How important is agility to Basketball?

DeAndre Upchurch of the Tarleton State Texans [Photograph]. (2014). Retrieved October 1, 2014, from: http://www.mlive.com/ sports/flint/index.ssf/2014/03/flints_deandre_upchurch_collec.html  

Agility is considered a physiological prerequisite in basketball because players are constantly exhibiting sudden directional changes during competitions. Therefore, agility is a crucial component in physical performance in basketball.1 The successful and efficient execution of sprints, abrupt stops, quick changes of movement direction, acceleration, different vertical jumps, fast dribbling, and different shots and passes depend on several motor abilities including agility.3 It is stated that straight speed and agility skills are common in many basketball maneuvers, either with or without the basketball.4

Intuitively, one might conclude that guards would have the most agility because of their time handling the ball and maneuvering through defenses. It has been found that point guards overall have a better agility and speed performance than the other four positions. But how does agility develop with maturity? A study had two groups of elite male basketball players, ages 18 to 20 and then seniors, had higher agility performances than the Under-18 group.1 This suggests that players peak at their greatest agility after they have reached full maturity.

A study on women basketball players (n = 30) found that guards were significantly different (p < 0.05) from forwards and centers in the T-test by a difference of 6.9%.2 The guards’ playing style encompasses elements of rapid changes of directional movements from faking, penetrating or finding an open spot within the defense as well as fast-break offense and defense.3 The Lane Agility Drill had a significant Pearson product moment correlation with minutes per game, points per game, and steals per game with (p < 0.05) and assists per game (p < 0.01).5

The importance of agility in basketball is widely known by players and professionals, and clearly, studies have shown there are differences between basketball playing positions and agility. It is found by many researchers that guards, and more specifically point guards, have the greatest agility of any position on the court. Although literature has numerous ways to measure agility for basketball players, how would these players measure up on the JJ Shuttle run? Different from most agility tests, both anaerobic and aerobic energy sources are tested because of the longer, 60-yard, 4 segment aspect of the run.

1 Choauachi, A., Brughelli, M., Chamari, K., Levin, G. T., Abdelkrim, N. B., Laurencelle, L., & Castagna, C. (2009). Lower limb maximal dynamic strength and agility determinants in elite basketball players. The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 23(5), 1570-1577.

2 Delextrat, A., & Cohen, D. (2009). Strength, power, speed, and agility of women basketball players according to playing position. Journal of Strength and conditioning Research, 23(7), 1974-1981.

3 Erčulj, F., Blas, M., Čoh, M., & Bračič, M. (2009). Differences in motor abilities of various types of European young elite female basketball players. Kinesiology, 41(2), 203-211.

4 Jakovljevic, S. T., Karalejic, M. S., Pajic, Z. B., Macura, M. M., & Erculj, F. F. (2012). Speed and agility of 12- and 14-year-old elite male basketball players. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 26(9), 2453-2459.

5 McGill, S. M., Anderson, J. T., & Horne, A. D. (2012). Predicting performance and injury resilience from movement quality and fitness scores in a basketball team over 2 years. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 26(7), 1731-1739.