Illinois Agility Test: Full Protocol and Reference Tables

If you train team sports or any discipline where changes of direction are a daily occurrence (soccer, basketball, handball, rugby...), the Illinois Agility Test is one of those classics that belongs in your test battery. It's been used for decades because it combines linear sprinting, turns, and a slalom in a single circuit, giving a fairly complete picture of an athlete's agility.

What does this test measure?

The Illinois Agility Test measures the ability to change direction at high speed, combining acceleration, deceleration, 180° turns, and slalom movements. It's an overall agility measure that correlates well with performance in field and court sports.

Equipment needed

• 8 cones or poles (4 for the corners of the rectangle, 4 for the central slalom)
• Measuring tape to mark out the course (10 x 5 meters)
• Stopwatch (ideally timing gates for greater precision)
• A non-slip surface (track, gym floor, or grass)

Test protocol

1. Mark out a rectangle 10 meters long by 5 meters wide, with a cone at each corner
2. Place 4 cones in a center line, spaced 3.3 meters apart, forming the slalom
3. The athlete lies prone with their head at the start line
4. On the signal, they get up as quickly as possible and complete the circuit: sprint to the opposite corner, run around the side, weave through the 4 central cones (there and back), and sprint to the finish line
5. Time the total run from the start signal until they cross the finish line
6. Perform 2-3 attempts with full recovery (3-5 min) between each, and record the best time

Common mistakes

• Not marking out the distances accurately (an error of 50 cm in the slalom can significantly change the result)
• Letting the athlete cut outside the slalom cones
• Not allowing enough rest between attempts, which inflates times due to accumulated fatigue
• Using surfaces with different grip between sessions (affects comparability)

How to interpret the results

Level	Men	Women
Excellent	< 15.2 s	< 17.0 s
Good	15.2 - 16.1 s	17.0 - 17.9 s
Average	16.2 - 18.1 s	18.0 - 21.7 s
Below average	18.2 - 19.3 s	21.8 - 23.0 s
Poor	> 19.3 s	> 23.0 s

Among elite team-sport athletes (soccer, basketball), it's common to see times under 15 seconds for men and 16.5 seconds for women. What matters most isn't comparison to general tables, but tracking the individual over time: improvements of 0.2-0.3 seconds are already meaningful at a competitive level.

Related tests

The Illinois test pairs very well with:

• T-Test (agility T-test) — another change-of-direction test, more focused on lateral and backward movement
• 5-10-5 (pro agility shuttle) — measures acceleration-deceleration-acceleration over a smaller area

For a complete assessment of change-of-direction ability, combine the Illinois test with one of these two to cover both the full-circuit component and pure acceleration.

Tracking with Movalytics

Repeating the Illinois test every few weeks is the best way to check whether your agility and power training is paying off. With Movalytics you can log every attempt (including the 2-3 reps from each session), automatically save the best time, and view the athlete's progress on a chart — without manually comparing spreadsheets from different dates.

FAQ

How often can the Illinois test be repeated? Every 4-6 weeks is reasonable for seeing real changes after a block of agility/power training, always allowing at least 48 hours of rest before the test. Do I need timing gates, or is a manual stopwatch fine? A manual stopwatch works for tracking an individual over time, but it introduces a margin of error of 0.2-0.3 seconds. If you're comparing against normative tables or between athletes, timing gates are much more reliable. Is this a valid test for individual sports like tennis or padel? Yes, although in those sports it's usually combined with more sport-specific tests (lateral changes of direction, racket-specific stops) since the actual movement pattern differs from the Illinois circuit.