Agility training was once thought to be exclusive to professional athletes, but over the years, those training styles have trickled down. With the advent of high intensity workouts, CrossFit, etc, the advantages of youth agility training is becoming the forefront of a balanced athlete.
In this article, we’ll talk about the top 3 benefits of Youth Agility Training.
1. Injury Prevention
Athleticism can be measured in several ways, from strength and flexibility to agility and focus. At a program like Ninja Zone we aim to provide the most well-rounded athlete as possible. Agility is often an overlooked quality of today’s youth athletes, but along with flexibility, can be one of the most important factors in injury prevention. Simply put, agile athletes are less likely to fall and know how to handle their bodies when they do.
2. Improved Multi-Planar Coordination
This is basically the nuts and bolts of agility training. Multi-Planar coordination involves movements that are more than 2 directional. For example, jogging in a straight line is an example of a single plane exercise while a Ninja Zone Palm Spin is multi-planar. Improving multi-planar coordination will allow young athletes to have more control over their bodies while either anchored to something like a mat, bar, or beam or if they are in free flight while tumbling or dismounting an apparatus.
3. Cross Sport Benefits
No matter if your child aims to be a professional Ninja or a starting wide receiver, agility training is beneficial both inside the Ninja Sport and in other sports like football and baseball. Most moves that require agility happen in 10 seconds or less, which means there is a tiny window of time when you either have the agility or you don’t. Catching a football and immediately cutting in to avoid a defender is an example.
Final Thoughts
Agility is a skill that’s difficult to measure, which is why it is so often overlooked for direct training in youth sports. It’s much more difficult to measure reaction time and intuition than it is to measure speed and strength, but agility could be the difference between a game winning catch or watching your opponents’ fans rushing the field.