Hello and welcome to another class at Elf Academy! Today’s lesson is agility.

Elves need to be bendy and agile so they are useful in any situation. Here are some suggestions on how to be a more agile elf:

● Touch your toes 10 times

● Make yourself really tall

● Make yourself really small

● The Stair Challenge – Any set of five or more stairs will work for this drill. For the first round, go up one stair, down one, up two, down one, up three, down two, up four, down three, up five, down four and repeat. Continue to change up the pattern and even turn sideways on the steps to increase the challenge.

● Direction Challenge – Move your feet forward, back and side to side

● The Ladder – step one foot out and then the other, step one back in and then the other, do it to a fast beat – out out in in, out out in in…

● The Catch Challenge – bounce a ball off a uneven wall or even a tree and try to catch the ball. If this is to easy do it while standing on one foot.

● Skipping Rope – Using a standard skipping rope, create your agility challenge by changing which direction you move, all while keeping the rope moving. Try switching it up by hopping on one foot or doing high knees or bottom kicks!

The key to agility training is being creative and challenging yourself. Just remember these basic concepts: Move quickly, give lots of rest time and be sure to change direction.

When out with Santa, elves never know when and where they will have to hide so agility is very important!