An agility ladder is commonly used by serious athletes in their training to focus on rapid movements and quick reactions. This piece of training equipment measures anywhere from five to ten yards in length. No matter the length it usually has about fifteen rungs. It’s used flat and is set on the ground. The athlete trains by stepping in and out of the space between the rungs while he performs different exercises. This combination of agility and exercise will greatly improve the performance of almost any athlete.
The agility ladder also improves the athletes ability to move and change direction quickly, effectively and efficiently. In addition, it improves the athletes ability to move in a controlled and deliberate manner by strengthening his hips and calves.
Another added benefit of an agility ladder is that it helps increase your coordination by forcing your attention and focus on where your body is moving. It’s vital to learn how to focus body movements in every sport. The more you can the focus, the more efficiently you’ll act. It also helps with the economy of movement when performing that action. This is imperative for top athletes. They need to be able to perform an action as efficiently as possible. The better their economy of movement, the longer they can stay at optimum performance levels.
Another area that will benefit from agility ladder workouts is your speed. It will help you by increasing the quickness of your first step as well as get your body accelerating sooner. It will also increase your stride rate, which is the number of steps you take in any given distance. Along with speed, you’ll find your balance will also improve because of the hip conditioning inherent in this type of training.
An agility ladder can also be used with a weighted belt or weighted vest to give added resistance when performing drills. You should not add resistance until you’ve mastered the mechanics of the drill using only your body weight. You can also use the agility ladder on the same day you do strength training. Just be sure to work with agility ladders first so you avoid muscle fatigue. It is recommended that you schedule your agility ladder workouts two to three times a week, with two to three days rest in between. This will help cut down the risks of over training. You should also keep the total number of sets per workout under twenty. You can do this by selecting four to six drills per workout and performing not more than three to five sets of each drill.