Agility Ladder Drills

Agility ladder drills are designed to improve speed, quickness, coordination and balance. They are particularly beneficial for sports where there is a lot of lateral movement such as soccer, football, tennis and basketball. This style of training can really get the heart rate going and it can be a great way to add variation to a stagnant workout routine. So just because you're not booting a soccer ball across a field or returning a backhand on the tennis court, you can still throw down a ladder and start skipping at will.

It is important to have endurance and strength when participating in sports. But perhaps the most important skill to develop is lateral mobility and the ability to change direction in a hurry. This is where agility ladder drills come into play. This is not only important for sports, but also this can influence how you perform daily activities, for example, regaining your balance after stepping on a crooked surface.

There are various ways to do ladder drills. The basic idea is to emulate the action that might be seen in a game atmosphere. This is called sport specific. Drills involve short, choppy steps, shuffles, hops, skips, jumps, stutter steps and diagonal movements.

Ladder drills should be performed in a building-block format. Development should start at a full range of motion with a slow and controlled movement to a quicker, faster progression with explosive movements. Perform ladder drills after a good warm up and before regular workouts or on separate days of other training.

Ladder drills should be performed in the order of runs, skips, shuffles then hops. The runs should start and end the routines as these are the most utilized skill. One time through the ladder is counted as one rep. Aim for 2 to 4 reps for each skill, which counts as one set. Here are some drill examples. Linear drills are performed with the body going in a straight, linear motion. Some examples of these would be one-in sprints, bunny hops and two-in sprints. Some lateral drills include lateral crossover skips, lateral two-in two-outs and Ali shuffles where you quickly exchange each foot in every square.

The best place to do ladder drills is in a big open room like a basketball court or fitness class room of a gym. They can also be performed outdoors in a big lawn or field. This way there is plenty of room to run through the ladder, maneuver around and also add some variations such as cones and jump ropes.

Ladders can also be split into two sections. Training this way translates well with sports like soccer and basketball. Often times there are misdirection plays with sudden turns and stops mixed in with fast sprints. They can be places several yards apart where you can sprint to the second one as soon as you get out of the first one.

Ladders can also be made out of tape, chalk or even paint. This gives you the ability to adjust the size of the squares and it also reduces the chances of tripping on the rungs. This would be especially beneficial for novices or younger kids.