Top Agility Drills to Improve Your Mobility

The top agility drills to improve your mobility can help you stay fit and mobile into old age.

Doing agility drills is not only good for you, but it can also be fun.

What Exactly is Agility? Before we get into the actual drills, let us first define exactly what we mean by “agility.”

It is a word you may hear quite often, without it being clearly defined.

In mobility, we have a number of things we want to improve on:

Strength: The ability of the muscle to lift a weight.
Stamina: How long a muscle can last doing a movement or series of movements.
Flexibility: How well a muscle can stretch to achieve a range of motion.
Agility: The ability to move and change direction quickly and easily.

Agility is your ability to start, stop, move, and change directions on the fly.

Why is Agility Important?

Think about it. If you are a pedestrian waiting at a stop sign, and a car comes careening around the corner and looks like is about to jump the curb and hit you, what do you need?

You need agility. You need to move quickly to get out of the way of the car.

As you might have guessed already, agility isn’t just about your body’s reflexes or ability to move quickly.

It is also about your mind. How quickly can you make a decision? Some of these decisions need to be split second. Hesitate too long, and the car will hit you.

Here is another scenario where agility might help you. You are in a large earthquake, and a massive bookshelf is about to topple down, possibly trapping you underneath.

You need to get out of the way, and fast, all the while the earth is shaking and shuddering beneath you.

Agility can save your life.

Practicing agility is therefore not just something that can help with sports or recreational activities. It can help you in real life, in getting away from danger.

5 Top Agility Drills to Improve Your Mobility

Now that we have explained how agility can help you, you probably want to know some of the top agility drills to improve your mobility.

Note: These drills below are for people who are not dealing with a knee injury or other physical issue that might be problematic. If you have a sports injury or other medical condition, first, talk to your doctor. You may need to work with a physical therapist on appropriate agility drills for your current level of fitness.

You do not want to harm yourself further by pushing yourself too much or doing exercises that might be contraindicated. For example, if you have a certain kind of knee injury, you may need to refrain from jumping side to side until it is more healed.

All that said, here are some agility drills to try:

1. Agility Ladder Drills

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The “agility ladder” is not a vertical ladder that you climb up and down. It is a horizontal ladder that lies flat on the floor. You can purchase an agility ladder or make one using masking tape or other props.

There are many different ways to use an agility ladder. One is to try to get from one end to the other as quickly as possible. You would be stepping inside the rungs, not on them.

Another would be to sidestep your way through the ladder, once again stepping between the rungs and not directly on them.

You can get creative with the agility ladder, and find different step patterns to challenge yourself.

2. Lateral Plyometric Jumps

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“Lateral plyometric jumps” is just a fancy way of saying that you jump from side to side.

3. Shuttle Runs

Shuttle runs involve springs from one marker to the next, while constantly changing direction.

4. Hopscotch

OK, this might sound silly, but an old-fashioned game of hopscotch is a great agility drill. If your kids have chalked up your driveway with a hopscotch board, you might as well use it to help with your agility. Get the kids to join in for some family fun.

5. Dot Drills

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Dot drills use a pattern in the shape of an X. You would jump from each dot to the next one with both feet.