Ladder and sprint — coordination circuit

Agility ladder, sprint, a turn around the cone and jog back. The cone is what sets this apart from a plain ladder drill: after the quick feet the player still has to brake and turn, and that combination is what actually happens on court.

9 players 6 phases ± 10 min 1 agility ladder, 1 cone, the full court From U15 upwards

Phase 1 of 6Nine players in the circuit: four wait, five are on the move

Players in the circuit Equipment Ball

This animation comes straight out of the Koach app. In the app you play it at your own pace and the positions carry your players' real names.

Open in the app

How the drill runs

What you are training

Footwork warm-up: through the agility ladder, around the cone and jog back; nine players rotate through the circuit non-stop.

Turning a high step frequency into a real sprint.
Braking and turning around the cone without sinking down or swinging wide.
Putting your foot down exactly where you want it: coordination, not power.

Coaching points

Feet in the boxes, not on the rungs.

Standing on a rung is how players go down in a ladder. On top of that the tempo becomes unreliable, so you are training sloppiness instead of rhythm.

The arms move along in the ladder as well as in the sprint.

Players hold their arms still through the ladder and then have to start them up again for the sprint. That half a beat is exactly what this drill is meant to remove.

Brake with three short steps before the cone.

One big braking step puts all the force on one knee. Braking short spreads the load and gives you a quicker acceleration out of the turn as well.

Quality before tempo in the first two rounds.

Coordination work on cold or tired legs grinds in sloppy patterns. Let the speed come once the pattern is right.

Variations

Easier: Ladder at walking pace with one foot per box, and the cone further away so there is time to brake.
Harder: Sideways through the ladder facing the same way throughout, or jog back backwards after the cone.
With twelve players: Two identical circuits side by side, so there are never more than three players waiting at once.
As a game: Two groups, and the clock runs until the last player is in. A foot on a rung means that player does the ladder again.

Volleyball drills

4 players · 6 phases SafeVolley base round Warm-up 3 players · 5 phases Shoulder activation with band Warm-up 2 players · 6 phases Dynamic movement patterns Warm-up 5 players · 5 phases Core plank with rotation Warm-up

Read on in the knowledge base: footwork at the net · posture and movement in defense · switching from defense to attack