Team sports are characterised by explosive movements with frequent changes of direction. This makes agility an important skill in both attack and defence. It can be divided into reactive and non-reactive. In non-reactive agility, the movement is known in advance, while reactive agility requires a reaction to the stimulus before changing direction. Movements in team sports are often in response to the opponent's movement. In our master thesis we attempted to comprehensively capture how sport science currently conceptualises agility and its role in team sports. In this work, we have paid particular attention to testing and developing agility.
Agility is a complex ability and can only be partly explained by different factors. Reactive agility is largely dependent on cognitive factors. Its tests can be used to better assess an athlete's ability of agility movements in team sport compared to change-of-direction tests only. The development of agility varies by gender and across different age categories. Training methods that mostly have positive impact on improving agility include eccentric training, change-of-direction training, change-of-direction training with response to stimulus, small-sided games, and combined methods. According to the current literature, relatively little research has been carried out about the development of reactive agility.
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