Month #6 - Week #23 - Agility & Speed

Month #6 Week #23
Our Monthly Attribute for May is: Agility

How did we do last week when we dipped our toes into the realm of working on the attribute of

“Agility”? It will help if we simply slow down and try to be as accurate as possible. Practice makes

perfect and we know it’s simply a matter of doing the work to reap the results!

Let’s take a moment to remember why we’re doing this…  If, over the course of 10 or 20 years we

neglect to use this very unique and highly specialized attribute, we WILL lose considerable functionality.

If we think about it, how many individuals between 50 and 90 years old regularly engage in

activities that specifically utilize the attribute of agility (other than, of course those who partake

in the “Lifestyle Applications of Agility” which we covered back in week #6).

And why is agility important? You will utilize agility every time you:

• Lose your balance (i.e. Get surprised by a curb or a drop off in our path)
• When walking in busy pedestrian traffic on the streets
• When walking among obstacles that are regularly encountered (Puddles, Potholes, Debri in the way)

• Walking or running on trails in the park
• When avoiding anything coming your way (animals, bicycles, automobile traffic)
• In a busy store while shopping

It’s quite an opportunity for us that we can stop and focus on this attribute for the entire month!

I’m really looking forward to seeing how our metrics improve when we re-test at the beginning

of June.

Our Weekly Attribute for Week #23 is: Speed
Since we are finally starting to recycle our weekly attributes, I'll refer to a copy of week #2:

Sometimes, as we age, we'll ever so slowly, usually at an imperceptible rate, lose our ability to move quickly.

We will touch upon that today and emphasize movements and drills that challenge our overall speed.  We'll

work with bouncing balls, the simplest of agility drills to focus on speed and we'll include some lateral

shuffle/agility drills to work on thinking of moving faster. We may even visit the "8 Foot Up-and-Go" test

which will be one of the metrics we record during our month of Speed.

Your "Lifestyle Application" of Speed

You can easily include activities that challenge your sense of speed throughout this coming week. Some simple

suggestions would include:

• A game of Ping Pong.
• Basketball - No matter if it's a pick up game with friends or some practice of a cross court dribble and casual shooting, it'll all require speed.
• Tennis Anyone?
• Soccer drills in an open field or against a brick wall!
• Handball or Racquetball

While often times we'll just need an awareness of speed to see improvements (I often find myself moving

exceptionally slow while I'm walking or climbing steps). I'm sure there are many more ways to work on

maintaining our speed and I'd LOVE to hear your additional recommendations.

Our Three Daily Attributes This Week
On Monday we’ll be doubling down as our daily attribute, like our weekly attribute will be that

of “Speed”. You can expect some partner work involving some unique shaped balls that will tend to keep us

on our toes. On Wed. we’re going to delve into some work regarding  “Coordination”  and

I’m pretty certain there’ll be some VERY unique patterns to follow on that agility ladder. On Friday

We’ll be working on challenging our systems of  “Balance” with some yoga drills and perhaps a few obstacles to stand on or move through!