Balance, Agility and Coordination

There’s a great book called Balance is Power by Jim Klopman.

If you’ve seen those little blue balance blocks in the gym, they’re called Slack Blocks and he created them.

Here, he defines agility:

Agility is the ability to control and operate one’s body at high speed, under stress and in space.

Coordination, on the other hand:

Coordination is a component of agility. Coordination zeros in body control.

Klopman’s point is that you need to be coordinated to have the best agility and that the two are related to one another. Therefore, balance is the sum of coordination and agility, as represented in this equation.

Balance = coordination + agility

When an athlete improves their balance, they improve their coordination and agility as a result.

Not many people come into the gym considering agility a trait they need to improve, but from this perspective, it’s a key component to having a robust body.

Justin Miner