What does it take to be running full speed straight ahead, and then without hesitation, stop on a dime and change direction?  Agility, coordination, strength, stabilization, balance?  All of these?  More?  The ability to change direction on the field of play is an essential athletic quality that any athlete can use to his or her advantage in competition.

Change of direction is most often described as agility.  Agility allows an athlete to react quickly to the ever-changing pace of a game or play.  Agility comes in different forms, most notably, horizontal and vertical changes of direction.  To possess high quality agility not only gives the athlete an advantage during competition, but decreases the chances of injury.  Developing ones agility is not always easy, however.  The athlete must first possess a decent foundation of coordination and skill.

Here are a few basic movements to help develop coordination and agility:

Backpedaling -Simply stated, this is the ability to move the body in a backward direction.  Usually, backpedaling is used for guarding an offensive player or while transitioning from one movement to another.

Cutting -The actual execution of changing direction.  Cutting is the ability to plant one foot for rapid deceleration followed quickly by re-acceleration.  The ability to cut allows an athlete to transition quickly from movement in one direction to movement in another direction.

Crossover - A crossover allows an athlete to transition from a lateral movement to a forward or backward movement.  This movement requires the athlete to cross one foot over the other while maintaining a good center of balance.