Dodging Exercises

The ability to dodge requires rapid reflexes, first-step quickness and the ability to change direction in unpredictable conditions. Dodging well requires not only physical skills but also speedy mental processing and split-second decision making. You can perform exercises enabling you to improve your footwork and reaction to external stimuli. However, there's nothing like a dodgeball drill in which you have to step out of the way of a speeding ball.

  1. React and Respond

    • The ability to quickly react to an external stimulus is known as your reaction time. You have to first see or sense the stimulus and then make a decision on how to act. In athletics, these decisions can happen within 200 milliseconds, according to "Training for Speed, Agility, and Quickness" by Lee Brown and Vance Ferrigno. Movement time is determined by how long it takes to do a physical task once you've made a decision. Your total response time spans the time it takes you to react to an external stimulus, decide what to do and then move. Dodging exercises help to speed up your response time as well as hone your instincts to make the right decisions.

    Speed Up Reflexes

    • By performing various footwork drills, such as shuffling, crossover stepping, running laterally, back-pedalling, racing through ladders, tires or obstacle courses or zigzagging around cones, you can improve your agility. Ladder drills boost your foot speed and simultaneously improve balance. For example, begin a side-step drill by standing next to the end of a ladder on the ground, your right side closer to the ladder. Step to the far side of the first square with your right foot. As soon as your right foot lands, place your left foot into the first square. Continue this stepping pattern until you're reached the end of the ladder and then reverse direction. To perform a hopping drill, face the ladder and jump with both feet from one square to the next as rapidly as possible.

    Pick Up On Cues

    • To improve your ability to recognize relevant stimuli and respond quickly, you can perform drills to enhance body control. For example, begin a drill that uses visual cues by placing two cones 10 yards apart. While you stand in athletic position at cone A, have your coach or a partner stand at cone B. When your partner issues a "Go" command, run in place with high knees and watching your partner for a visual cue. Different visual cues will signal a change in direction. If your partner drops his arms to his sides, backpedal. Hands raised overhead is the command to sprint forward. Arms extended forward signals running in place. For eight to 10 seconds, have your partner give you random visual cues to change direction, and respond as quickly as possible.

    Dodge a Ball

    • If you want to hone your dodging ability, perform dodgeball drills in which you have to evade a speeding ball. For example, begin a dodging drill by placing bibs or circles cut out of poster board on a gym floor. You can use any kind of court -- dodgeball, basketball, volleyball -- to designate the boundaries of the drill. Have two throwers stand in the middle of one side of the court with a box of rubber balls. The rest of the players form a line on the back line of the other side of the court. Each player takes a turn to run and grab a circle off the court without getting hit by a thrown ball. Each successful grab in which you manage to dodge the ball scores one point. The player with the most points at the end of the drill is designated the winner.