Agility Ladder Drills and Workouts

When you start looking for alternative ways to build up your endurance, speed, or dexterity, the agility ladder should be one of your first choices. They are great for working out your whole body as well as vastly improving your coordination and well… agility. Finding the best agility ladder drills and workouts, however, can be a long process, so I decided to sum them up in this article and talk a little bit about each one of them.

For our purpose, we will separate the drills that I want to show you in three different categories:

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Basic agility ladder drills

Here are the simplest, most basic agility ladder drills that you need to first go through:

• One step
• Side step
• Basic hops
• Lateral and zig-zag hops
• In-and-out side hops
• Straddle hops
• Crossover
• Toe taps
• Broad jumps

One step

As the name suggests, the One step drill is done by placing one foot at each box going lightly over the rungs. Start slow but remember that the key to the exercise is to eventually do it as quickly as possible. Keep your arms at your side, ready to spring in the end (optional). This is one of the best and easiest ways to warm up with an agility ladder.

Side step

The side step is also an easy exercise but it often confuses beginners. What you do is actually move sideways across the ladder with your backfoot pushing the pace and your front foot reaching for the next box. Keep your arms at your side at 90-degrees.

Basic hops

The key to doing the basic hops properly is to keep your feet tightly together and jump with your soles trying to minimize the bend at the knee. Work with your hands to create a forward swinging motion. Start by jumping in each box but you can, later on, figure out different patterns and boxes to jump through.

If you want, you can spice up this exercise a bit by mixing it with the One Step drill. Do 5 hops and then run for the rest of the ladder in a one-step fashion. You can do hops until the end of the ladder and then sprint as well. Mixing exercises like that will become the cornerstone of your progress and you will find yourself wanting to do it more and more often!

Lateral and zig-zag hops

Lateral hops are the same as the basic hops but they are done with you turned 90-degrees, parallel to the ladder. Facing either left or right, jump with both your feet through each box. If you want you can do this one time at each side (right or left) or with your right or left foot only.

Zig-zag hops are similar to basic hops but you jump next to the right or left of your next box. So, you start with jumping in the first box, and then you jump right to the next one followed by a jump inside the second box. Then, you jump to the left of the third one and into the third, and so on. This can also be done with one leg at a time.

In-and-out side hops

In & Out is a drill where you face the side of the ladder and start on the outside. Your lead foot steps inside the box, followed by your other foot. The lead foot then steps out and continues to lead the way down the ladder. Arms are at the side at 90-degrees vibrating. Make sure you repeat the exercise on the other side of the ladder once you reach the end.

Straddle hops

Straddle hops (or inside and outside straddles or side straddles) are one of the most well-known ladder drills since we are all used to do it as kids when we were playing hopscotch. Even though you are moving forward down the ladder, your feet are moving in and out of the ladder, both touching the outside of the box and then both simultaneously touching the inside of the box. Make sure you don’t slam your feet into one another each time you step into the box. Keep your body composed and your hands at a 90-degree angle.

Crossover

Ladder crossovers is basically a sideways run through the ladder. The back foot steps over the front foot without swinging it out wide. Keep your arms at 90-degrees and move them along the rest of your body. you can repeat each run facing either left or right.

Toe taps

Toe taps are a variation of in and outs and are basically scissors across the ladder. You hop onto each box with an alternating foot, touching the center of the box with your toes. Only one foot goes in every other box. Basically, you start with your right foot in the first box, with the ladder continuing to your left. Then, you hop and place your left foot in the second box, and so on

Broad jumps

Broad jumps are the same as the basic hops but you choose a different amount of boxes to jump over. They are a great beginner’s exercise and will push your ability to jump further by constantly increasing the number of rungs you go over.

Speed-focused drills

Now, let’s focus on some drills that are primarily geared towards building up your speed. Those are:

• Centipede
• One in run
• Fast feet
• Ickey shuffle
• Back and forth
• River dance
• Double trouble

Centipede

The centipede is one of the more advanced drills that will take your speed and coordination to the next level. Start sideways to the ladder and get your lead leg in followed by the other leg. Once they are in the same box, move them over to the next box leading with the lead leg. Once they are in the second box, move them out of it and start all over.

Here is the sequence you need to memorize – two feet in, two over, two out, repeat. Arms should say where they always stay – at your side.

One in run

The one in run drill could be classified as a beginner’s drill but I wanted to put it here since it is also one of the best ways to develop short bursts of speed. It works best with around 8-10 boxes, so if your ladder is longer you might want to exclude a few rungs. You do this drill by running through the ladder by placing one foot per box only. In the future, you can skip a box with each foot to make your steps bigger. That will allow you to accelerate further and easier out of the ladder.

Fast feet

Fast feet is the advanced version of “One step”. You place each foot at the next box without both of your feet ever touching the same box. The key here is to do is fast and to glide over the ladder. Keep your hands steady and accelerate out of the ladder for an added explosiveness.

You can increase the difficulty of this exercise by adding hurdles every 2-3 boxes.

Ickey shuffle

The Ickey shuffle is perhaps the hardest agility/speed exercise you can learn and it