Strength and Conditioning is highly centered around building strength, size, power, and speed. All of those qualities are certainly important for athletic performance. It is quite obvious that there is a threshold of athletic qualities to compete at certain levels. Turn on any Division 1 college football game and you will realize the level of athleticism is anything but average. So what becomes the separating factor in team sports?

This is a complicated answer. Yes, it could be physiological -- some players even at the elite level may still be dominant purely off athletic prowess. But I think at times outcomes on the field may not be shaped by pure physiology, but rather the ability to process and make decisions quickly. The question that should arise is: how do I train this quality of tactical decision making?

The O.O.D.A Loop Principle

The O.O.D.A Loop is a term developed by the United States military to make decisions in combat situations. The acronym stands for Observe, Orient, Decide, and Act.

Put yourself in an athletic scenario. A quarterback in American football walks to the line -- he looks left and right observing the defense. The quarterback then orients his position looking for leverage against the defense. Once the ball is snapped, the quarterback must use all of the digested information, process it quickly, and turn a decision into an action -- in this case, quickly releasing the ball because of a blitzer he recognized pre-snap.

This is what athletes are challenged with constantly throughout the course of a game. Therefore, it is essential that coaches find ways to create training scenarios that challenge the decision making process of athletes in a fast, fluid, and open environment.

Specificity and Bridging the Gap

As strength and conditioning coaches, we understand the most specific training an athlete can get is actually playing their sport. We also understand that playing the sport year-round is not beneficial. Our job requires us to physically prepare the athlete -- and part of that preparation is getting them ready for high speed tactical decision making.

This is where coaches look for drills, tasks, or scenarios to challenge athletes' ability to think quickly, strategize, and act. It is my belief that the best way to do this is through an open agility approach. We cannot micro-manage every movement all of the time. Eventually, coaches need to let athletes be athletes.

High speed decision making is the name of the game.

Semi-Open Agility

I believe in progressions and regressions of drills. Starting with semi-open drills is a great place to begin. By semi-open, the athlete may be relatively constrained to certain movements or space -- but there is still a reactionary component. Below is a breakdown of semi-open agility drills to use in an athlete's early off-season when agility is being reintroduced to the training diet.

Level 1

Level 2

These drills are great transitionary steps to pure open agility and will prepare the athlete for high speed unplanned deceleration and reacceleration. The human component is critical due to the processing speed required. Change of Direction cone drills have real value -- but at a certain point in an athlete's training, high speed reactions and live choices are a must.

Open Agility

Open ended agility is unrestrictive, chaotic, and presented in the form of evade and score. Team sports are all about the ability to create space, close space, and make the correct decision quickly. Exposing athletes to this environment trains their processing and reacting abilities while also giving them the opportunity to explore movement.

Athletes will begin to explore different ways to evade defenders, strategize with teammates, and track down opponents. Although not sport-specific in the traditional sense, this is the closest strength coaches can get to an athlete's sport -- due to the chaotic environment, high speed acceleration and deceleration, strategizing, and the fundamental game of evade and score. Open agility is the final link in the chain between a training environment and actual sport.

Open Agility Examples

Specific Conditioning Demands

A highly underrated aspect of these drills is the specific conditioning environment they create. Because the drills involve human reaction, acceleration and deceleration, and high speed decision making, the conditions are closely suited to in-game demands -- not only physiologically but also cognitively. It becomes significantly harder to react and process information when fatigued.

Adding time constraints to work-to-rest ratios within drills is a great way to develop sport-specific conditioning. In American football, for example, the average play is 5.5 seconds and rest can span from several seconds up to 25 seconds (Hoffman, 2015). At the end of the day, team sport athletes need to be conditioned for high speed deceleration, change of direction, high speed sprinting, and repeat sprint ability -- and open and semi-open agility training covers all of these bases, with the added benefit of simultaneously training decision making and processing.

Final Thoughts

Hopefully after reading this you will realize the importance this modality of training has on an athlete's preparation. Be creative -- put athletes in all sorts of scenarios and positions that will challenge them. Remember the ultimate goal is bridging that final gap between the field and the training environment, as well as meeting the specific physiological demands the athlete will face on game day.