Agility drill
Run and Cut
Build the 45-degree cutting step that beats a defender, in the safest possible knee position.
- Time
- 12 minutes
- Players
- 1 to 8 players
- Intensity
- High
- Equipment
- Cones
- Space
- 5m x 5m
- Positions
- All positions
Setup
Two cones 5m apart on flat grass, with a third cone 5m out from the second at roughly 45 degrees.
How to run it
- Sprint from the first cone towards the second.
- Over your last two steps, brake and plant your outside foot flat on the ground, wide of your knee, with your knee wider than your hips and your body weight still inside your feet.
- Accelerate away towards the third cone immediately - there must be no pause between the plant and the acceleration.
- Do 3 reps cutting each way, resting 1-2 minutes between reps.
- Once the footwork feels right, run it again holding a ball in two hands.
Coaching cues
- Plant foot wider than the knee, knee wider than the hips
- Foot lands flat and pointing straight ahead
- Accelerate the instant you plant
Common mistakes
- Knee collapsing inwards on a straight leg at the plant - the highest injury-risk position there is
- No braking step before the plant, so the whole load lands on one contact
Related drills
- Accelerate-Decelerate RunwayTrain hard braking, which loads the body more than sprinting and underpins every change of direction.
- Curved Sprint ArcDevelop speed on a curved running line, which is how most attacking lines are actually run.
- Box DrillTrain switching between sprinting, shuffling and backpedalling without standing up in between.
- Mirror DrillTrain genuine reactive agility by making you respond to a real player instead of a set pattern.
- Run to DaylightTrain reading a defender late and cutting decisively into the gap at full speed.
- 5-0-5 TurnDevelop the 180-degree turn off one foot used chasing kicks and retreating to reload.