SPEED AND AGILITY TRAINING THE MUSTANG WAY: THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN INSTRUCTIONAL DVD FOR CAL POLY ATHLETES’ SUMMER TRAINING Gary Douglas Heron The purpose of this project was to create an instructional DVD of speed and agility training for Cal Poly student-athletes. The DVD is for athletes’ use when they are away from campus during summer break and contains information about the same drills and information the strength and conditioning coaches provided while athletes were on campus. The project was filmed and edited by the graduate assistant strength and conditioning coach for Cal Poly intercollegiate athletics. The DVD contains 74 drills that encompass speed techniques, acceleration techniques, plyometrics, footwork, and change of direction. Recommendations for further empirical research in the area of speed and agility training are provided.

Athletic performance is an important factor to consider when designing athletic footwear. Improvements in agility drill performance can lead to improved sports performance. Changing footwear characteristics can be one way to help improve performance. The design and materialization of the upper of a shoe can impact biomechanical metrics and needs to be further explored during agility movements. Therefore, the first purpose of this study was to investigate the impact that stiffening the upper panel of an athletic shoe could have on agility performance using biomechanical outcome measures that correlate with athletic performance. Stiffening the upper panel significantly altered contact time during the lateral skater jump with the stiffest shoe having the shortest contact time compared to the other two shoe stiffness conditions (p=0.020-0.046). Shoe upper panel stiffness significantly changed peak concentric power in the anterior-posterior drill where the least stiff shoe produced the highest power compared to the stiffest shoe (p=0.006). The same dataset was used to address the second goal of this study which was to model the foot and ankle complex as a system of gears to understand force attenuation and propulsion during agility tasks. Although no differences were found between footwear conditions in gearing, it was shown that modeling the foot and ankle system through gearing can advance our understanding of the impact that footwear changes can have on performance and may be an important outcome measure in future footwear studies. / Master of Science / Athletic performance is an important factor to consider when designing athletic footwear. Through changes in shoe design, it is possible to improve agility drill performance. The design and materials used to construct the upper (top portion of the shoe) of the shoe can change the way an athlete completes a task and therefore, these measures need to be explored during several agility movements. The first goal of this study was to determine the impact of stiffening the upper portion of an athletic shoe on agility performance using outcome measures that are associated with improved athletic performance. Stiffening the upper portion of the shoe altered the contact time during the lateral skater jump with the stiffest shoe having the shortest contact time compared to the other two shoe conditions. Shoe upper panel stiffness also impacted peak concentric power in the anterior-posterior drill where the least stiff shoe produced the highest power compared to the stiffest shoe. The same dataset was used to model the foot and ankle as a system of gears in order to understand how an individual absorbs force and then utilizes force to move the body forward or to the side when completing agility tasks. Although no differences were found between footwear conditions when assessing gearing, it was shown that modeling the foot and ankle system in this way could aid in the understanding of how footwear changes can alter performance.

Thesis: Detailed manual for training and coaching upcoming hockey players of 6 to 8 years of age. Main objektive: The main purpose of the thesis is to portray and illustrate modern practice techniques. Furthermore, practice methods and detailed explanation of specific situations is also illustrated. Strucutre of the thesis: The theoretical part includes the analysis and presentation of several known and proven publications in regards to training methods. The practical section is dedicated to the explanation of the most modern methods and trends in high quality traning methods that are currently used in professional hockey. These professional methods include interactive, full- body drills. Results: The data analysis and the application of modern training methods serve not only to make the training units enjoyable and engaging, it also allows for young hockey players to learn and practice the necessary movements and tactics used in professional hockey. Key words: ice hockey, manual, skating, practices, training, practice, drills, agility skating, powerskating.

Agility and change of direction training is an under-studied topic in American football. A considerable amount of research has been performed with athletes competing in other contact sports. As such, evaluating methods that have shown to improve agility in other sports may lead to new methods to enhance football performance. A framework of the methods used by a highly successful NCAA Division-1 football championship subdivision team is included as a model that may show promise in enhancing football performance.

Bakgrund: Unilateral benträning är ett relativt outforskat område inom träningsvetenskapen. Traditionellt genomförs fysträning för intermittenta idrotter bilateralt, trots att idrottens rörelser sker unilateralt. Det finns många studier som behandlar samband mellan agility och effektutveckling, men få som har undersökt skillnaden mellan unilateral och bilateral effektutveckling sett till agility. Syfte: Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka om unilateral effektutveckling har en starkare korrelation med agility än vad bilateral effektutveckling och agility har hos kvinnliga fotbollsspelare i division 2. Metod: Kvinnliga fotbollsspelare (n=13, ålder 23 ± 4 år) utförde vertikalhopp med tilläggsbelastning på båda benen, vänster ben och höger ben på 20 kg, 30 kg, 40 kg samt för båda benen på 50 kg och T-test och Pro agility test. Effektutveckling i förhållande till kroppsvikten på båda benen (PBbw), vänster ben (PVbw) och höger ben (PHbw) analyserades och korrelerades sedan mot T-test (Ttest) och Pro agility test (Proagility). Resultat: Signifikanta korrelationer hittades mellan agility och både vänster unilateral (PVbw-Ttest, r = -0,578) och bilateral (PBbw-Ttest, r = -0,741; PBbw-Proagility, r = -0,555) effektutveckling, där korrelationen bilateralt var starkast. Ingen signifikant korrelation hittades mellan höger ben och agility. Konklusion: Bilateral effektutveckling hade en starkare korrelation med agility än vad unilateral effektutveckling och agility hade hos kvinnliga fotbollsspelare i division 2. / Background: Unilateral training is considered to be a new field of interest within the science of sports. Traditionally most of the strength and conditioning training is performed bilaterally even though the majority of motions in sports are carried out unilaterally. Previous studies have examined the correlations between agility and power output but few of them investigated the difference between unilateral and bilateral power output and agility. Objective: The aim of this study was to examine whether the correlation between unilateral power output and agility is stronger than the correlation between bilateral power output and agility in female division 2 soccer players. Method: Female soccer players (n=13, age 23 ± 4 years) performed loaded counter movement jumps with 20 kg, 30 kg and 40 kg for both legs, left leg and right leg and with 50 kg for both legs and T-test and Pro agility test. Power output, in relation to body weight for both legs (PBbw), left leg (PVbw) and right leg (PHbw) was analyzed and correlated against T-test (Ttest) and Pro agility test (Proagility). Results: Significant correlations were found between agility and both left unilateral (PVbw-Ttest, r = -0,578) and bilateral (PBbw-Ttest, r = -0,741; PBbw-Proagility, r = -0,555) power output, where the bilateral correlation was the strongest. No significant correlation was found between the right leg and agility. Conclusion: Bilateral power output had a stronger correlation with agility than unilateral power output and agility in female division 2 soccer players.

Der Begriff Agilität bezeichnet innerhalb der Organisationslehre seit etwa 20 Jahren eine Form der flexiblen, schlanken, kundenorientierten Organisationsgestaltung und verbindet sich, um jeweils neu entwickelte Technologien erweitert, mit dem Charakter einer jungen, modernen Organisationsform. Verstärkt wird dieser Eindruck durch die Tatsache, dass vor dem Jahre 1991, als das Iacocca Institute entscheidend zur Verknüpfung des Begriffes Agilität mit der Organisationslehre und zur Verbreitung der mit der Agilität verbundenen Methoden beitrug, der Agilitätsbegriff innerhalb der Organisationsforschung kaum auftauchte. Erst seit den frühen 1990er Jahren sind zahlreiche Veröffentlichungen zu diesem Thema erschienen, eine anhaltende Tendenz, wie die Publikationen des aktuellen Jahres belegen. Für den Ursprung des Begriffes Agilität wird in den meisten Aufsätzen dementsprechend das Jahr 1991 angesetzt, nur einige wenige Quellen nennen ältere Aufsätze und noch seltener taucht der Hinweis auf, das der Agilitätsbegriff im Umfeld der Sozialwissenschaften bereits seit den 1950er Jahren bekannt ist, interessanterweise durch das Werk eines Wirtschaftstheoretikers. Die Herkunft des Begriffes Agilität im organisationalen Umfeld auszuleuchten und sich an die vielfältigen Darstellungen dieses Konzeptes anzunähern, ist das Anliegen der vorliegenden Arbeit. Das Agilitätsmodell in der seit den 1990er Jahren entwickelten Prägung ist eine Sammlung von Elementen verschiedener organisationstheoretischer Ansätze und enthält eine Vielzahl organisationaler Konzepte, die zudem fortlaufend erweitert und verändert wurden. Es würde den Rahmen der vorliegenden Arbeit sprengen, die Theorien und Konzepte aufzulisten, die dem Agilitätsbegriff eine grundsätzliche Prägung verliehen. Es werden jedoch einige Organisationstheorien und Konzepte, deren Elemente sich als Kennzeichen der Agilität wiederfinden, aufgezeigt, um darzustellen, dass agiles Denken existierte, bevor der Begriff „Agilität“ geprägt wurde. Die Agilität ist kein Konzept, das aus der Praxis heraus entstanden ist und anschließend zum Forschungsgegenstand der Wirtschaftswissenschaften wurde, vielmehr handelt es sich um einen Entwurf, der originär als theoretischer Lösungsansatz zur Behebung einer wirtschaftlichen Stagnation entwickelt wurde. Inwieweit dieser theoretische Ansatz in der Praxis tatsächlich auch Verbreitung finden konnte, ist eine interessante Fragestellung, die zum Thema mehrerer Forschungsarbeiten gewählt wurde. Die vorliegende Arbeit wird diesen Bereich jedoch nicht näher beleuchten. Vielmehr steht eine Sammlung und Strukturierung verschiedener in der Literatur vorhandener Auffassungen und Auslegungen des Agilitätsbegriffs im Mittelpunkt.

Deva Plus Dog is a look at the life of a teenage girl singularly devoted to the sport of dog agility. The film explores how relationships develop and evolve in the high stakes world of competition, and how an alternative lifestyle impacts a youth’s coming of age.

As the product-release cycle in the tech industry speeds up, there is more pressure on manufacturers to bring new products to market faster than ever. This puts a great deal of pressure on the suppliers of capital equipment used to manufacture these tech products. The supply chain agility of these suppliers is increasingly important. The purpose of this study is three-fold (1) to develop a methodology that can be used by any firm for measuring and ranking the agility of suppliers and finding the root causes of supplier agility, (2) to develop the first-ever fully quantitative measure of supply chain agility, and (3) to test if the supply chain management practices that are associated with agility in the academic literature are truly correlated with supply chain agility. Using the outlined methodology in this paper, the data suggest that the customer's current system and processes adequately met the need for short-notice, expedited build times. However, many processes and communications between the suppliers and customer have a lot of room for improvement that may positively impact the supply chain agility of suppliers. Since most every firm captures this same data, such as PO create dates and supplier ship dates, any firm can and should replicate this analysis to discover their suppliers' unique drivers of supply chain agility. Each supplier's historical agility was measured and ranked using historical order performance data. This agility score is the first of its kind to measure agility without the use of qualitative factors or self-reported measures of agility. Only three of the supply chain survey questions developed from or borrowed from the academic literature were correlated with supply chain agility in this study. Survey responses regarding the frequency of communication and information sharing are two examples of variables that were not associated with supplier supply chain agility. The only survey question response that was found to be positively correlated with supply chain agility involves the agile practice of delayed product differentiation. Contrary to the literature, two questions involving supplier-customer communication and the linking of order management system were found to be negatively correlated with supply chain agility. In regards to the non-survey, historical data, the independent variables that were correlated with agility highlighted the need for improved systems and processes between the suppliers and customer. Two examples of processes and systems that need improvement are expedited build time requests and PO swaps.

Der Begriff Agilität bezeichnet innerhalb der Organisationslehre seit etwa 20 Jahren eine Form der flexiblen, schlanken, kundenorientierten Organisationsgestaltung und verbindet sich, um jeweils neu entwickelte Technologien erweitert, mit dem Charakter einer jungen, modernen Organisationsform. Verstärkt wird dieser Eindruck durch die Tatsache, dass vor dem Jahre 1991, als das Iacocca Institute entscheidend zur Verknüpfung des Begriffes Agilität mit der Organisationslehre und zur Verbreitung der mit der Agilität verbundenen Methoden beitrug, der Agilitätsbegriff innerhalb der Organisationsforschung kaum auftauchte. Erst seit den frühen 1990er Jahren sind zahlreiche Veröffentlichungen zu diesem Thema erschienen, eine anhaltende Tendenz, wie die Publikationen des aktuellen Jahres belegen. Für den Ursprung des Begriffes Agilität wird in den meisten Aufsätzen dementsprechend das Jahr 1991 angesetzt, nur einige wenige Quellen nennen ältere Aufsätze und noch seltener taucht der Hinweis auf, das der Agilitätsbegriff im Umfeld der Sozialwissenschaften bereits seit den 1950er Jahren bekannt ist, interessanterweise durch das Werk eines Wirtschaftstheoretikers. Die Herkunft des Begriffes Agilität im organisationalen Umfeld auszuleuchten und sich an die vielfältigen Darstellungen dieses Konzeptes anzunähern, ist das Anliegen der vorliegenden Arbeit. Das Agilitätsmodell in der seit den 1990er Jahren entwickelten Prägung ist eine Sammlung von Elementen verschiedener organisationstheoretischer Ansätze und enthält eine Vielzahl organisationaler Konzepte, die zudem fortlaufend erweitert und verändert wurden. Es würde den Rahmen der vorliegenden Arbeit sprengen, die Theorien und Konzepte aufzulisten, die dem Agilitätsbegriff eine grundsätzliche Prägung verliehen. Es werden jedoch einige Organisationstheorien und Konzepte, deren Elemente sich als Kennzeichen der Agilität wiederfinden, aufgezeigt, um darzustellen, dass agiles Denken existierte, bevor der Begriff „Agilität“ geprägt wurde. Die Agilität ist kein Konzept, das aus der Praxis heraus entstanden ist und anschließend zum Forschungsgegenstand der Wirtschaftswissenschaften wurde, vielmehr handelt es sich um einen Entwurf, der originär als theoretischer Lösungsansatz zur Behebung einer wirtschaftlichen Stagnation entwickelt wurde. Inwieweit dieser theoretische Ansatz in der Praxis tatsächlich auch Verbreitung finden konnte, ist eine interessante Fragestellung, die zum Thema mehrerer Forschungsarbeiten gewählt wurde. Die vorliegende Arbeit wird diesen Bereich jedoch nicht näher beleuchten. Vielmehr steht eine Sammlung und Strukturierung verschiedener in der Literatur vorhandener Auffassungen und Auslegungen des Agilitätsbegriffs im Mittelpunkt.

As pesquisas com o objetivo de relacionar o uso de práticas do gerenciamento ágil, desempenho e sucesso do projeto apresentam limitações como baixa qualidade semântica de construtos, dados e instrumentos de coleta com escalas subjetivas e pouco confiáveis, impedindo a verificação da eficácia dessas práticas. Outro problema é a tentativa de relacioná-las diretamente com o desempenho ou sucesso do projeto. Neste trabalho discute-se a hipótese de que a adoção de práticas dessa teoria e o desempenho do projeto não possuem relacionamento direto. Propõe-se a tese de que há um elemento intermediário, denominado neste trabalho de construto agilidade, que pode ser designado como um desempenho. As práticas provenientes da teoria de gerenciamento ágil (ditas ágeis), em conjunto com outros fatores ambientais, contribuiriam para o desempenho em agilidade, e este, por sua vez contribuiria para o desempenho e sucesso do projeto. Considerando esta hipótese, são três os objetivos desta pesquisa: 1) definir agilidade em gerenciamento de projetos; 2) propor um modelo conceitual capaz de explicar a relação entre práticas de gestão de projetos, fatores críticos organizacionais e o desempenho em agilidade, verificando-o; e 3) propor uma ferramenta de diagnóstico da agilidade em gerenciamento de projetos para profissionais, fundamentada no conhecimento contido no modelo conceitual proposto. O modelo conceitual foi concebido a partir de uma definição de agilidade para gerenciamento de projetos, construída com base em revisões sistemáticas e o uso da técnica de semântica de frames. Em seguida, foi realizada uma primeira verificação em campo do modelo por meio de um levantamento (survey) em 171 projetos inovadores, selecionados a partir de grupos de profissionais da rede social LinkedIn, além de um estudo de caso considerando 4 projetos de uma empresa usuária do gerenciamento ágil. Os resultados demonstraram que o modelo conceitual de agilidade proposto é coerente, pois reproduziu a relação entre práticas, fatores ambientais e o conceito agilidade. Foram identificados os fatores ambientais mais relevantes para o desempenho em agilidade, por exemplo: disponibilidade do cliente para participar ativamente do projeto e dedicação e autonomia dos membros do time de projeto. O conhecimento adquirido na construção e teste do modelo conceitual foi utilizado no desenvolvimento de uma proposta inicial de uma ferramenta de diagnóstico da agilidade. Seu objetivo é auxiliar os profissionais na medição do nível de agilidade e a situação dos projetos, e assim, orientá-los quanto ao uso de práticas gerenciais de maneira mais objetiva e específica, de acordo com o ambiente do projeto. Um teste preliminar desta ferramenta foi conduzido em uma empresa de consultoria em T.I., por meio de levantamento em 12 projetos. Os resultados deste teste preliminar indicaram o potencial da ferramenta para identificar projetos com discrepâncias em relação ao uso de práticas gerenciais, o ambiente organizacional e o desempenho em agilidade. Esta pesquisa tem ao menos três contribuições originais com potenciais implicações para teoria e prática. São elas: 1) a proposição e verificação preliminar de um modelo conceitual, contendo a definição do conceito agilidade e as 5 dimensões; 2) a proposição de variáveis e instrumentos sobre como medir a agilidade no gerenciamento de projetos; e 3) a proposta de uma ferramenta de diagnóstico do nível de desempenho em agilidade em gerenciamento de projetos voltada para profissionais. / A group of researchers has attempted to investigate the correlation between the practices from the agile project management (APM) theory to project performance and success. This body of researches has presented limitations such as the lack of robust constructs and poor data analysis to identify precisely the effectiveness of such practices. In addition, there is a misunderstanding regarding the existence of a straightforward and causal link between APM practices and the level of success in projects and performance. In this study, we have proposed an alternative, more robust view to deal with this assumption. Our hypothesis considers the existence and the influence of a third element, an intermediate construct, called agility concept. The APM theory (so-called agile practices) along with some critical factors could be the contributor of an agility performance. Therefore, a better agility performance might affect the overall performance of the project, as well as its success. Given this new assumption, this thesis has three main goals: 1) to define agility in project management; 2) to propose and verify a theoretical framework aimed to explain the relationship between project management practices, organizational critical factors and the agility performance; and 3) to propose a self-assessment tool for professionals and companies based on the knowledge and experience acquired on this research, designed specially to measure the agility performance level of the project management. Based on systematic review and frame semantic analysis, this thesis proposes a theoretical framework containing a rigorous definition of the agility concept applied to the project management theory. The framework was empirically tested through a survey containing 171 innovative projects, selected from practice communities in the LinkedIn® social network, as well as 4 projects on an in-depth case study, carried out in a company that applies agile project management practices. The results showed that the theoretical framework is coherent and was considered useful to explain the relationship between agile practices, the agility critical factors and the variables from the agility construct. Moreover, the framework helped to identify the most relevant factors for the agility performance, e.g. customer availability (to be involved in the project development), as well autonomy and commitment of the project team members. As a result of these findings, the acquired experience and knowledge were both applied in the design of a self-assessment tool to measure the level of the agility performance in project management. This tool was submitted to a preliminary empirical test in an IT consulting firm, throughout a survey of 12 projects. This research has at least three original contributions along with potential theoretical and practical implications: 1) it provides a precise and robust definition for the agility concept in project management theory; 2) it proposes a theoretical framework along with its 5 dimensions, variables and tools describing how to measure the agility in the project management field; and 3) from the practitioners perspective it provides a practical tool for the agility measurement in project management.