HOW TO TRAIN ATHLETES TO TAKE 180 DEGREE TURNS
Agility involves a cognitive response to a stimulus.
So the athlete needs to develop perceptual skills i.e. they need to be able to look around, figure out what it is they should focus in on and then decide what to do with that stimulus and how to respond. That response is a physical execution of a movement, it’s the change of direction speed or change of direction skill and that falls squarely on our role as coaches interested in the physical capacity of an athlete. So we'll teach them how to move and, once they can hit the various shapes required to optimally prime their body, to move in a particular direction.
In order to develop agility in athletes, one of the crucial aspects is to teach the mechanics of taking safe 180 degree turns and how to seamlessly string together a sequence of different turns in response to a chaotic open environment, which is exactly what a sport is.
If you want to learn more about this topic, you can watch Dr. Anthony Turner's lecture here:
Watch these clips to know more about how to teach 180 degree turns in athletes.
If you want to learn more about this topic, you can watch Dr. Anthony Turner's lecture here:
Sources:
1. Lecture 'Reverse Engineering in S&C: Applications to Agility Training' by Dr. Anthony Turner
