Agility is a physical trait that is important in any athletic pursuit, but especially a sport like squash. While it is true that some people have greater innate agility than others, agility is a trait that can be improved through smart and diligent work.

What is agility? Simply, agility is the ability to change direction quickly with minimal loss of speed. It incorporates balance, deceleration, acceleration and reaction skills. Working on any one of these skills will improve your agility if all other things remain equal. Frequently, these skills work in concert with one another. For example, you may be out of balance because you can't decelerate properly. Or you may not be accelerating well to the ball because your reaction skills are deficient.

Without going into too much detail, here are some general guidelines about how to work on improving your agility.

First, strength is the foundation of good agility. If you have poor overall general strength and especially poor core strength and relative strength, then your agility and movement skills will suffer.

Balance is another key, particularly dynamic balance – or balance while moving. Some people may be able to do static balance drills all day, but put them in motion and they are all over the place. To improve your balance, you could start with static balance drills like single leg stance drills and advance to more dynamic drills. When doing dynamic balance drills, be sure to keep in mind a general principle: your base of support should be under your Center of Mass (COM).

Many people take their reaction skills for granted. While some of your reaction ability is innate, much of it can be trained and improved. For example, as you get more familiar with any sport, you tend to react more quickly because of experience with similar situations in the past. Having strong reaction skills has little or nothing to do with being “more athletic,” but instead with better intuition and understanding of the game. By playing the game more, especially with better players, you will learn better reaction skills.

I hope this article at least opens your mind to the possibility of improving and working on your agility for squash. If you still have questions or are interested in working on your agility, please contact me at the club or my e-mail at brucekelly18@hotmail.com.