From Braking to Power: Why Change of Direction Requires More Than Quick Feet
Over the last few weeks, we’ve been breaking down change of direction and why it matters for athletes of all ages.
We started by talking about change of direction as more than “agility.” It is the ability to slow down, control your body, reposition, and re-accelerate in a new direction. Then we looked at deceleration and why the ability to absorb force is such an important part of performance and injury prevention. From there, we discussed eccentric strength and how athletes need to control force before they can express speed and power efficiently.
This week, we are building on that idea.
Change of direction is not just about slowing down. It is about how well an athlete can transition from braking to pushing back out.
In sport, the goal is rarely to stop and stay still. Athletes are constantly moving from one action to the next. They sprint, brake, cut, pivot, accelerate, react, and repeat. The athletes who do this well are not just the ones with “quick feet.” They are the ones who can control force, transfer it efficiently, and produce force again in the direction they want to go.
The Transition Matters
When an athlete changes direction, there are really two major parts to the movement.
First, the athlete has to brake. This means they have to reduce momentum and control the forces acting on the body. This is where deceleration, eccentric strength, and body position matter.
Second, the athlete has to re-accelerate. This means they have to push into the ground and redirect their body in a new direction.
The space between those two moments is where a lot of performance is won or lost.
If an athlete brakes well but cannot push back out efficiently, they may lose time in the transition. If they stand up too early, take extra steps, or apply force in the wrong direction, their movement becomes less efficient. On the other hand, when an athlete can brake, control their position, and push out with intent, change of direction becomes faster and more effective.
That is why we do not look at change of direction as one isolated movement. We look at how the athlete enters the cut, how they control the transition, and how they leave the cut.
How We Coach Movement Matters
One piece that often gets overlooked is how athletes are coached.
It is not enough to simply give an athlete more drills. The cueing, feedback, and progression all matter.
For example, a coach or clinician might say, “Don’t let your knee cave in.” That can be useful when an athlete needs to understand a specific movement fault. However, if the athlete is always focused on individual body parts, they may overthink the movement and struggle to transfer it to sport.
Another way to coach the same idea might be, “Push the ground away,” or “Drive out of the cut.” These types of cues direct the athlete’s attention toward the outcome of the movement rather than only focusing on the position of one joint.
Research in motor learning has explored the difference between more explicit, body-focused instruction and cues that encourage athletes to focus on the goal of the task. The practical takeaway is not that one cue works for every athlete in every situation. It is that better coaching requires us to choose the right cue at the right time. For some athletes, explicit instruction may be necessary early on. For others, external-focus cues may help create more natural and transferable movement.
The goal is not for an athlete to think through every joint position forever. The goal is for the movement to become efficient, repeatable, and adaptable when the game demands it.
Measuring Force Production
At Ignite Performance Physical Therapy, we also use testing to help guide this process.
One thing we may look at is rate of force development, or RFD. This gives us insight into how quickly an athlete can produce force.
Why does this matter?
Because in sport, athletes often do not have a lot of time to produce force. When they cut, react, or accelerate out of a change of direction, they have a short window to push into the ground and get moving again.
This is different from simply asking, “Is the athlete strong?”
A better question is, “How quickly can the athlete access that strength?”
Using tools like VALD ForceDecks, we can look at force-time data and better understand how an athlete produces force. We can also compare side-to-side differences, look at how force is developed, and see whether the data matches what we observe during movement.
This helps us make better training decisions.
If an athlete is strong but slow to produce force, they may need more explosive or reactive training. If an athlete produces force quickly but lacks control, they may need more deceleration, eccentric strength, or movement-control work.
The goal is not just to collect numbers. The goal is to understand what is limiting performance so we can train the right quality at the right time.
Exercises That Build the Engine Behind Agility
This week’s training focus looks at exercises that help build the physical qualities behind speed, agility, deceleration, re-acceleration, injury prevention, and performance optimization.
The first exercise is a single-leg RDL to step-up.
This drill trains the ability to hinge, control force, and then drive powerfully through the ground. That combination matters because sprinting and change of direction both require athletes to transition from control into force production.
The single-leg RDL portion challenges hip control, trunk position, and posterior-chain strength. The step-up portion adds a powerful drive component. Together, the exercise helps train the ability to control position and then express force, which is exactly what athletes need when transitioning from braking to acceleration.
The second exercise is a Bulgarian split squat pogo, or what we can think of as a soleus-focused pogo.
The soleus, one of the deeper calf muscles, plays a major role in running, sprinting, and repeated ground contacts. Research and musculoskeletal modeling have highlighted that the soleus can experience very high force demands during running, with some commonly cited estimates showing forces several times bodyweight at faster running speeds.
Why does that matter for change of direction?
Because athletes need the lower leg and ankle to be strong, stiff, and reactive. The ability to store and release elastic energy efficiently is a big part of running economy, sprinting, cutting, and re-acceleration.
Bulgarian split squat pogos help train that quality by challenging the athlete to maintain position while producing quick, repeated contacts. It may not look like a traditional agility drill, but it helps build the engine behind agility.
Better Movement Requires the Right Qualities
This is where athletes, parents, and coaches sometimes get misled.
Speed and agility are not only trained with ladders, cones, and reaction drills. Those tools necessary, but they are not the whole picture.
Athletes also need:
Strength to produce force
Eccentric control to absorb force
Stiffness to transfer force
Coordination to organize movement
Power to re-accelerate
Coaching that helps movement transfer to sport
A cone drill may show us how an athlete moves. But the underlying qualities determine whether they can move well under speed, fatigue, pressure, and unpredictability.
That is why change of direction training should not be random. It should be intentional.
The Big Takeaway
Change of direction is not just about quick feet.
It is about the ability to brake, control, transition, and re-accelerate.
It is about how well an athlete can absorb force, produce force, and apply that force in the right direction. It also depends on how we coach the athlete and whether the training actually develops the qualities they need for sport.
At Ignite Performance Physical Therapy, we take an individualized and data-informed approach to help athletes move better, recover fully, and perform at their best.
If you or your athlete are working on speed, agility, injury prevention, or return to sport, the answer is not always more drills.
Sometimes the answer is figuring out what quality needs to be trained next.
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Ignite Performance Physical Therapy
Ignite Your Recovery. Elevate Your Performance.