Agility 2 – Deceleration – Guest Blog from Annalise at TrueFitness

So last week we began a blog about agility and the proper mechanics of improving agility. The blog focused on an initial synopsis of the components of agility: acceleration, deceleration, reacceleration and change of direction. The focus of last week’s blog was on acceleration and its components. We discussed ground and propulsion mechanics and the role that each plays in agility and how to improve each of them. Now we are going to discuss deceleration, its attributes and how to work on and improve deceleration.

Deceleration is actually known as negative acceleration with acceleration being defined as a change in velocity. So slowing down is negative acceleration or as it’s more commonly called, deceleration. Deceleration and its parts fall into the same learning and training protocols as acceleration. Train the movements as a whole and then make any needed adjustments individually.

The components of deceleration are braking, lowering of the Center of Gravity, maintaining balance (Equilibrium) and stopping. Let’s start with Center of Gravity and maintaining balance since they are inter-related. Balance is a measure of Equilibrium and we maintain balance/equilibrium when we have our Center of Gravity over our Base of Support. For deceleration we need to lower our center of gravity since a lower center of gravity is an easier more appropriate athletic form. Lowering the center of gravity helps to maintain equilibrium and prepares the body for deceleration. An easy way to help with the maintaining of equilibrium is to lower the center of gravity. Lowering the center of gravity means to drop our butts while keeping our weight on the “balls” of our feet. A slight upper body forward lean will help to maintain our balance. By doing this it allows for easier and quicker braking. This helps to slow the body gracefully.

Braking is the process of lowering our center of gravity while maintaining balance and slowing our body. We must always stay in equilibrium because if at anytime we lose our balance then we no longer are able to move quickly or explosively. While braking and maintaining our equilibrium, we can then effectively stop. Stopping must be done quickly and then achieving a fast reacceleration is a total linking of the components of agility.

Linking acceleration, deceleration and reacceleration and doing this with as little time elapsed as possible is the key to being an agile athlete and maximizing sports performance.

Agility is just merely one more element to train when creating a sports performance program. Power, strength, agility, reactivity, and speed are all elements that must be specifically trained in order to ensure an athlete is game ready.

Anyone in the San Diego area is welcome to drop in at our studio at 2949 Garnet Ave. 3rd floor, Pacific Beach, CA. We would love to put you through our workout. Please feel free to call or email Annalise Evans of TrueFitness with any questions: (760) 809 1848 annalise@truefitness.biz and join her fan page on Facebook: TrueFitness Annalise Evans.