PROPRIOCEPTION

A sense or perception, usually at a subconscious level, of the movements and position of the body and its limbs, independent of vision. This sense is gained primarily from input from sensory nerve terminals in muscles and tendon. In a nutshell, the athlete understands and knows where they're at in space while they're moving. This is a trainable and, often times, ignored part of athletic training. I see many trainers put cones and ladders down and have athletes do pre-orchestrated movements over or next to the training apparatus.

Here's the problem. When an athlete makes a move in a game, they have no clue what they're going to do until their opponent or teammates makes a move. So when it comes to agility drills, the athlete needs to be in a constant cognitive state during drills. This is detrimental to an athletes reactive skills during agility drills. If this isn't being done you're basically just running through loops. When we train athletes during agility drills using cones and other apparatus, we make change of direction calls and multiple movement changes to constantly keep the athlete in a reactive mental state.