Agility - Five Dot Drills

What is agility?  Here's the formal definition:

1.  The ability to move quickly and easily.
2.  The ability to think and understand quickly.

So there's physical agility and mental agility.  We're going to talk about the physical side here.

There are lots of agility drills out on the internet.  The "Five Spot" (AKA Five Dot) drill is one that I've seen used by hockey coaches and players.  To do the drills, you'll need to lay out the following pattern.

You can buy mats or carpets with the dots already there, or you can use chalk outside, or even bits of tape indoors.  The diagram below shows the standard layout, but for younger, smaller players, you can shrink it to fit their size (slightly wider than shoulder width).  Ideally, the spots should be four or five inches across.

So how do you use this pattern?

This .pdf page lays out the drills and time goals for the drills.  Clicking that link will open a file you can download for reference.

Here's an excellent video showing each exercise in action.