus on speed and agility training for an athlete who is stuck at home.
First, it’s important to keep a few things in mind (this was in the last two posts):
- Doing something to stay in shape is better than doing nothing. We’re not going to be able to train optimally under these circumstances, so the best we can do is to stay in shape even if it’s not our ideal workout.
- Sport-specific training isn’t going to happen without access to our facilities, so let that idea go.
- The principles of exercise still apply here. This means we get what we train for, we have to find ways to make things progressively more difficult, we need to rest and recover (e.g. so we don’t want to do the same thing two days in a row), and we need a balanced program.
Second, with speed and agility training, things will be a little different than when you have access to your normal facilities:
- You have the opportunity to do everything on grass. I think this is really important, as much as you can stay off sidewalks and roads. Grass is a great surface for speed and agility training and this will give you a chance to both prevent and heal from any shin splint injuries.
- You are not going to get to work on anything longer than 20 yards unless you have a really huge backyard. Remember, doing something is better than nothing!
- Normally I am against cone drills and drills that focus on a skill for distance (for example, shuffle for five yards) as forms of agility training. But, these times aren’t normal and this is better than nothing.
So with all that in mind, let’s start with speed/agility related mobility work. The following is a list of mobility work that you can do in your backyard, in front of your apartment complex, or at a local park.
Ankle mobility drills:
Ankle circles, clockwise and counterclockwise
Walk on toes
Walk on heels
Ankle hops
Shin spint prevention exercises:
Walk on toes
Walk on heels
Walk on inside of feet
Walk on outside of feet
Ankle hops, forwards
Ankle hops, backwards
Ankle hops, zig zags
Hamstring drills:
Marches
Inchworms
Crab walks
Hip bridges
One legged hip bridges
Hip mobility drills:
Leg swings, forwards and backwards
Leg swings, side to side
Eagles
Stomach eagles
Lunges:
Forward lunges
Backwards lunges
Lunges to the side
In a workout, pick one for each area and either cover 5 yards with it or cover 10-15 repetitions. Repeat the workout 3 times for a great general warm up for speed and agility work.
The following are specific warm up exercises that you can do in your backyard, in front of your apartment, or at a park for a speed and agility workout:
Footstrike:
Ankling (walking)
Ankling (skipping/jogging)
Straight leg bounds
High Knee Motion:
High knee walks
High knee skips
Heel to Hip Motion:
Heel to hip walks
Heel to hip skips
Putting the sprinting motion together:
A walks
A skips
Bounds
Other specific warm-up exercises:
Stride length drills (first five yards): Set yourself up a 5 yard course, so that each Footstrike is further apart than the one prior. Use something to mark it off with (I like pencils when I have to be creative).
Stride frequency drills
Agility Specific Warm Up Drills:
Step backwards over the fence: Pretend there is a fence behind you. Stand up tall. Lift your right knee in front of you. Swing your leg behind you and over the imaginary fence. Repeat until you have covered five yards. Note this can also be done as a skip.
Side lunges
Rear lunges
Step backwards over the fence into a lunge
Pick one or two of each category and incorporate them after your general warm up.
Now let’s talk about what you can do for your speed training.
Starts:
You can work on starts from all positions. This includes falling, standing, crouching, from a push up position, from a prone position, and from lying on your back.
Sprints:
Realistically you can work on 5 yard sprints, maybe 10 if you are really lucky. So focus on 5-10 of these. Use the A drills to simulate what it looks like at maximum velocity, but you won’t get there in your backyard.
Focus on 1-2 starting positions each training session, do 5-10 sprints from each position.
Agility Drills:
Five to ten yards is extremely limited space for agility drills, but keep in mind that doing something is better than nothing. So this time gives us a chance to really perfect our fundamental movement skills. Skills that we can work on in the backyard, park, or in front of out apartment complex are;
Shuffle right and left, 5 yards each direction
Backpedal
Plant then make a diagonal cut
Run curves
Focus on 1-2 skills each training session, repeat then 5-10 times each.
So it’s not perfect, but you can still work on your speed and agility during times when you can’t get out or can’t get to your facilities! This actually gives you a chance to reset yourself in terms of your skills, correct any errors in them, and gives you a chance to use grass to build up your shin strength!
