Agility ladder

Using an agility ladder is one of the best ways to improve your ability to change direction quickly. This key skill is an essential of almost all sports, from football to baseball, basketball to rugby.

Exercises on the agility ladder require a combination of a whole host of neuro and muscular systems, including:

• Balance
• Speed
• Strength
• Flexibility
• Coordination

The agility ladder has been developed to help train all these systems, allowing the athlete or sports person to practice these skills in a non-contact, non-competitive environment - it is crucial to learn skills in this way first before attempting to utilise them in a game. Using this apparatus will not only improve performance, but is also proven to reduce the chance of injury, vital for any athlete.

What this type of training does is force the body to perform a variety of movements from unfamiliar joint angles. Regular use can promote proficiency in a wide range of different foot and movement patterns. Once these movements become second nature, the body can quickly respond to the various angles that occur in sporting events.

The standard size for this apparatus is 10 yards long with 18 inch squares, though many people construct their own with varying dimensions. It is recommended that you introduce 2 to 4 movements at a time.

New movements should only be introduced once the athletes have mastered the existing ones.