Agility exercises is crucial for numerous sports participants. It can be defined as the ability to make quick movements in response to various sports situations. These may require quick feet and arm or whole-body movements. Obvious examples include, the agility required by a Taekwondo player to attack and defend forward, back, and to both sides super-fast according to the situation, like boxing, karate, and kickboxing when the players try to avoid and land punches. Rackets sports player also need to reach and hit winning shots or a rugby player to side-step and turn and make try scoring opportunities or try saving tackles. Whatever the sport agility is critical.
The ‘science’ of agility has now become so specific that teams and individual athletes are experimenting with techniques designed to enhance visual acuity. Basically, exercises are performed that sharpen, hand and eye coordination and even peripheral awareness. The hope is that the enhancement of this ability will transfer into improved sports agility.
The ladder is an excellent equipment to development foot agility. With the ladder we can do a lot of exercises that challenge every athlete from every sport and level. Numerous forwards, backwards, sideways and combinations of running, hopping and jumping drills can be performed through it. It is also possible to add other ladders to make more complex drills. These can be placed side by side or at right angles to one another. By repetition these drills enhance fast feet (and upper body agility and kinesthetic awareness), just like any other aspect of sports performance, by progressive overload (controlled repetition)
If you don’t have ladder, don’t worry! Make your own floor ladder. It is possible to make your own 20 rungs floor ladder using tape or sticks. The distance between the rungs should be about 35cm and they should be 30cm long.
Watch this video with great exercises for youth sports participants. I hope you enjoy. Please leave comment about it.