Lee Taft coaches speed as a skill, not a gift. Here's how to teach change-of-direction to an athlete.
Most coaches train the weight room and some straight-line conditioning and hope speed shows up. Lee Taft - a specialist speed coach - treats agility as mechanics you teach: brake under control, plant, redirect. This breakdown covers his approach in our own words, adds our take for programming athletic clients, and turns it into a change-of-direction coaching checklist - opening a lane most coaching leaves on the table.
By Markus Evers · September 2026 · a Coachway video breakdown
the short version
Taft's case is that the speed that wins games - quickness and change of direction - is a skill made of mechanics, not just a genetic gift or a byproduct of lifting: it starts with controlled deceleration, then the plant-foot and centre-of-mass positions that let an athlete redirect fast, drilled reactively so it transfers to the sport. The one thing a coach should do about it: stop treating agility as untrainable, and coach it as a movement skill - deceleration first, then plant and redirect - watching the mechanics on video the way you'd watch a barbell lift.
Lee Taft - How I Teach Quickness Using the Compass Drill
Source: Lee Taft on YouTube - "How I Teach Quickness Using the Compass Drill". Watch on YouTube. We embed the public video and summarise it in our own words; the video, title and channel belong to Lee Taft, and nothing here implies his endorsement of Coachway.
Who is Lee Taft, and why coaches watch
Lee Taft is a speed and movement coach who has spent decades specialising in multi-directional speed and agility - the change-of-direction quickness that most strength coaches never actually teach. Widely known as "the speed guy", he's built his reputation on breaking agility down into coachable mechanics and drills that work across sports, and he trains other coaches as much as athletes. For a coach, that's exactly the value: speed and agility is one of the biggest gaps in typical training - plenty of coaches can program a squat but have no framework for teaching an athlete to cut - and Taft turns it into something you can coach step by step. That teaching-the-skill lens is what this page is written for.
What Taft actually argues (our summary)
This is our summary of the ideas in the video, in our own words - not a transcript. Watch the original for his exact drills and demonstrations.
- 1
Quickness is a skill, not just genetics. Change-of-direction speed is made of mechanics you can teach, so an athlete can get meaningfully quicker with coaching rather than only in the weight room.
- 2
Deceleration comes first. You can't redirect faster than you can stop, so the ability to brake and absorb force under control is the foundation - and the place most injuries hide.
- 3
Coach the plant and the position. Where the foot plants and where the hips and centre of mass sit at the moment of the cut decide how fast and stable the redirect is - that's the thing you actually coach.
- 4
Drill it reactively. Tools like the compass drill make the athlete read a cue and redirect, building the pattern under the react-and-respond demand the sport uses - not a pre-planned, memorised shuffle.
- 5
The drill isn't the point - transfer is. The goal is an athlete who decelerates, plants and redirects efficiently in the chaos of their sport, so every drill is chosen for how it carries over, not how it looks.
Coachway's take
We think this is one of the most under-served skills in coaching. The typical training menu is lifting plus some straight-line conditioning, and speed is left to chance - yet for any athlete who has to cut, react and change direction, agility mechanics are often the highest-leverage thing you could coach. Taft's "speed is a skill" framing gives a coach a genuine teaching progression for a quality most treat as untrainable, which is why it opens a real lane rather than adding another lifting opinion.
Where we'd add nuance for a coaching business: this is athlete work, and the value scales with how much the client's goal involves changing direction. A field-sport athlete needs the full reactive, sport-specific progression; a general-fitness client needs basic deceleration and change-of-direction competence for robust everyday movement, not a pro agility program. Be honest about which one is in front of you, and match the specificity to the goal rather than selling everyone a speed program.
The deceleration-first point is also a safety point, and worth holding firmly. Loading up reactive change-of-direction work before an athlete can brake under control is how non-contact knee and ankle injuries happen. Build the ability to stop and absorb force first, progress the reactivity gradually, and treat clean deceleration mechanics as the gate every athlete passes through before you add speed and chaos.
So our version of his approach is: coach agility as a movement skill on video the way you'd coach a lift - teach controlled deceleration first, then the plant and centre-of-mass position of the cut, then add reactive drills that transfer to the client's actual sport - instead of leaving speed to genetics and the weight room.
Coach a movement skill you can't stand next to
Agility is a skill, so like any skill it's coached on what you can see. Coachway's workout builder lets you program a speed and agility progression - deceleration drills, then plant-and-redirect work, then reactive drills like the compass drill - each with its own demo video, and assign it across an athlete roster instead of rebuilding it per client. Pair it with video check-ins so the athlete films their cuts and you can actually see the plant foot, the hips and the deceleration control - the mechanics you can't coach from a written plan alone.
For the athlete-development cluster around it, the companion breakdowns on Eric Cressey on rotational power and Jared Feather on the athlete needs analysis cover the power and the assessment that sit alongside speed work.
The change-of-direction coaching check (watch a client's cut)
A checklist you can copy and run against an athlete's change-of-direction video before you write feedback. It goes in the order Taft coaches: can they stop, then can they plant and redirect, then does it hold up reactively. The cues are examples; adapt them to the athlete and sport.
Change-of-direction coaching check
| Watch for | Good looks like | Cue |
|---|---|---|
| Deceleration | Stops under control, no wobble | "Sink and brake - earn the stop first" |
| Plant foot | Planted outside the body to redirect | "Plant wide, push the ground away" |
| Hips / centre of mass | Lowered and over the plant, not upright | "Stay low, hips loaded before you go" |
| Redirect | Fast repush in the new direction | "Explode out, don't drift out" |
| Reactivity | Reads a cue, not a memorised pattern | Add a reactive cue once mechanics hold |
How to use it: read the video top-down - deceleration first (it's the gate), then plant, then hips, then redirect - and only add reactive/sport-specific chaos once the mechanics hold under control. Fix one thing at a time, and progress the reactivity gradually to keep it safe.
CHANGE-OF-DIRECTION COACHING CHECK (via Coachway) - run it against an athlete's cut video, in the order Taft coaches - DECELERATION -> good: stops under control, no wobble | cue: "sink and brake - earn the stop first" - PLANT FOOT -> good: planted outside the body to redirect | cue: "plant wide, push the ground away" - HIPS / CENTRE OF MASS -> good: lowered and over the plant, not upright | cue: "stay low, hips loaded before you go" - REDIRECT -> good: fast repush in the new direction | cue: "explode out, don't drift out" - REACTIVITY -> good: reads a cue, not a memorised pattern | add a reactive cue once the mechanics hold HOW TO USE: Read the video top-down - deceleration is the GATE (also the injury point), then plant, hips, redirect. Only add reactive/sport-specific chaos once the mechanics hold under control. Fix one thing at a time and progress reactivity gradually. Scale the whole thing to how much the client's goal involves changing direction.
Coaching speed and agility - FAQ
Is speed something you can actually coach, or is it genetic?
Straight-line top speed has a big genetic ceiling, but the speed that actually decides games - quickness, change of direction, the ability to stop and redirect - is largely a skill, and skills can be taught. Taft's whole premise is that agility is mechanics: where the foot plants, where the hips and centre of mass are, how the athlete brakes and repushes. Coach those and a client gets quicker without necessarily getting a faster 40. For a coach, that reframes speed from a gift you either have or don't into a trainable quality with a clear teaching progression.
Why start with deceleration instead of acceleration?
Because you can't change direction faster than you can stop. Every cut, every reactive movement is a controlled deceleration followed by a repush, so the ability to absorb and control force is the foundation everything else is built on - and it's also where most non-contact injuries happen. An athlete who can't decelerate under control will either be slow to redirect or get hurt trying. Teaching braking mechanics first makes the change-of-direction work both faster and safer, which is why it comes before you chase acceleration or top speed.
What do I actually coach when I coach a cut?
The mechanics at the moment of direction change: the plant foot's position relative to the body, hip and centre-of-mass position, shin angle, and how the athlete loads and repushes. Get those right and the redirect is fast and stable; get them wrong and the athlete leaks speed or loses balance. Reactive drills - like the compass drill, where the athlete responds to a cue and redirects - build the pattern under the read-and-react demand the sport actually uses, rather than a pre-planned shuffle. You coach the position and the timing, then add the reaction.
Do general-fitness clients need speed and agility work?
The full athlete-development version is for athletes, but the foundation - being able to decelerate, change direction and move multi-directionally under control - matters for almost anyone who isn't purely training for the gym. It protects joints, keeps older clients confident on their feet, and makes everyday movement more robust. Scale it to the client: a field-sport athlete needs the full reactive, sport-specific progression, while a general client needs basic deceleration and change-of-direction competence, not a pro agility program. The principle transfers; the dose and specificity don't.
More athlete-development breakdowns
- · Eric Cressey on rotational power - the power side of athletic development.
- · Jared Feather on the athlete needs analysis - assess before you program the speed work.
- · The full library: fitness creator coaching breakdowns.
Keep developing athletes
all guidesEric Cressey on Rotational Power (Coach Breakdown)
Eric Cressey on why hip-to-shoulder separation - not raw strength alone - unlocks power for rotational-sport athletes, broken down for coaches with how to program the sequencing and ballistic work.
Read the guideJared Feather on the Athlete Needs Analysis (Coach Breakdown)
Jared Feather's athlete needs analysis, broken down for coaches: the intake assessment - goal, training age, recovery, injuries, weak points, logistics - you run before writing a program, so it fits the client, not a template.
Read the guidePersonal Trainer Programming: A Coach's Framework (2026)
Personal trainer programming is the deliberate arrangement of six variables - specificity, overload, volume, intensity, frequency and progression - into a plan that drives one chosen adaptation. The framework behind good program design, run for clients you coach remotely.
Read the guideFree tools for this: One-Rep-Max Calculator · Warm-Up Set Calculator · Protein Calculator
Coach the cut you can't stand next to
Speed and agility is a movement skill - so it's coached on what you can see. Coachway lets you program a deceleration-to-reactive progression with demos, and pair it with video check-ins so you can watch the plant, the hips and the braking control on an athlete's cut. Start your 14-day free trial and coach your first athlete's change-of-direction from one screen.
