You can’t spell agility without the “t.” Steve Tashjian, strength and conditioning coach for the Columbus Crew, uses the T-Drill to cross the t and dot the i’s in agility. Do like the Crew and work the drill into your warm-up routine before a practice or game.

T-Drill
Set up: Place three cones two feet apart in a “T” shape

•    Sprint forward past last cone for 10 meters; work up to 20 meters
•    Cover all three planes of motion: forward, backward and lateral
•    Perform drill 1x each direction

Tashjian: That “T” just allows me to take [players] through some footwork going forward [and] take them through some footwork going laterally…We’ll go through a series of different footwork drills where they accelerate out 10 meters and then accelerate out 20 meters just to get them used to covering progressively larger distances.

Footwork variations:
•    One foot in or two feet in going forward over the cones in the middle
•    Step off to the side of the T and move laterally all the way to one end; move back laterally and accelerate forward
•    Slalom through the middle cones, going forward and backward

Coaching Point: Perform drill with different repetitions, alternating leading foot at start of drill