Why Do We Do This Ladder Stuff???

I'm sure many of you who have been attending training over the past several months have wondered why we're so keen on these ladder drills...and those of you training with your college teams may be doing the same types of drills and wondering the same thing.  But what is the point of doing these drills?

One online dictionary site defines agility as "the gracefulness of a person or animal that is quick and nimble"... I'm not sure if "nimble" is the best word (but does make me laugh!)...let's find another definition.  The definition that the sports medicine world likes to use is:

AGILITY:  "...refers to an athlete's ability to change direction quickly and appropriately while maintaining maximal speed, balance, and power.  Agility can also refer to how well an athlete changes directions laterally."

That sounds more like what we've been doing at training.  Agility is one of the key components of any fitness program, and definitely a requirement of any team trying to bring down softball teams from other provinces.  It's a highly advanced skill, because you need several other skills to be able to perform many of the drills: flexibility, strength, power, balance and coordination.  Think about the first times you did the ladder drills and tried to go backwards through the ladder (take my word for it- that was entertaining for us to watch), or do the lateral lunges or the heel click drill.  You probably weren't stellar at the beginning, but now after lots of practice your agility has improved and you're a lot better at many of the drills (and it's less entertaining for us to watch).

Also related to agility is speed and quickness.  This is why you need to emphasize always going as fast as you can and focusing on transitioning between jumps/steps/etc.  There's really no point in doing ladder drills at half speed...I would call that kind of a waste of time.  What about the jumping drills?  Jumping higher is achieved through strength, which you need in order to improve your agility.  Improved strength should lead to an increase in our speed when we try and go faster through the drill.  This is why it's so important that we incorporate all the different components of agility into our training- we can't improve agility by doing just one thing.

And what about agility in softball?  Do softball players have to run patterns like a football player?  What about running set plays like a basketball player?  Well, no, but I'm sure you'd all like to increase your foot speed when you're running the bases wouldn't you?  It might mean the difference between being safe or out, or between sliding into a base or standing up.  If you can improve your agility, then you should be able to turn the corners quicker when you're baserunning.  Or what about when you slide into a base and the other team has an overthrow and you need to get up quickly and get moving to the next base?  Agility is definitely working in that situation.  When you're in the field, maybe the ball takes a bad bounce and you have to react to get behind it so that you're not running to the fence.  Quick feet will get you there.  Think about the position you play, or imagine yourself at bat...what situations demand agility?

I have no fun pictures to put with my post...all that comes up are dogs being agile like this one (however, it is an excellent example of agility):

Keep enjoying the ladder and jumping drills!

vp