SPEED AGILITY AND QUICKNESS

FOR BASKETBALL

For the start let`s define training targets starting with; speed It is the maximal velocity that can
be reached by part or all of the body. It has to do with moving your limbs, including legs and
arms, in such a way that you can move as fast as possible within a straight line.

Next we define Agility It is the ability to rapidly change the bodys momentum from one direction to another. This requires either
acceleration in any direction from dead stop or deceleration in the direction one is traveling and
acceleration in a new direction. In addition to the ability to accelerate, agility requires a certain degree of
flexibility, which aids in going over, under, and around obstacles.

Agility it is not something you can get through building your lower body alone. Instead, you
need to have a powerful and well-defined core.

3) Quickness
refers to rapid responses to your overall bodily awareness in other words instant reflexive
reactions.

Next I want to bring to your attention importance of proper execution that is

mOVEMENT TECHNIQUE.
Why it important in short Proper movement technique while executing speed, agility and quickness drills
allows the
body and limbs to achieve biomechanically advantageous positions for optimal force production,
thereby increasing speed of movement.

Reaction Time
As basketball players we need to react to stimulation fast. So many things happening every second on the
floor and our ability to react properly is determined by our senses such as: seeing, hearing, feeling,
equilibrium, defensive or offensive system comprehension, ability to predict next probable move by defense
of offense, etc. Our ability to react effectively and quickly in many ways, is determined by our
concentration and awareness with are parts of the mental training.
After our senses collected information if will takes time to our brain to proceed and make right decision that
is send the electronic signal telling our body what to do.
Take a look very simple data that shows average reaction times.
190 milliseconds (0.19 seconds) The amount of time it takes a college-aged person to react a visual stimulus
140 - 160 milliseconds (0.16 seconds) The amount of time it takes a college-aged person to react to a sound stimulus
0 - late 20s The ages during which simple reaction time shortens (get faster)
Late 20s 50s & 60s The ages during which simple reaction time slowly increases (gets slower)
My intention to keep it simple as always end up in utter failure and as opposed to simple article
getting more and more complex I see it like a side effect of my desire to dig deeper in details
sharing my thoughts alone the way. So here it is now let define two kinds of reaction.
Simple reaction and Complex reaction.
Simple reaction (hearing a command) and a single response (running) Simple reacting is used when we know or
planning what we want to do and are just waiting for the stimulation. In other words athlete become
proactive.
For instance athlete attacking left foot of defensive player with fake crossover, glance and shoulder shake
expecting defender to react the way offense want him/her to act in order to enforce defensive openings.

Complex reaction - choice reaction (hearing the sound of the ball or voice of teammate calling to you or
visually collecting data). Complex reacting is used when athlete dont know the kind of stimulation to expect and
athlete dont know the kind of response he/she needs to deal within situation.
For instance dose help defender coming or not, dose offensive player goes right or left or he/she simply
pull the trigger and shoot at once etc. Especially on defensive end of the flour most of the time players
react on something that already happened and cannot play guess game to the same extend as offensive
player could.

Improving Complex choice reaction time

Complex reactions can be improved by correctness of athlete initial position and further response to the
situation with proper technique and correct counter respond.
Improvement in that could be achieved through game like simulation (drilling).

Another aspect of complex reacting time improvement is you have guessed right experience. Through
drilling our body and mind learns to distinguish and filter incoming data. Let us glance at a simple
example. Assuming athlete received pass on top of the key , right after he/she got the ball multiple choose
decision making surfaced up now athlete faced with multiple choose and time ticking (lets narrow our pool
of many choices to only 2. First is to shoot right away and second is to wait for it for some time). Triggers
one of many could be position of defensive player hands that will be a trigger to shoot or not. I would not
go in vast triggers pool I guess one above would suffice understanding.
Question why we as a coaches see this over and over again when players make wrong decision? That is for
you to answer if you still cannot figure it out please read this article again.
Experience is invaluable for reaction time improvement it helps simplify the complex choice for athlete.

Importance of improving reaction time

It is far more important, to the end result (for succeeding in what we want to achieve), to react correctly
rather than just to react. What we should do is determined in the theory of the specific martial art
For instance it is faster to move the head or the hand than it is to move the whole body; it is faster to
turn our hip than it is to bend our back.
Going back to the night club scenario it would be faster to raise the hand to block than to move the whole
body out of the way. On the other hand it would be safer to move out of the strike than to block it, because
the bottle might be broken and cut us, or just hit the arm and break the bone, or break on it and have
pieces of glass flying toward our eyes.

Conclusions
Reaction time and speed is definitely something worth improving, but even more so it is important to
respond in the correct manner.
However as we showed here it can also be improved separately by:
Improving awareness levels and concentration capabilities in different situations; part of our
mental training
Narrowing down the number of responses for any stimulation.
Focusing attention when training on performing the correct response and not only a good execution,
(asking ourselves not whether or not what we did succeeded, but rather whether or not it was the best
possible answer for that situation).
Training sparring and simulations to gain and improve experience

of Alberta found that Olympic sprinters closest to the starters pistol reacted more quickly than those farther away.

Phil McElhinney / flickr

According to the study, the louder the noise (within reason), the shorter the reaction time. The difference in reaction time
was measured in hundredths of seconds, but at the elite level hundredths of seconds can mean the difference between
winning and losing, fame and relative obscurity, and first place money versus lower payouts. More on this research.

Simple reaction time refers to a single stimulus (hearing a starting pistol) and a single response (running).

Choice reaction time means reacting to more than one stimulus (in baseball, hearing the sound of the bat hitting
the ball and visually gauging the speed and path of the ball after it is hit).
Reaction time itself is an inherent ability, but overall response time involves a variety of factors, including practice,
experience, anticipation, strength and coordination. Each athlete has a built-in, limited time range to react, but within those
boundaries is plenty of room for improvement.
The process loop is very important for reaction time, says Mark Verstegen, Founder of Athletes Performance and Core
Performance. We have to be sure the athlete can take the stimuluswhether it is verbal, visual, tactile or in some other
formand turn it into a response. A person can have great reaction time, but it doesnt help if his or her body cant do
anything about the stimulus. You have to be able to take advantage of the process. That means being in the right body
position (with all the right angles) to take advantage of the situation.

Reaction Time Research

Hundreds of studies have been conducted over the past century, and each one reveals a little more about reaction time and
sports performance. Here are some examples:

French exercise scientists found that reaction time was progressively quicker as race length shortened from 400
meters to 60 meters. They also discovered that decreased, or shortened, reaction time was not observable in less
experienced sprinters (18-19 years old). They observed that sprinters in 60-meter and 100-meter events tended to
anticipate the starters gun, while those in longer races were content to respond to the sound of the shot.

At the University of Alabama at Birmingham, sports scientists performed vision screening tests on 213 minor
league baseball players, then matched test results with hitting ability. Age and race did not affect hitting performance, but
an association was found between visual reaction time and batting skills. No association was found in fielding skills,
although it could be assumed that catchers and third basemen need to have quicker response time than pitchers and
outfielders to play well at their positions.

Japanese researchers tested 22 baseball players, 22 tennis players and 38 non-athletes. There were no
differences in simple reaction time between the two groups of athletes, but baseball players scored better on the
GO/NOGO test, which involves pressing a button or not pressing a button as a result of a stimulus. The GO/NOGO reaction
time of higher skill baseball players was significantly shorter than that of less skilled players. Professional baseball players
had the shortest reaction time of all groups. The research team concluded that practice can improve GO/NOGO reaction
time, but not simple reaction time.

A study conducted at the University of Illinois found that highly-skilled tennis players used visual skills to react to
balls hit by their opponents, something they were not able to do as effectively on balls projected by a machine.

Based on a review of reaction time research, the authors of an article in Perceptual Motor Skills concluded that
reaction time must be considered a skill dependent upon experience and learning.

Coaching Keys
There is plenty of evidence that strength training, aerobic and anaerobic development and sports skills should be practiced
in a manner that simulates game or event conditions as much as possible. Movements that are practiced in game-like
situations are the ones most likely to be used in competition.
Those non-specific, look-good, why-am-I-doing-these drills that still take up valuable practice time in every sport should be
questionedthink quickness drills in football in which players, on command, rapidly move their hands from head to knees
to shoulders to other parts of the body. While impressive looking, which positions require those patterns of movement?
Examples of sport-specific drills include the following:

Wave drills and one-on-one drills in basketball

Rapid fire volley drills in tennis

Football drills in which linemen drop to the ground, then return to a starting position

Starting drills in swimming and track

Digging, sprawling, rolling, recovering, and blocking drills in volleyball

One-on-one defensive drills and short-range goal-defending drills in hockey and soccer

Face-off drills in hockey

Smash-return drills in badminton

There is still a place in the training routine for less-than-sport-specific activities. Explains Verstegen, If a football player
doesnt have basic motor abilities, he wont pick them up just playing football. For example, if a running back just does
position work, it wont necessarily improve his speed, quickness, cutting ability or acceleration. Thats why we try to find
exactly the right activity at Athletes Performance and Core Performance to develop those skills.

Take-Away Messages
There are several take-home messages for coaches, athletes and parents of athletes regarding reaction time.
1.

Although there are inherent limitations to reaction time, each athlete can improveshortenresponse time and
offset some of the limitations that still exist through experience and anticipation.

2.

Allow enough time to develop motor skills (running, stopping, changing directions, jumping and throwing, for
example), as well as strength, speed, flexibility and endurance that are needed to play a sport.

3.

Incorporate your improved reaction time, enhanced motor skills and better overall fitness into sport-specific training
and competitive situations.
Jim Brown, Ph.D. has written 14 books on health, medicine, and sports. His articles have appeared in the Washington
Post, New York Post, Sports Illustrated for Women and Better Homes & Gardens. He also writes for the Duke School of
Medicine, UCLA School of Medicine, Cleveland Clinic and Steadman-Hawkins Research Foundation.

Tags: Reaction

References
1.

Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology

2.

Mark Verstegen, Founder, Athletes Performance and Core Performance

3.

Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise

4.

Perceptual Motor Skills

5.

Robert J. Kosinski, Clemson University

6.

Tennis: Steps to Success