Contrary to what most folks who lift weights want to believe, there is no magic formula for a damn thing in strength and conditioning(including getting faster, more agile,stronger, etc.).
There are a few absolutes that seem to make people quiver in their shoes. Here is one: You need to squat and clean(or do some type of explosive lift) and press with heavy weights to get stronger. In addition, you must practice your skills in your given activity to improve. You must also train in the energy system that your sport calls for, not by running 10 miles when you play football.
I feel a great wave of fatigue wash across me as I even write this, because its so old and boring....you won't lose flexibility, you will not hurt your knees, it doesn't matter what your trainer at home says, it doesn't help to squat halfway down, girls can't get huge doing low reps, or even huge in general...blah, blah...Back to my point. When one is stronger, they can handle the forces that they encounter on their playing surface better. More running does not get the athlete stronger. The elliptical won't get you stronger. Only weight training does it. I am sorry if you are perplexed, but if you go out into the woods with a barbell and some weights, you can do all that you need to do in weight training order to get to where you need to be in your chosen sport. No amount of handstands on a bosu ball will create the effect that a properly performed squat will. No air machines. No bands or chains. A barbell, some weights. What? That is barbaric!? No, its right. Lift heavy weights. Practice your skills. PERIOD. Its all ground force reaction, all of it. Create force through the ground. It ain't skipping and hopping, its PUSHING through the ground with force. Push, push, push. How do you push harder? Not by being light on your feet, by being stronger.
Set all of the cone drills that you want, but you will be much better off getting stronger and working on pushing by doing drills where that is the primary focus. Too simple, too simple. Too simple. There must be some magic?? Nope, just hardwork, sorry. Hard, smart work.
And guess what else? Again, its too simple. I have a very good friend who is considered a guru among pro athletes, and he makes a great living training them. Guess what he espouses? Lots of veggies, protein, squats, cleans, presses, short sprints. It's so simple that its revolutionary! People are coming from all over to hear of this technique! All he talks about is pushing hard through the ground. Ground Force Reaction.
Its a shame, it's sad and its scary. Too many chiefs out there. Folks who don't lift a weight have opinions on what is right. How strong is strong enough? I submit that you are never strong enough!. I am not talking about bodybuilding, I am talking about strength training. I don't care what you are training for, get as strong as you can! Why set limitations? Work on your skills and get massively, inhumanly strong...ah, but I fear that all of this talk is futile,for as long as people are scared of heavy weights, scared, scared, face it, scared, beyond scared, scared of that 45 pound bar and some weights on it and want to take the easy way out(because that is all that it is, searching for ways to make training easy and less uncomfortable), the questioning and conjecture will continue.
I shall remain steadfast in my approach, for I seek only the truth. If air machines were more effective, I would do them. But they are not and I know it and you know it. You aren't moving fast and you aren't pushing through the ground.
Fatigue is again washing over me...the magic bullet that does not exist....help.
Don't be so scared of putting a bar on your back and squatting down. Be scared of not reaching your potential because you will not.
