When it comes to predicting performance in sports like basketball, football, baseball, and volleyball, one skill stands out: reactive agility. This crucial ability involves making rapid, accurate decisions under pressure, and makes the difference between a good player and a great one. Here, we will outline the skills that comprise reactive agility, how to evaluate them, and give you the best methods for training & testing agility.
Why is reactive agility an important skill in sports?
The Gunfighters dilemma: Proof of a difference between reactive & voluntary movements
Did you know that reacting is faster than acting intentionally? This paradoxic idea is one of the most important laws in building game sports tactics, since it was proven by a Danish physicist Niels Bohr in an experiment called the "gunfighter's dilemma."
What do gunfights have to do with sports?
Professor Bohr saw that in Western movies, cowboys often won gunfights by drawing second. In collaboration with his students, he decided to test out if reactions might be faster than acting deliberately. They conducted a research using toy guns, but got mixed results. Later studies showed reactions are indeed faster than intentional movements. But, there's a catch - they are generally less accurate. This phenomenon, known as the gunslinger effect, suggests a paradox in gunfights: neither gunslinger wants to draw first, knowing that the opponent might react faster.
Research confirmed that reactions are faster than intentional movements. But there's a catch - they are generally less accurate.
Bohr's law shows that when we respond to a stimulus, our movements are quicker than when we move on our own. This is especially important in sports. For example, side-stepping in response to an opponents movement is faster than doing it voluntarily. But even such a small difference matters a lot in high-speed sports where every millisecond matters.
Key to winning: Combination of Prediction, Reaction & Accuracy
Probability that opponent will react to your actions quickly - but wrong, is the reason why you often see players using deceptive movements, such as feints, to mislead their opponents. To react well to a feint player needs to quickly understand and respond to deceptive signals. So the key to winning in invasion sports isn't just about being the fastest – it's being able to execute controlled and accurate movements in response to cues. If we return to the example of two gunfighters, it's not the fastest gunfighter who wins – but the one who can balance speed with accuracy.
The key to winning in invasion sports isn't just about being the fastest – it's about being able to execute controlled and accurate moves in response to opponents' signals.
Essence of sports: constant switching between offense and defense
Invasion sports are like a multiple quick-paced gunfights happening over and over again, or, in sports terms - agility is crucial in invasion sports because of their fast dynamics. Players must constantly respond to their opponents' actions and rapidly changing situations. For example, in soccer, players continuously switch between offensive and defensive roles. These transitions involve complex, instant changes in direction and movements based on the game situation. Players are continuously predicting and responding. This makes reactive agility — the ability to move quickly and accurately in response to external stimuli — essential.
Players continuously switch between offensive and defensive roles, and they must constantly predict and respond to their opponents' actions.
What is "true" reactive agility?
To be agile, meaning to respond quickly and accurately to a stimulus, athlete has to be trained to successfully execute various psychomotor activities all at once. Reactive agility consists of many abilities, including visual search, prediction, pattern recognition, and situational knowledge.
Warren B. Young (in his model from 2002) highlighted two major factors of agility: perceptual and decision-making, and change of direction (COD) speed. This model led to the belief that improving COD speed supports agility performance. Consequently, COD speed has been widely researched.
Reactive agility can't be measured & trained through COD speed alone, as it consists of many abilities, including visual search, prediction, pattern recognition, and situational knowledge.
However, newly research shows that COD speed tests can't provide comprehensive agility assessment (Scanlan et al. 2014; Sheppard et al. 2006; Farrow at al. 2005).
Why is that so? COD tests, such as Pro Agility, 505, and T-Test, typically involve voluntary movements following predetermined changes in direction. This means that these types of tests focus solely on reducing movement time, and without including external stimuli - a trigger for decision-making, can't fully assess agility.
While improving COD speed was once seen as foundational to agility, newer definitions move the emphasis to the importance of testing and exercising abilities of visual scanning and decision making.
Model by Sheppard & Young (2006)
proposes that agility includes:
x visual search
x prediction
x pattern recognition
x situational knowledge.
Visual Scanning: The foundation of reactive agility
Numerous studies have shown that top athletes excel at visual scanning, a skill that enables them to make split-second decisions. Ability to rapidly notice and process visual information of opponents' movements, is what sets elite players apart (Ji et al, 2023; Kassem et al, 2022).
The science behind visual scanning
Research highlights that experienced athletes have shorter visual fixations compared to average players. However, during these brief moments, they absorb a significant amount of information, enabling them to anticipate movements and make quick, informed decisions (Kassem et al, 2022).
Elite athletes excel at visual scanning ; they have shorter eye fixations compared to average players, while absorbing more information.
Christiano Ronaldo experiment
A well-known example is a visual perception test conducted on a soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo. By tracking his eye movements, researchers discovered that while Ronaldo often looks at the ball, his primary focus is on the defender's body movements. This allows him to anticipate the opponent's actions and execute rapid, effective responses, pulling off up to incredible 13 moves in just 8 seconds.
Training visual scanning and decision-making skills can significantly enhance performance. By systematically practicing drills that improve visual reception and force decisions under pressure, athletes can sharpen their ability to anticipate movements, assess situations, and react effectively. Reactive agility training not only enhances performance but also boosts confidence in handling complex and dynamic environments.
By practicing reactive agility drills that improve visual reception and force decisions under pressure, athletes can sharpen their ability to anticipate movements, assess situations, and react effectively.
Best methods for training and testing reactive agility
Agility training goes beyond speed - it encompasses speed, visual scanning, reaction training, and decision-making skills. Here we'll explore both traditional ways coaches train agility and new technology that helps them train more efficiently.
Complete agility training includes speed, visual scanning, decision-making and reaction training.
1. Traditional methods for training reactive agility
To effectively train all abilities that construct reactive agility, researchers recommend its best to employ sport-specific small-sided games and feint situations (Hiroshi, 2023).
These methods are highly beneficial because they most accurately replicate real-game conditions - athletes are reacting to other players performing movements and forcing them to make quick decisions under pressure.
While these approaches are beneficial for training, they can be difficult to measure objectively. Player interactions and cues are unpredictable and vary each time.
On the other hand, traditional agility tests like the Pro Agility, 505, and T-Test lack an interactive and decision-making component, focusing solely on predetermined changes of direction. That's why coaches often prefer technical solutions for precise and replicable assessments of reactive agility.
Best methods for training reactive agility are small-sided games and feint situations.
2. Training reactive agility with technology
Reaction lights
Recent tech advancements have introduced new tools for boosting athlete performance. One of the most commonly used devices are reaction lights. They offer training with customizable, timeable, and repeatable visual cues, helping athletes to improve responsiveness, visual scanning and decision-making under pressure.
Reaction lights can be placed at eye level or on the floor, depending on the sport's specific requirements for visual scanning. Their positioning may also vary, offering options from a full 360-degree setup for spatial awareness training to more focused configurations aimed to enhance specific scanning of, for example, a punching bag or a goal. Visual cues range from simple signs, colors, and emojis to more complex stimuli like numbers and mathematical operations. Math and memory games are especially beneficial, as they require of athletes to engage in problem-solving, decision-making, and memory recall simultaneously. These activities challenge the brain to process information quickly and accurately, improving cognitive abilities such as strategic thinking, mental agility, and attention to detail. By incorporating these complex drills into training, athletes not only enhance their physical skills but also develop sharper cognitive abilities essential for high-performance sports.
Timing gates
Another common and essential tool for a performance coach is the timing gates, a tool that uses a laser beam set between two points. When an athlete runs through the beam, the system records the time taken, providing an accurate measurement of sprint performance.
Beyond their primary function, timing gates are versatile in tracking various aspects of movement, not limited to straight-line sprints. When paired with reaction lights, timing gates can assess agility by measuring the time it takes for an athlete to react and change direction in response to stimuli.
Reactive agility system: timing gates & reaction lights combined
Sportreact is the only device that integrates timing gates and reaction lights, providing coaches with one comprehensive training and tracking tool for assessing reactive agility, speed or reactions.
Unique reactive agility system allows coaches to design sport-specific agility polygons with diverse visual cues facilitating movement direction, while simultaneously utilising timing gates to track time.
Coaches can opt for one of the pre-created reactive agility drills (including Stop'n'go, Reactive Agility T-test, Split Step Tennis Drill) or craft their own within the RAGS section of the app.
Available templates include standard speed tests and drills, NBA, NFL, and MLB agility drills with a reactive component, as well as specific reactive agility drills for soccer, tennis, basketball, and many more.
Video 1: Sportreact reactive agility system allows coaches to design sport-specific agility polygons with diverse visual cues facilitating movement direction, while simultaneously utilising timing gates to track time.
To discover more about how Sportreact can transform your training sessions and elevate players' performance, visit this page. Unleash your athletes' potential with Sportreact Reactive Agility System.
MATEO KOVACIC
Meet Mateo: a kinesiotherapist and former elite track and field athlete, brings a wealth of experience to his writing. A multiple-time national champion in the 400 meters and a European 4x400 relay competitor, he now channels his expertise into coaching youth athletes in speed development.
Mateo shares insights on training techniques, athlete development, and his journey from the track to coaching.
References
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3. Li Y., Feng T., Zhang F., Asgher U., Yan B., Peng T. (2023) Visual search strategies of performance monitoring used in action anticipation of basketball players. Brain Behav. 13(12)
4. Kassem L., MacMahon C., Quinn J., Dogramaci S., Pang B., Steel KA. (2022) Examining the Eye Movement Behaviors Associated With Skilled Decision-Making by Elite Australian Rules Football Players. Front Sports Act Living. 8 (4)
5. Scanlan, A., Humphries, B., Tucker, P. S., & Dalbo, V. (2014). The influence of physical and cognitive factors on reactive agility performance in men basketball players. Journal of Sports and Science, 32(4), 367-374.
6. Sheppard, J. M., Young, W. B., Doyle, T. L. A., Sheppard, T. A., & Newton, R. U. (2006). An evaluation of a new test of reactive agility and its relationship to sprint speed and change of direction speed. Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport, 9, 342-349.
7. Young, W., James, R., & Montgomery, I. (2002). Is muscle power related to running speed with changes of direction? Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness, 42(3), 282–288.
