Ladder and sprint wave

The agility ladder as the starting point, and after that the whole line sprints to the far side in one wave. Because players set off in small groups at the same time there is a pace to it that you never get out of a single line, and even with eleven players nobody stands still for long.

11 players 7 phases ± 10 min 1 agility ladder, the full court From U15 upwards

Phase 1 of 7Eleven players in line behind the ladder

Players in the line and on the move 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

Warm-up with the agility ladder: players work through the ladder and then sprint to the other side in a wave.

Turning fast feet into a full sprint over the length of the court.
Sprinting in a group: staying level with each other and holding your own lane.
Producing a second and a third effort while the first one is still in your legs.

Coaching points

Sprint past the line, not to the line.

Players hit the brakes a meter too early without noticing it. On the court a ball also lands just half a meter further than you thought, and then that habit is an expensive one.

Everybody stays in their own lane.

Sprinting in a group tempts players into overtaking and cutting across. Keeping space here is a safety rule, not a tactic.

Watch how players run after the third wave.

This drill shows you who loses their technique the moment they get tired. That is useful information for the rest of your practice, and you get it for free.

Build the waves up: the first one easy, the last one flat out.

An all-out sprint as the first effort of practice is the classic way to tear a hamstring. The order matters more here than the number of reps.

Variations

Easier: Half the court length, the ladder at walking pace and one wave at a time instead of running continuously.
Harder: A block jump at the line straight after the sprint, or jog the way back backwards.
With six players: Two waves of three instead of three waves of four; that keeps the waiting short enough.
As a game: The wave only counts if everybody arrives within an arm's length of each other. That forces the fastest player to match their pace to the group.

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: keeping a big group moving · why isolated drills do not transfer by themselves · how to build a whole practice