Back to the Future – In support of a renewed emphasis on generic agility training within sports-specific developmental pathways

Abstract

Perhaps as a consequence of increased specialism in training and support, the focus on engendering and maintaining agility as a generic quality has diminished within many contemporary sports performance programmes. Reflecting this, we outline a rationale suggesting that such a decreased focus represents an oversight which may be detrimental to maximising the potential of performers. We present an evidence-based argument that both generic and specific elements of agility performance should be consistently emphasised within long-term performance-training programmes. We contend that prematurely early specialisation in athlete development models can diminish focus on generic movement skill development with a subsequent detriment in adult performance. Especially when this is coupled with poor primary physical education and limited movement experiences. More speculatively, we propose that generic agility can play a role in operationalising movement development through facilitating skill transfer: thereby enabling the learning of new skills, reduce incidence of injury and facilitating re-learning of old skills during rehabilitation and Return-to-Play processes.