Effective speed and agility conditioning methodology for random intermittent dynamic type sports

ABSTRACT. Bloomfield, J., R. Polman, P. O’Donoghue, and L. McNaughton. Effective speed and agility conditioning method- ology for random intermittent dynamic type sports. J. Strength Cond. Res. 21(4):1093–1100. 2007.—Different coaching methods are often used to improve performance. This study compared the effectiveness of 2 methodologies for speed and agility condition- ing for random, intermittent, and dynamic activity sports (e.g., soccer, tennis, hockey, basketball, rugby, and netball) and the necessity for specialized coaching equipment. Two groups were delivered either a programmed method (PC) or a random meth- od (RC) of conditioning with a third group receiving no condi- tioning (NC). PC participants used the speed, agility, quickness (SAQ) conditioning method, and RC participants played super- vised small-sided soccer games. PC was also subdivided into 2 groups where participants either used specialized SAQ equip- ment or no equipment. A total of 46 (25 males and 21 females) untrained participants received (mean ? SD) 12.2 ? 2.1 hours of physical conditioning over 6 weeks between a battery of speed and agility parameter field tests. Two-way analysis of variance results indicated that both conditioning groups showed a signif- icant decrease in body mass and body mass index, although PC achieved significantly greater improvements on acceleration, de- celeration, leg power, dynamic balance, and the overall sum- mation of % increases when compared to RC and NC (p ? 0.05). PC in the form of SAQ exercises appears to be a superior method for improving speed and agility parameters; however, this study found that specialized SAQ equipment was not a requirement to observe significant improvements. Further research is required to establish whether these benefits transfer to sport-specific tasks as well as to the underlying mechanisms resulting in im- proved performance.