Plyometric Trainig is what is what can be reffered to as the secret sauce ingredient that can blast your speed and agility training into the stratosphere. You will learn what plyometrics are, what role they play in your speed and agility training.  You will also learn and what are some of the benefits you can expect when corectly introducing plyometric drills into your speed and agility training.

Let’s explore what plyometrics actaully are
Simply put plyometrics are a form of exercise. The purpose of these sort of exercises is the linking of strength to speed  for the improvement of power.The idea is that if you use more of your strength, faster, the power will shoot through the roof.Let me give an example: in basketball plyometric training is used to increase the running vertical jump.
Plyometric exercises focus on just two things:
- your bodies ability to absorb and store force;- the efficient release of that force (producing a motiong that has a lot of power);

If your sport of choice involves any throwing, kicking, jumping or lifting, then plyometric training can benefit you. Some examples of sports like these are: soccer, power lifting, basketball, football, baseball etc.

Benefits of Plyometric Training for Speed and Agility
The first thing that plyometric training does is strengthen your muscles and tendons. The second thing is that it improves your nervous control over your body. These side effects allow speed and agility to be quickly improved — especially if you already have well developed musculature.

The short term improvements are almost completely atributable to the specific training of the nervous system that plyometrics produce. That is why you must pay close attention to these instructions(plus it will also proove to YOU that this gets results and thus you more likely to stick with it and also get the long term gains):
never train unless properly rested
concentrate on what you are doing — perform each rep with the same dilligence
train harder not longer (no more than 20 reps REGARDLESS of exercise used)* keep the set number low (no more than 3 sets regarding the exercise)

Drill this into your head: Train HARDER, not looonger.

Gains in the long term will rely on body composition — this is why a focus on nutrition and avoidance of injury are critical with regards to plyometrics. Your muscles and tendons will change.You should be aware that practiced over a longer period of time, the results of plyometric training will make your muscles and tendons and make them have more spring.
How does a plyometric movement work?

* first the body absorbs and stabilizes the force from a negative (eccentric) contraction
* as it does this, it  loads up your muscles and tendons with force (think of it like a compressing a spring)
* your body releases this energy in the opposite direction

Here’s an example,when you cock back your arm to throw a rock the natural thing you do is to first cock your arm backwards.  The effect of this is that the muscles of your arm and shoulder muscles lock, forcing your tendons to stretch thus storing a lot of force in those tendons and essentially turning them into loaded springs. When you throw, the stored force is released, allowing the rock to be accelerated at a rate which is higher than your normal rate of force development.

What really popularized plyometrics back in the seventies was the fact that it produced results and soviet athletes started to dominate many athletic fields. The beauty of plyometric training is that it allows you to make your muscles and tendons behave more like elastic bands or springs — storing force and then releasing it. And the fact of the matter is that before this, there was no known way to train for these aspects — leading many people to believe that such acts as a running for height jump were completely genetically driven abilities.
To summarize, plyometrics kill two birds with one stone: they teach your nervous system how to correctly perform movements at higher speeds and they condition your tendons, ligaments and muscles to aquire more spring-like characteristics allowing for greater acceleration. These benefits directly translate into gains in general speed and agility.To further support this process you should also learn about:speed and agility training and protein
The question is: how do I adapt the principles of plyometric training to my speed and agility training? The answer is, and you aren’t going to like it, by tailoring your plyometric training to the specific speed and agility requirements of the sport that you are practicing. This is a long discussion and goes way beyond the scope of this article. Click here to learn more about: Speed and Agility Training

In this article you have learned:

* what plyometrics are
* how plyometrics work
* the role of plyometrics as part of your speed and agility training
* the benefits you can expect when introducing plyometric drills into yours speed and agility training

I also recommend you check out this article and learn this very usefull exercise for speed and agility training and preventing injuries.