There are both positives and negatives in practicing drills with ladders, hurdles, and cones.
Agility drills are very popular in football training. They are used for improving the ability to change direction while in motion. This ability, which is the definition of sports agility, is a very important ingredient for success. For example, a football running back must be able to quickly change direction when he sees a defender preparing to tackle him. A receiver must be able to quickly change directions to elude a cornerback. A safety must have the ability to keep up with (or to cover) the receiver and not allow him any separation.
The quicker and sharper the changes in direction, the better the athlete can elude or stay with his opponent. The ability to make quick, sharp changes in direction also enables the player to exhibit great quickness. In all levels of football, there are many good running backs, receivers and other position players, who can run fast in a straight line. But, in order for them to be great, they must also be able to elude or stay with their opponent by changing directions quickly. If they do not have this ability, they will never be great.
Thus, the ability to change direction quickly while in motion is critical for success in playing a specific position. Because of this, coaches have devised many drills to improve this ability. In general, most of these drills involve ladders, hurdles and cones. These drills have proven to be extremely popular and are now used by teams in all levels of competition.
By using these agility drills, coaches take it for granted that the athletes will become quicker and faster and, in some cases, more explosive. However, close examination of these popular drills and how they are executed, shows that the actions involved in executing these drills are not specific to the cutting actions that the athlete must execute in a game. Keep in mind that cutting actions are the key to any quick changes in direction.
Cutting is a combination of the technical ability to execute the movement, and the physical ability to perform it in a quick, powerful and explosive manner. In order to exhibit great quickness, you must have well-developed explosive muscles and excellent technique. Without these prerequisites, changes in direction will be relatively slow and require stutter steps in order to slow down sufficiently so that the change in direction can be made.
For example, when making a 90° cut to the right or left when running or accelerating forward, most athletes usually take a few stutter steps to slow down in order to plant the foot and step out to the side. But a well-executed cutting action is done in only one step. Any time it requires more than one step, execution is slower and the athlete is no longer exhibiting great quickness. However, to be able to make such quick cutting actions, the athlete must know how to execute the cut and have well-developed muscles to carry out the cutting action in the shortest amount of time.
In a typical ladder drill, with the ladder lying on the ground or approximately a foot off the ground, the athlete raises his knees upward in order to execute each step successfully. Each step is a short step which necessitates the upward action. In other words, the steps drive the thigh upward, not forward, as occurs in a running or cutting action.
Understand that the key to a successful change in direction while running is in the ability to execute the cutting action. In an effective cut, the player plants the lead leg and then steps out and pushes off in the desired direction. The feet stay close to the ground and the athlete drives the thigh forward or sideward as the cut is accomplished.
The ladder drill is not specific to what occurs in a cutting action. Similar situations exist when using hurdles or cones. In order to go over these objects in repeated actions, it is necessary to drive the thigh upward, not forward, as occurs in running, accelerating and taking a quick first step. Driving the thigh upward rather than forward actually creates a slower execution rather than a faster one. This is a very important point that must be taken into consideration when deciding whether these drills are beneficial.
I first became aware of this difference in thigh movement when I saw video of former All-Pro running back Emmitt Smith executing a cut. I had been using him as a model for effective cutting technique in my teaching and coaching for many years. He had great cutting technique. However, in his last few years in the NFL, his cuts were getting much slower and he was not as successful. The only difference in his technique was the high thigh lift as he made his cuts. I soon discovered it was due to the ladder and hurdle drills that he was doing.
Agility drills can be of benefit to athletes if the drills duplicate or include the cutting action. Being able to duplicate the cut, the key action that is involved in change of direction is the secret to the success of any agility drill. When the drills are repeated often enough with the correct action, there will be a transfer of how the athlete executes the skill to the game.
But if athletes do many ladder, hurdle or cone drills, they learn to drive the knees upward rather than forward or sideward. If they duplicated a true cutting action in which the feet stay close to the ground as the knees are driven forward or sideward, it would bring about a positive transfer that could improve skill execution. Practicing the cutting action in a drill is much more productive.
When discussing improvement in agility, it is common to hear coaches talk of developing fast feet. To do this, they use ladder drills in which you step over each rung and then stutter step two or three times as quickly as possible before stepping over the next ladder step. For variety, they may have the athlete traverse the entire ladder sideways. Execution is basically the same so that the athlete drives his knees upward to go over each rung of the ladder. Also included are stutter steps in between to develop “faster feet”.
However, the cutting action, which is the basis for sports agility, is not a matter of fast feet. It is a matter of fast legs. You must be able to move the legs from the hips in order to move quickly or to execute quick cutting actions. In addition, the feet must remain close to the ground regardless of whether the step being taking is short or long. In other words, as the cut is being executed, the body is lowered as the athlete pushes off and steps out with the leg closest to the direction in which he wants to move. As he executes the step out with the leg, he turns the body so he can quickly assume the running position.
At times, it is beneficial if the athlete has the ability to rotate the hips and/or shoulders a full 90° in order to be more elusive with his cut. This allows him to maintain eye contact with his opponent and keep his shoulders facing frontwards. In so doing, the opponent does not have an idea that a change in direction is about to take place.
Hurdle drills are essentially the same as ladder drills since their execution is similar. In these drills, you move in a forward or sideward manner. Cone drills however, are used mainly for side (lateral) movements. In these drills, you leap sideways over a cone in one direction and then back in the opposite direction. The key to successful execution is a high knee drive to successfully clear the top of the cone. But, this drill also does not duplicate the cutting action.
For a ladder, hurdle or cone drill to be successful, in relation to improving sports performance on the field, it must include cutting actions. Learning how to do the cutting action is imperative. It involves both technical and physical components that are learned skills. These skills must be mastered in order to get maximum benefit for any agility drill.
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