Hey, I’m playing softball this summer and I’m interested in increasing my lateral speed. Anybody got any good tips? I’ve got the lifting side covered but I’m looking for some other types of training. I looked into agility ladders a little, but have never used them before. Thanks.
I’m of the opinion that your sport will take care of your agility needs, focus on the more trainable motor qualities like strength , power should be of secondary focus.
Have you tried any speed work, example plyometrics? The speed ladder is good for footwork, which is needed in every sport. I highly recommend one. You can even draw one on you drive way with chalk. Here are a few suggestions I use with my athletes. Especially my tennis players who live and die by lateral quickness. Put two cones apart about three feet to start. Jump from one leg to the other cone landing on the opposite leg. Then repeat. Each jump needs to be explosive. As soon as you land, explode to the next one. A Increase the distance from there. Also lateral box jumps can be good. Just jump on a box sideways. You could also work on lateral sprints at diffrent distances. This is a good place to start. I would suggest picking up a book on plyometrics or speed work because its hard for me to explain w/o pictures or videos. You might ask John Davies. He has plenty of videos in his library.
Hope that helps