Issue 061

April 2010

After working in the field of strength and conditioning for 23 years, there is no doubt in my mind that everyone needs agility.  By Kevin Kearns.


Whether you are a UFC fighter, weekend warrior or child on the soccer field, you need to be able to move. Those movements need to be reactive and lightning fast. Some people are born with it, and some people can obtain it – if trained correctly. Unfortunately, not all training is equal and the form has to fit the function. There are many ways to train agility, from many different martial arts to many different sports. A lot of these methods have been handed down for centuries; others are newly formed with various pieces of equipment.  

Before we dive headfirst into the various techniques and philosophies, we must find out why agility is so important and define it a little more clearly. If you look at the work of Gary Grey, one of the fathers of functional strength training, he speaks about ‘chain reaction explosion theory’.  

This translates into the following: When a movement or change of direction is initiated, the brain sends signals to the core muscles to stabilize, activate various other parts of the muscular system and then, in the end, the lowly ankle (if we are speaking about lower body agility) takes over.  

The ability of the ankle to react quickly in a moving environment and multiple planes of motion is crucial for any sport. For MMA it is a necessity. Whether you are striking or grappling, the agility of the feet can either help you win the fight or cause you to lose by a tiny fraction of reaction time.  

What this really boils down to is footwork. Training footwork is the key to many fights. Many a talented boxer has been able to beat their opponent through the use of footwork. Ali was one of the most famous, being able to hit and not get hit back. This is the new missing link in MMA training. We have seen the superior footwork of the current UFC light heavyweight champion; Machida is able to hit and avoid the attack. It has been said that he has some of the best reactions in the game.  

Now that we know what it is, how do we acquire these explosive, agile lightning-fast feet? One of our best (and most inexpensive) pieces of training gear is the agility ladder. It’s portable, flexible and can be used not only to challenge world-class athletes, but for weekend warriors and children too. Recently, we have used this tool to help one of my good friends and mentors, Master Chris Rappold of Personal Best Karate in Boston. The ladder footwork drills we performed were an essential component to his taking the gold medal in the largest full-contact karate tournament in the world, a sport where the sprint attacks are critical to winning a match. 

The same is true for the MMA athletes. The other great carryover benefit is the development of specific muscle endurance and cardiovascular capacity. Although this benefit is more anaerobic in nature, so is the sport of MMA. Muscles and muscle systems have memories, and it is better to get the body used to an activity and rehearse it, than to not.  

Some of our favorite drills are featured in this article, and can be seen on the FO website in video format. The ladder can be used in conjunction with a warm-up, cool down, or as an interval component. The best part is you can be as creative as you want. Before I go further, it is not necessary to buy an agility ladder. You can use tape on your mats or, if you are outside, chalk or cones work great. Also, what you do to the lower body you can also do to the upper body, which will help to enhance agility and core strength.  

Here’s a list of some of our drills:  

  • Two feet in and out on the forward
  • Hopscotch (yes, what you played when you were a kid)
  • Lateral crossovers 
  • High knees
  • Two feet in and out from the side
  • ‘Icky shuffle’ 
  • Upper body lateral shuffle
  • Upper body crossovers. 

The length and time of the drills is completely up to the needs and the goals of your sport. Our team generally works with either a protocol of 35 seconds on and 15 seconds off, or ten minutes of continuous ladder work.  

Whether you are looking to up your game in the cage or increase your endurance, agility work is a good step in the right direction.  

Coach Kevin Kearns is founder of burnwithkearns.com, and has been in the field for 23 years. He is the creator of the Burn with Kearns conditioning system for MMA athletes. For seminars, workshops, online coaching and certification he can be reached at [email protected] 

...