Illinois Agility Test: How to Set Up, Perform, and Interpret the Test
October 13, 2026
10 min. read
Speed alone does not tell the full story of athletic movement. Many sports require athletes to accelerate, brake, turn, weave around opponents, and regain speed within seconds. The Illinois Agility Test provides a simple field-based method for measuring how quickly an athlete can complete a predetermined course containing several changes of direction.
Illinois Agility Test Score Sheet
Submit a few brief details to unlock your free Illinois Agility Test Score Sheet!
The test uses eight cones arranged across a 10-by-5-meter area. The athlete begins on the ground, accelerates into a sprint, completes several turns, weaves through a row of cones, and sprints through the finish. Because the route is known before the athlete starts, the Illinois Agility Test is more accurately considered a test of change-of-direction speed rather than reactive agility.¹
That distinction matters when interpreting results. The test can provide useful information about planned movement performance, but it does not measure how quickly an athlete recognizes and responds to an unpredictable opponent, ball, or visual cue.
This article covers how to set up and perform the Illinois Agility Test, what the test measures, how to interpret results, and how coaches can use test data when planning training.
What is the Illinois Agility Test?
The Illinois Agility Test, sometimes called the Illinois Agility Run or Illinois Change of Direction Test, is a timed running assessment that combines linear sprinting with turning and slalom-style movement.
A standard setup uses:
Eight cones
A flat, nonslip testing surface
A measuring tape
A stopwatch or electronic timing gates
A testing area approximately 10 meters long and 5 meters wide
Four cones form the outside corners of the course. Another four cones run down the center, typically positioned approximately 3.3 meters apart.²
The athlete must complete a predetermined route as quickly as possible. The course requires acceleration from the starting position, high-speed running, multiple changes of direction, deceleration, reacceleration, and repeated weaving movements.
Is the Illinois Agility Test really an agility test?
The name is well established, but modern sports science makes an important distinction between agility and change-of-direction speed.
Agility has been defined as a whole-body movement involving a change in velocity or direction in response to a stimulus.¹ An athlete responding to an opponent's movement, for example, must perceive information, make a decision, and then execute the movement.
The Illinois Agility Test does not contain that decision-making component. The athlete already knows the exact route.
For that reason, the test primarily evaluates planned change-of-direction performance.
That does not make the test less useful. It simply means the score should be interpreted according to what the test actually asks the athlete to do.
Research comparing different change-of-direction assessments has also found that tests can represent somewhat different movement demands.³ A strong result on the Illinois Agility Test therefore should not automatically be interpreted as proof that an athlete will perform equally well during every multidirectional movement encountered in sport.
How to perform the Illinois Agility Test
Consistency matters when using the Illinois Agility Test to compare athletes or track progress over time. Small differences in cone spacing, starting procedure, footwear, surface, timing method, or recovery can influence the final time.
Illinois Agility Test setup
Create a rectangle measuring:
10 meters long × 5 meters wide
Place one cone at each corner.
Next, position four additional cones along the center line of the course. The central cones are generally spaced approximately 3.3 meters apart.²
The resulting setup contains eight cones:
Four outside cones defining the course
Four central cones forming the weaving section
Starting position
In the commonly used version of the test, the athlete begins prone on the ground near the starting line, with the hands around shoulder level.
Some published research has used modified starting positions or slightly different course dimensions. For repeated testing, the specific protocol matters less than maintaining the same protocol from one testing session to the next.
If the purpose is comparison with previous scores, changing from a prone start to a standing start would create a different test.
Test procedure
After completing an appropriate warm-up and becoming familiar with the course, the athlete:
Begins in the standardized starting position.
Starts on the tester's signal.
Gets up and accelerates toward the first turning cone.
Changes direction and runs toward the central portion of the course.
Weaves through the four central cones.
Reverses the weaving sequence through the cones.
Accelerates around the remaining outside cone.
Sprints through the finish line.
Record the total time in seconds.
Electronic timing gates can reduce timing error when available. Manual stopwatch timing can still be used, but the same tester and timing procedure should be retained during follow-up testing whenever possible.
Researchers examining different timing methods for the Illinois test have reported that the method used to record completion time can affect measurement precision.⁴
How many trials should an athlete perform?
Two timed attempts can provide a practical testing format, with the better performance retained.
Give the athlete enough recovery between attempts so the second score does not simply reflect fatigue from the first attempt. Several published protocols use approximately three to five minutes of recovery between maximal efforts.
A practice trial may also be worthwhile when an athlete has never completed the course. Familiarity with the route can influence performance independently of physical improvement.
What does the Illinois Agility Test measure?
The simplest Illinois Agility Test result is completion time.
A faster time indicates that the athlete completed the prescribed course more quickly. However, several physical qualities contribute to that result.
Change-of-direction speed
The course contains numerous turns and weaving movements. Athletes must lower or redirect momentum, reposition the body, apply force in a new direction, and accelerate again.
These demands make planned change-of-direction speed a major component of the test.
Linear speed
A meaningful portion of the course consists of straight-line running. As a result, athletes with greater linear sprint speed may have an advantage even if their directional movement mechanics are similar to another athlete's.
This relationship appears in research examining the Illinois Agility Test.
In one study involving 105 male team-sport athletes, Illinois test performance was significantly associated with running speed. The researchers reported a test-retest intraclass correlation coefficient of 0.96 and a standard error of measurement of 0.19 seconds, supporting the repeatability of the test under standardized conditions.⁵
Interestingly, the same study found no significant association between Illinois test performance and acceleration and concluded that performance was more closely related to speed than acceleration or leg power.⁵
Deceleration and reacceleration
Completing the course quickly requires athletes to manage momentum before each turn and then regain velocity.
An athlete who enters a change of direction too quickly may need extra steps to control momentum. Another athlete may decelerate earlier but reposition the body more efficiently and accelerate out of the turn faster.
A single finish time cannot identify exactly where those differences occur, but observing the athlete during the test can provide useful context.
Video can help identify:
Excessive braking steps
Wide turns
Poor trunk positioning
Loss of balance during directional changes
Slow reacceleration after a turn
Extra steps around the central cones
Those observations can help connect the final score to specific movement qualities that may be addressed during training.
How to interpret Illinois Agility Test results
Illinois Agility Test performance is usually reported in seconds, with lower values representing faster completion.
Normative tables can provide general reference points, but they should be used cautiously. Published norms may differ by age, sex, sport, competitive level, test variation, starting position, surface, and timing method.
For performance monitoring, an athlete's own previous results may provide more useful information than a generic category such as "good" or "excellent."
Example: Tracking an athlete over time
Consider an athlete who performs the test during preseason testing:
Trial 1: 16.21 seconds
Trial 2: 16.04 seconds
Best result:
16.04 seconds
After a training block, the athlete repeats the same protocol:
Trial 1: 15.67 seconds
Trial 2: 15.58 seconds
Best result:
15.58 seconds
The observed improvement is:
16.04 − 15.58 = 0.46 seconds
That change appears meaningful from a coaching perspective, but measurement error should still be considered.
The reliability study mentioned earlier reported a minimal detectable change at the 95 percent confidence level of 0.52 seconds for its population and protocol.⁵ This means a 0.46-second improvement would fall slightly below that study's threshold for confidently separating a change from measurement variability.
That value should not automatically be applied to every athlete or testing environment. Instead, it illustrates why coaches should avoid treating every hundredth of a second as a true performance change.
Testing conditions should also remain as consistent as possible:
Same surface
Same footwear type
Same course dimensions
Same warm-up
Same starting procedure
Same timing system
Similar recovery
Similar point within the training week
Recording these variables makes longitudinal comparisons more useful.
Using the Illinois Agility Test in a training program
The Illinois Agility Test works best as one part of a broader performance-testing battery rather than as a complete measure of multidirectional athletic ability.
Because the course combines straight-line running and predetermined directional changes, pairing it with other assessments can provide a clearer picture of performance.
For example, a testing battery might include:
A 10-meter sprint for acceleration
A longer sprint for maximum or near-maximum running speed
A 505 test for sharper change-of-direction analysis
A jump assessment for lower-body power
A reactive test containing an unpredictable visual or movement stimulus
Comparing results across tests may reveal patterns that one score cannot show.
An athlete who performs well during linear sprinting but loses time during the Illinois test may benefit from greater emphasis on braking mechanics, turning strategy, and reacceleration.
An athlete who performs well on predetermined change-of-direction tests yet struggles during reactive drills may have a different training need involving perception, anticipation, or decision-making.
The test can also be repeated across a training cycle to evaluate change, provided the testing protocol remains consistent.
For practitioners building or refining athletic testing systems, Strength and Conditioning Continuing Education can provide further instruction on assessment, programming, exercise selection, and performance development.
The Illinois Agility Test remains a practical field test because it requires little equipment, can be set up quickly, and produces a simple quantitative result. Its greatest value comes from understanding what that number represents. The test measures performance through a predetermined course containing sprinting and several changes of direction. It does not include the perceptual and decision-making demands associated with reactive agility.
Used alongside sprinting, power, change-of-direction, and reactive assessments, the Illinois Agility Test can help establish a baseline, track changes across training phases, and identify movement qualities that deserve closer attention.
References
Sheppard JM, Young WB. Agility literature review: Classifications, training and testing. Journal of Sports Sciences. 2006;24(9):919-932.
https://doi.org/10.1080/02640410500457109Lockie RG, Schultz AB, Callaghan SJ, Jeffriess MD. Reliability and validity of a new test of change-of-direction speed for field-based sports. Journal of Sports Science & Medicine. 2013;12(1):88-96.
https://www.jssm.org/researchjssm-12-88.xml.xmlKöklü Y, Alemdaroğlu U, Özkan A, Koz M, Ersöz G. The relationship between sprint ability, agility and vertical jump performance in young soccer players. Related research on change-of-direction test specificity supports selecting tests based on their movement demands.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6571937/Validity, reliability, and sensitivity of mobile applications to assess change of direction speed.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10407321/Hachana Y, Chaabène H, Nabli MA, et al. Test-retest reliability, criterion-related validity, and minimal detectable change of the Illinois Agility Test in male team sport athletes. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. 2013;27(10):2752-2759.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23439329/
Meet the Authors
