Agility Band Training

The Agility Band is perfect for improving speed, directional changes, acceleration and running power for a huge range of sports, from tennis to rugby to martial arts and everything in between.

The Agility band is also a great tool for use in any general conditioning or fitness program: it's fun, easy to use, suitable for indoors or outdoors and versatile.

Here are some simple, highly effective exercises you can do with the agility band:

Agility Band Forward Sprints

This exercise should be a staple for any ball sport or track athletes, it is the perfect way to improve speed and acceleration.  It's also fantastic for getting the heart rate up so can be used by anyone who wants to improve their cardiorespiratory fitness.

The forward sprint will focus on quads, hip flexors and calves.

Because the aim is to improve speed and acceleration, you need to run forward as fast as you can and stop when you can no longer accelerate (pushing forward with slow steps just to get further forward is counterproductive).

On the way back, you do need to slow down and resist the band, this is for safety (so you don't get dragged back and fall over) and it will work the opposing muscle groups for balance.

Agility Band Backward Sprints

The backward sprints are the perfect complement for the forward sprints and will focus more on the posterior chain (hamstrings, calves and glutes).  It's also very useful for almost all ball sports as training in the backwards direction is often neglected but a very important skill.

The same principles that applied to the forward run apply to the backward run - you want to go as fast as you can on the way out (push off the balls of your feet in the backward run) and resist the band on the way back in.

Agility Band Bear Crawls

This is a brutal conditioning exercise that works the entire body.  Great for any sport where moving quickly and powerfully low to the gound might be required like AFL (picking up the ball on the run or getting up off the ground quickly after a fall) or ground fighting.

The trick with the bear crawl is to start with both limbs on one side of your body close together and both limbs on the other side apart and then alternate.  Keep your hips low to the floor (that's the hard part).   As with the above drills, accelerate on the way out and stop when you can't, then resist the band on the way back in.

Accelerating to the Ball

The above exercises are just a small sample of what can be done with the Agility Band.  For more exercises and techniques you should check out Dave Schmitz's DVD specifically on using the Agility Band for ball sports, Accelerating to the Ball. Dave Schmitz is internationally renowned for his knowledge on resistance band training and this DVD is jam packed with really high quality information.

More Information and Power Bands Workshops

For more information on the Power Bands and Agility Bands check out the Iron Edge website.

The exercises that can be performed with the Power Bands are almost limitless and due to their popularity Australian Kettlebells will soon be providing Power Bands workshops - keep your eye on the website for more information!