Week 6 - Retest & Change of direction

This week combines technical evaluation with advanced agility skills that translate directly to game situations.

This week we evaluate your progress and introduce advanced change of direction skills.Continue building on previous skills while adding new elements. (New additions are in bold).

Tasks for this week:

  • Perform your second running technique assessment (compare to Week 1)
  • Learn 180° cutting technique for rapid direction changes
  • Metronome continuous running now optional

This weeks training

Measuring Your Progress: The Mid-Program Assessment

You've reached an important milestone in your Performance Plan journey. Five weeks of consistent technical work has reshaped your movement patterns and developed new athletic qualities. Now it's time to measure your progress with a second video assessment.

This mid-program assessment serves several purposes:

  • Provides visual evidence of your technical improvements
  • Highlights areas that still need refinement
  • Reinforces positive changes through visual feedback
  • Motivates continued attention to detail

Conducting Your Reassessment

Follow the same protocol you used in Week 1 →

  1. Warm up thoroughly
  2. Perform three build-up runs (65%, 75%, 85%)
  3. Record a side-view video of yourself sprinting at 95% effort
  4. Analyze your technique using the same four phases from Week 1

What to Look For

Just as with week 1, look for your technical running elements at all stages of your running technique PLUS, compare your video and technique today with your Week 1 videos.

Many athletes are surprised by how much their technique has improved in just five weeks. Don't worry if some elements still need work – the remaining weeks will continue refining these patterns.

Introducing 180° Cuts: Sport-Specific Agility

While straight-line speed and curved running are important, the ability to completely reverse direction is crucial for most sports. This week introduces the 180° cut – one of the most challenging but valuable movement skills for athletic performance.

Why Cutting Matters

The ability to rapidly change direction while maintaining control and minimizing energy loss separates elite athletes from average ones. Effective cutting:

  • Creates separation from defenders
  • Enables quick defensive reactions
  • Reduces injury risk during direction changes
  • Conserves energy through efficient movement

Many athletes are fast in a straight line but lose significant time and energy during direction changes. By mastering cutting technique, you'll maintain more of your speed through transitions – a huge competitive advantage.

180° Cutting Technique

The 180° cut involves completely reversing your direction of travel. The technique breaks down into several key components, this video goes through them all.

When doing your cuts in your workout, you will perform 4 cuts for each rep in the workbook, that means you will:

sprint 10m →
cut 180º back on your left leg → (cut 1)
sprint 10m →
cut 180º back on your lefright leg → (cut 2)

repeat for 1 more cut on each leg (4 total changes of direction), this is a single repetition.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

When learning cutting technique, watch for these common errors:

  • Staying too upright during the cut (increases joint stress)
  • Crossing feet instead of planting and pushing (creates instability)
  • Rounding the turn instead of making a sharp cut (wastes time)
  • Failing to use arms to assist the directional change
  • Looking down instead of where you're going

Start practicing cuts at lower speeds (60-70%) to master the technique before increasing intensity. Quality of movement is far more important than speed at this stage.

Integrating Cutting With Previous Skills

The cutting technique doesn't exist in isolation – it's part of a continuous flow of movement in game situations. As you get more confident with the cutting you might try integrating cutting with the acceleration skills from previous weeks:

  • Acceleration → Cut → Acceleration: Sprint 5m, perform a 180° cut, sprint 5m back
  • Transition Start → Cut: Begin in defensive position, accelerate 5m, perform 180° cut
  • S-Run → Cut: Perform curved running pattern ending with sharp 180° cut
  • Vary the cut angle: Not all cuts will be 180º so try some 90º, 120º, 45º cuts etc to try all kinds of angles.

These combination drills bridge the gap between isolated technique work and game application, preparing your body for the chaotic demands of competition.

Optional Metronome Running

At this stage, feel free to phase the metronome running out if you are finding the field work is becoming too long and tiring – especially if you are in-season. Many athletes find that after five weeks, their improved cadence is becoming more natural, requiring less conscious focus.

That’s it for week 6!

Congrats on making it this far in the program, next week is our final week of progressions, along with a forever program to help you maintain your skills, speed and fitness beyond the 3 weeks.