Instructions for the Agility Ladder

Using an agility ladder will greatly improve the footwork conditioning of any athlete. While an agility ladder may look simple to use and not appear to give a person much of a workout, the various orders of movement require mental focus and physical agility.

  1. Basics of the Agility Ladder

    • Lay the agility ladder in an area where you have enough space to move. While your movements should be confined to the ladder, if you lose your balance, you want to be free from anything you may hurt yourself on. Think of the ladder as a real fireman's ladder that has main lines and crosses. You will need to cross over lines, not through them.
      As you go up and back on the agility ladder (hopping from one end of the room to the other through the boxes), keep track of your time to monitor your progress. Determine which end is your starting point and make sure you perform movements going from start to end and back to give both sides of your body a workout.
      Frontal moves have you face the ladder as if you were walking toward it. Lateral moves are done with your body facing the main lines and perpendicular to the crosses.

    Starting Your Agility Work

    • Start with a basic jogging motion through each line with each foot climbing the ladder levels, not missing a box, but not letting your feet land in the same box. Alternate the jogging to go in and out of the ladder moving up with side movements as well.
      You can use the agility ladder with feet together, but you will have better balance (and better mimic real athletic movement) if your feet are about shoulder-width apart. Start with frontal positioning such as a bunny hop movement from each box from the bottom of the ladder to the top. When you come back, don't turn around and hop forward; instead, hop backwards. Do this slowly as it is more important to teach your body balance and the movement and increase speed over time.
      Another movement is to position yourself laterally to hop sideways in each box, going from left to right then back to the left. Other variations can have you hop in a center box, then hop out of the ladder in the adjacent space outside of the ladder, then hop diagonally up to the next center box. You should alternate hopping from center to adjacent left then center to adjacent right.

    More Advanced Moves

    • Using all of the same patterns of movement you do with both feet at the same time, do a repetition on only one foot. Start with the left, then change to the right. Beyond just alternating from jumping with both feet to one foot, you can alternate footwork patterns.
      You can do lateral crossover patterns in which the right foot hops into one box with the left crossing over the right and into the box next to your right foot. You continue this pattern all the way down and back. You can do jumping jack foot movements in which the right foot may start in the first right box and the left foot is in the third box for the open position. When closing, the two feet meet in the center. Open and close all the way down and back.