Testing Speed and Agility in Elite Tennis Players

The Importance of a Sport-Specific Stimulus for Training Agility

“…The notion of agility being reactive appears to be more commonly accepted and as such, more research and coaching reports are appearing that have recommended the use of a stimulus to initiate an agility maneuver. For example, a light stimulus has been used in agility research (3,10,17) and recommended for assessing tennis agility (6). One electronic timing equipment manufacturer claimed that reacting to their flashing light system can train "critical athlete qualities such as reaction time, decision making, reactive change of direction, agility, peripheral vision, skills, endurance and even team work in reactive simulations and small sided games" (Fusion Sport, Queensland, Australia).…”

The Effects of Frontal- and Sagittal-Plane Plyometrics on Change-of-Direction Speed and Power in Adolescent Female Basketball Players

“…Agility has been defined as a rapid wholebody movement with change of velocity or direction in response to a stimulus (4,33). The response to a stimulus has introduced the importance of perceptual skills to agility, and efforts in the literature have been made to differentiate simple or preplanned agility from universal agility (7,13,26,29). Preplanned agility, also termed change-of-direction speed (CODS), is the physical component of agility without the perceptual or decision-making factors (40), whereas universal agility combines CODS with perceptual skills or the response to a stimulus (7,13,26,29).…”

Within - and between - Session Reliability of the Spider Drill Test to Assess Change of Direction Speed in Youth Tennis Athletes

“…Despite its importance towards the tennis population, the definition of agility is often the subject of debate amongst the sport science community [13][14][15][16]. Within the literature, agility has been referred to by several definitions [13,14,[16][17][18][19][20].…”

“…Within the literature, agility has been referred to by several definitions [13,14,[16][17][18][19][20]. The most recent definition of agility describes elements of decision making…”

“…CODS, Change of direction, Reliability, Spider drill, Modified t-test, Pro-agility and perceptual motor skills and has therefore caused many to suggest that some field-based assessments used by S&C coaches are inappropriate due to their lack of response to a stimulus [13,14,21]. However, it should be noted that recreating the 'decision-making' aspect of agility may in fact be incognisant.…”