How to get more agile- use your head

I used this theme when presenting at the Active Devon Coaching Conference last weekend.

Do you do endless footwork drills in order to get more agile? Bruce Lee called this organised despair- it looks really productive and efficient, but it has very little transference to open, fast moving situations in a game.

You use your eyes to see what is happening, and your brain to make decisions. They are both located in your head which happens to be pretty heavy and is balanced precariously on top of a long body and legs. As soon as we learn to walk we are constantly fighting against gravity and our imbalances to stay upright. This is great for stability and moving around normally, but in sport we want to move fast and in many different directions.

Instead of trying to keep our head still and letting our limbs flail around underneath us like drunken spiders, move your head violently and decisively in the direction that you want to travel.

That was the basis of my workshop at the conference. I was lucky enough to have a very engaging group, who were willing to try out the random practices and situations that I was creating for them. (The 2 key note speakers were also keen participants Maggie Jackson -England Netball Coach and Andy Jones -Tom Daley’s diving coach.

Malcolm Cook of freeflow coaching ran a great workshop on coaching, I recommend you get along to see him if you get a chance. He looked at technical drill based instruction (he helped write some of the football coaching manuals) and then offered player centered guidance as an alternative. Inspiring and informative, as well as bucketloads of common sense.