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Key Takeaways
The Illinois Agility Test is a standardized field test developed by Getchell in 1979 to measure change of direction speed using an 8-cone course measuring 10m x 5m.
Test subjects start in a prone (face-down) position and must complete the full slalom course as quickly as possible, timed to the nearest hundredth of a second.
The only validated normative table covers national-level 16–19 year olds: an excellent score is under 15.2 seconds for males and under 17.0 seconds for females. There is no validated normative table for adult age bands.
Sports clinics and rehabilitation providers use Pabau’s measurements tracking software to log, benchmark, and monitor Illinois Agility Test results within individual patient records.
Coaches and rehabilitation clinicians need a way to measure how fast an athlete can change direction, and the Illinois Agility Test has been the standard field answer since 1979. This guide covers the exact course setup, the step-by-step protocol, how to score a trial, and the one validated normative table that exists for it.
What is the Illinois Agility Test and why does it matter?
The Illinois Agility Test is one of the most widely used field-based assessments in sports medicine software and athletic performance testing. Developed by Getchell in 1979, it gives coaches, sports scientists, and rehabilitation clinicians a reliable, low-cost snapshot of an athlete’s ability to change direction at speed. No laboratory equipment is needed. No specialist training is required to administer it.
That accessibility is exactly why the test has endured for over four decades. A stopwatch, eight cones, and a flat 10m x 5m surface are all it takes to generate data that predicts sport performance and rehabilitation progress.
This guide covers everything practitioners and coaches need: course dimensions, cone placement, the step-by-step administration protocol, scoring method, the one validated normative data table (broken down by sex), reliability and validity evidence, and practical tips for improving scores.
Equipment required for the Illinois Agility Test
The Illinois Agility Test is designed to be a minimal-equipment assessment. Everything you need fits in a standard coaching bag.
- 8 flat-base cones (4 corner markers, 4 slalom cones in the center)
- Measuring tape or laser measure (metric, minimum 12m range)
- Stopwatch or electronic timing gates (hundredths-of-a-second accuracy recommended)
- Flat, non-slip surface (indoor court, artificial turf, or firm grass)
- Test administrator or assistant (one to operate timing, one to observe if running electronic gates)
- Standardized footwear (training shoes used consistently across trials for comparability)
Electronic timing gates improve reliability over a hand-operated stopwatch, but the published normative data was collected primarily via stopwatch. When comparing results against published norms, note the timing method used.
Illinois Agility Test setup: Course dimensions and cone placement
Precise course setup is critical. Variation in cone placement directly affects completion time, making results meaningless for inter-athlete comparison if the layout deviates from the standard.
Illinois Agility Test dimensions reference
Illinois Agility Test cone placement diagram
The four corner cones define a 10m x 5m rectangle. Start and finish sit at opposite corners of the same end of the rectangle — they are two distinct cones, 5m apart, not the same cone.
The subject sprints the length of the course to the diagonal far corner, crosses the width to the adjacent far corner, weaves through the four center cones, then finishes at the separate finish cone. Here is the layout described positionally:
- Cone A (Start): one corner of the near end of the rectangle
- Cone B (Finish): the other corner of the near end, 5m from Cone A — this distance is the course width
- Cone C: far corner in line with Cone A, 10m down the same side (diagonally opposite Cone B)
- Cone D: far corner in line with Cone B, 10m down that side and 5m across from Cone C (diagonally opposite Cone A)
- Cones E, F, G, H (slalom): placed along the centerline (2.5m from each side), spaced 3.3m apart between the near and far ends
Measure the centerline and cone spacings with a tape measure before each testing session. Small deviations compound quickly and distort time comparisons.
How to administer the Illinois Agility Test: Step-by-step protocol
Consistent administration is what makes the Illinois Agility Test a reliable assessment tool. These steps reflect the standard protocol as originally described by Getchell (1979) and used across published research.
Pre-test preparation and Illinois Agility Test protocol warm-up
- Brief the subject on the full route before timing begins. Walk or jog through the course at least once.
- Conduct a standardized 10-minute general warm-up: light jogging, dynamic stretching, and two or three short acceleration runs.
- Confirm footwear is consistent with the footwear used in previous trials (or noted in the record).
- Check the surface is dry and free of debris.
- Record ambient conditions (surface type, indoor/outdoor, footwear) alongside the result for future comparability.
Running the course: Exact path instructions
The running path is fixed. Deviation from the route (cutting a cone, skipping a weave) invalidates the trial.
- Subject lies face down (prone position) with their head at Cone A (the start line), hands flat beside their shoulders.
- On the administrator’s verbal command (“Go”), the subject rises and sprints 10m to Cone C — the far corner diagonally opposite the finish cone.
- The subject turns and sprints 5m across the width to Cone D, the adjacent far corner.
- The subject turns into the center of the course and weaves in and out through Cones E, F, G, and H, running the length of the weave and back through all four cones (up and back).
- The subject exits the weave and sprints to cross Cone B, the finish cone, which sits 5m from the start on the same end of the rectangle — not back at the start cone, and with no separate extra 10m return sprint before the weave.
- Timing starts the moment the subject rises from the prone position and stops when the subject crosses the finish line at Cone B.
Allow a minimum of five minutes’ rest between trials. Two trials per subject are standard; record the best time.
Scoring the Illinois Agility Test
The score is the total elapsed time in seconds, recorded to two decimal places. Lower is better.
- Two trials are administered, with the best (fastest) time recorded as the official score.
- If electronic timing gates are used, log both the gate-to-gate split and the full-course time.
- Any trial where a cone is dislodged or the path is deviated must be re-run after an adequate rest period.
- Compare results against the published normative data by sex (see tables below); validated age-group norms exist only for the 16-19 age band.
Track every athlete’s progress in one place
Pabau's measurements tracking software lets sports clinics and rehabilitation providers log Illinois Agility Test results alongside treatment notes, goals, and progress markers, all within a single patient record.
Illinois Agility Test normative data tables
The table below is the only widely validated Illinois Agility Test normative dataset in the published literature — collected from national-level 16-19 year old athletes (Davis et al., 2000, as reproduced by Topend Sports and BrianMac Sports Coach). Values are completion times in seconds, and faster times correspond to higher performance ratings.
There is no validated, decade-by-decade normative table for adult age bands (20s, 30s, 40s, and so on) — treat any table you see elsewhere claiming otherwise with caution.
Male normative data
Female normative data
Published Illinois Agility Test norms are limited to national-level 16-19 year olds — there is no validated normative table for adult age bands. Change-of-direction speed is well established in the literature to decline with age, so use the 16-19 reference table above as a general benchmark for younger athletic populations only.
For adult or masters athletes, track an individual’s own baseline over time rather than comparing them to an age-graded band that hasn’t been validated.
What does the Illinois Agility Test measure?
The Illinois Agility Test measures change of direction speed (COD), not agility in its broadest sense. That distinction matters for practitioners interpreting results.
- Change of direction speed: the ability to decelerate, reorient, and accelerate in a new direction repeatedly under a fixed, predictable course
- Acceleration: assessed on the opening sprint from the prone position to the far cone
- Deceleration mechanics: tested at each turning point; poor deceleration is the most common cause of above-average completion times
- Spatial awareness: the slalom section demands precise footwork and spatial orientation relative to cone positions
The test does not assess reactive agility (responding to an unpredictable stimulus). For sport contexts where decision-making is central to performance, such as rugby or basketball, practitioners sometimes pair the Illinois Agility Test with a reactive agility variant or video-based decision test.
The test doesn’t isolate raw strength either. Clinicians who need that data run manual muscle testing alongside it, since a fast completion time can mask an underlying weakness that only shows up under load.
Sport-specific applications of the Illinois Agility Test
The Illinois Agility Test is used across a wide range of sports and clinical settings. Each context has slightly different benchmark expectations and administrative priorities. Good physiotherapy clinic management integrates standardized testing like this into regular review cycles.
- Soccer and football: used at academy and senior levels to assess directional ability; elite male soccer players typically score in the 15-16 second range
- Rugby union and league: forward and back positional benchmarks differ significantly; backs are expected to score closer to the “excellent” band
- Australian rules football: included in the annual draft combine alongside the 20m sprint and vertical jump
- Military fitness assessment: used as part of multi-battery physical fitness evaluations in several national armed forces programs
- Rehabilitation and return-to-sport: the Illinois Agility Test is increasingly used by physical therapists and sports medicine clinicians to mark a key milestone in return-to-running protocol progressions after a lower-limb injury such as a stress fracture
How Pabau supports sports clinic and rehabilitation testing workflows?
Most sports clinics and rehabilitation providers still log Illinois Agility Test results in spreadsheets or paper-based assessment forms. That approach disconnects results from the patient’s treatment notes, goals, and discharge criteria.
Pabau’s measurements tracking software lets clinicians record agility test scores directly within a patient’s client record, alongside previous results, session notes, and intervention data.
A practitioner working in physical therapy EMR can track the progression from post-operative baseline to “excellent” band performance across multiple sessions, flagging plateau periods automatically. Pre-assessment digital forms capture standardized warm-up conditions, footwear type, and surface notes before the clinician logs the timed result.
Reporting inside Pabau already lets you pull cohort-level views of the measurements your team has logged, rather than reading each patient record in isolation.
Insights Plus, an upcoming add-on, will take this further by surfacing population-level benchmarks automatically: which age groups are improving fastest, which sports present the most common COD deficits, and where rehab protocols are delivering the best return-to-sport outcomes.
That kind of patient care management data gives sports clinics a clearer view of population-level trends. Pabau’s automated workflows can also trigger follow-up assessments at pre-set intervals, so re-testing is never forgotten.
Those intake fields feed straight into the score log, so the clinician never has to re-enter conditions by hand when comparing sessions later.
Pro Tip
Document the timing method (stopwatch vs electronic gates), surface type, and footwear alongside every Illinois Agility Test score. Without these contextual variables, longitudinal comparisons within the same patient are unreliable and inter-clinician handovers become guesswork.
Illinois Agility Test reliability, validity, and limitations
Published intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) values for the Illinois Agility Test vary considerably by population and protocol, ranging from around 0.68 in a military sample up to 0.96 in the team-sport athlete study by Hachana et al. (2013) — the most frequently cited reliability figure — with a rugby cohort reporting approximately 0.86.
Test-retest reliability is generally acceptable to excellent, but it depends heavily on who is being tested and how tightly the protocol is standardized, so don’t assume a single tight reliability band applies to every population. Clinicians relying on the test for physiotherapy clinic compliance documentation should note that the most favorable ICC values were obtained under tightly controlled, standardized conditions.
Criterion validity evidence links Illinois Agility Test performance to sport-specific performance metrics, though the relationship is stronger for team sport athletes than for individual sport competitors.
Sport-specific injury history also skews single-session results. An athlete recovering from iliotibial band syndrome, for example, may show reduced deceleration performance independent of overall fitness. Clinicians who suspect this often cross-check with a Noble compression test before drawing conclusions from an agility score alone.
Illinois Agility Test advantages and disadvantages
Illinois Agility Test vs other agility tests
Choosing the right agility test depends on the sport, the equipment available, and what physical quality you need to isolate. Here is how the Illinois Agility Test compares to the three most commonly co-administered assessments.
The Illinois Agility Test sits in a middle ground: more complex than the 5-10-5 shuttle (which only measures two directional changes) but less space-demanding than the T-Test. For practitioners who need a single test covering multiple COD demands within a tight footprint, it remains the most practical choice.
Tips for improving your Illinois Agility Test score
Most athletes lose time at the turning cones, not on the straight sprints. Deceleration mechanics is the single highest-leverage training focus for anyone looking to improve their Illinois Agility Test result.
- Deceleration mechanics: practice penultimate-step braking drills. Plant the outside foot at a 45-degree angle before each turning cone to reduce braking distance and maintain forward momentum.
- Ladder drills: agility ladders improve foot contact time, coordination, and proprioception, all of which carry over directly to the slalom section.
- Reactive COD drills: mirror drills, shadowing, and reactive cone touches build the neuromuscular speed needed for multi-directional sports performance.
- Plyometrics: single-leg bounding, lateral bounds, and box jumps build the elastic strength required for explosive directional changes.
- Course familiarization: athletes who have run the exact course layout 10 or more times outperform unfamiliar subjects by 0.3-0.8 seconds on average. Structured practice trials are a valid, well-documented part of performance preparation, not a form of cheating.
Conclusion
The Illinois Agility Test remains the most accessible, well-normed field test for change of direction speed available to sports scientists, coaches, and rehabilitation clinicians. Its 8-cone layout, prone start, and fixed slalom path take minutes to set up and generate results that map directly onto published normative bands.
For sports clinics and rehabilitation providers who want to move beyond one-off paper records, Pabau centralizes agility test data inside each patient’s treatment timeline, making it easy to track progress, benchmark cohorts, and trigger reassessments at the right moment. Book a demo to see how Pabau handles sports and rehabilitation performance tracking end to end.
Continue your research
Managing a sports medicine or rehab clinic? Sports medicine software from Pabau integrates assessment tracking, patient records, and clinic scheduling in one platform.
Need a structured physical therapy workflow? Physical therapy EMR by Pabau supports documentation, progress tracking, and return-to-sport milestone management.
Looking for a return-to-sport benchmark checklist? Return-to-running protocol for physical therapy covers the clinical criteria and progression stages for lower limb rehabilitation.
Frequently asked questions
What is the Illinois Agility Test used for?
The Illinois Agility Test is a standardized field assessment used to measure change of direction speed in athletes and rehabilitation patients. Sports scientists, coaches, and physical therapists administer it to benchmark agility performance, track rehabilitation progress after lower limb injury, and compare individuals against published normative data by age and sex.
What is a good score on the Illinois Agility Test?
A good score depends on sex, and the only validated reference table covers national-level 16-19 year olds. In that group, a score below 15.2 seconds is rated “Excellent” for males (16.2-18.1 seconds is “Average”), and below 17.0 seconds is “Excellent” for females (18.0-21.7 seconds is “Average”). There is no separately validated table for older adult age bands, so treat these figures as a general benchmark for younger athletic populations, and track individual change over time for adult or masters athletes instead.
What is the average time for the Illinois Agility Test?
In the published national-level reference table (16-19 year olds), the “Average” band spans roughly 16.2-18.1 seconds for males and 18.0-21.7 seconds for females. Adult and masters athletes are commonly tested against this same table in practice, but there is no separately validated adult normative dataset, so treat these figures as a general guide rather than an age-specific standard. Athletes in team sports typically score in the upper end of the above-average band, while elite performers often fall into the excellent category.
Who developed the Illinois Agility Test?
The Illinois Agility Test was developed by Getchell in 1979. It is also referred to as the Getchell Agility Test or the Illinois Agility Run Test in some academic sources. The test has remained largely unchanged since its original publication and is consistently referenced in sports science textbooks and peer-reviewed research.
What equipment is needed for the Illinois Agility Test?
Eight cones, a stopwatch or electronic timing gates, a measuring tape, and a flat non-slip surface are the only equipment required. No laboratory setting is needed, which is one of the test’s main practical advantages for field-based sports science and rehabilitation settings.
How does the Illinois Agility Test differ from the T-Test and pro agility test?
The Illinois Agility Test uses a longer course (10m x 5m with 8 cones and a slalom section), producing completion times of 15-23 seconds. The T-Test uses a T-shaped layout covering 10m x 10m. The Pro Agility (5-10-5 shuttle) covers just 10.06m linearly with only two directional changes, producing much shorter times of around 4.2-5.5 seconds. The Illinois test is preferred when a more comprehensive multi-directional COD assessment is needed.
