any tips on improving quickness and speed

[shealax21]

I am a defensive player and im looking to improve my quickness and speed to keep up with the slides and on one-on-one's before the season starts. My stamina is alright so mainly looking for just the quickness and speed. Open to all types of training for either.

[CTLaxer]

sprints, jumping rope, hopping over a field cone with 2 feet and then with 1, hop in the weight room and do some calf raises and leg presses, sprints/run with leg weights. Those come to mind off the top of my head.

[lacrosse64]

Those are all good especially the jump roping as a d man i love the agility ladder. It helps soooo much. Try it they are very expensive iborrowed mine from te school ask your coach if there are any extra. They are excellent they help you a lot.

[shealax21]

Thanks for the tips, but i'm not sure what an agility latter is.

[lacrosse64]

umm agility ladder is like a ladder layed out but flat it has bars going acrss like plastic bars. You do feet drills like 2 feet in each box or 1 in one out. They help a lot.

[franks2089]

just do sprints and run as fast as you can each time

[Fakie]

plyometrics

[extreme lax]

IF you have a treadmill do full incline on 8 mph or 8+ i can only do 8 at a constant speed. And ankle weights help a great deal also.

[lottaLaX]

run hills ^ probably harder than the treadmill

[Cip]

umm agility ladder is like a ladder layed out but flat it has bars going acrss like plastic bars. You do feet drills like 2 feet in each box or 1 in one out. They help a lot.
You could also just draw boxes on the ground using chalk.

[Jugthug42]

You could also just draw boxes on the ground using chalk.

Problem with this is that people often wont lift their legs up high enough. That is what actually will make you increase in agility and speed. This is why they have ladders instead of just boxes painted or chalked onto the ground.

[laxgirl45]

training is the best thing that you can do.....every day do some sprints, jumping ropes, suicide is a good drill to improve speed. it may not be the funnest thing, but it works.

[zak]

When you flat out sprinting make sure you move your arms/hands front to back not across your body, almost like the way your legs do. You would be suprised how many people don't do this and how much it can help.

[extreme lax]

Fakie didnt you have an old account name

[ZeroV]

My advice:

Run hills, do some sprints, and jump cones. That way you get faster, stronger and your footwork gets a little better.

[LacrosseFox16]

yeah people said this but try doing like 10 hill repeats they really strengthn your legs

[midman17]

umm agility ladder is like a ladder layed out but flat it has bars going acrss like plastic bars. You do feet drills like 2 feet in each box or 1 in one out. They help a lot.

try doing them with a medicine ball start with like an 8 pounder. and move up if necessary I use a 15 pounder during speed ladder

[Pietrolax11]

Fakie has the right idea, i've been doing plyometrics for 2 years now and i've included it in my team conditioning and the guys love it, i've noticed a significant change in my speed since i started doing plyometrics. There are one or two books on Plyos that you can find usually at your local barnes N Noble type stores, also ask around I'm sure there are a few people, specially track coaches that know about these workouts

[Aesop Rock]

Problem with this is that people often wont lift their legs up high enough. That is what actually will make you increase in agility and speed. This is why they have ladders instead of just boxes painted or chalked onto the ground.
Some rope and a few steaks into the ground, and you have your height.

[GoalieKiller]

another good work out is sprinting stairs, either a machine or at home, you can do double leg hop, single leg hops, or just singles. These will work you out and help out with speed.

[imipono]

Don Chu has a book on plyometrics and another good book that shows some very good exercises is Core Performance by Mark Verstegen. Try once of those funky bouning balls to improve reaction time. You can get one of those on line and, interestingly enough, at you local pet store. A Kong toy is basically the same thing. It looks like four half balls glued together at different angles to bounce funny. They're fun...

[Laxman3]

Do you mean a Z-Ball?

[imipono]

yeah! a z-ball is one name for it. That and the agility ladder are probably the best things you can do to improve quickness and reaction time. A lot of transverse and frontal plane hops will help tremendously. If you keep up the training consistently you'll see improvement. If it gets easy try to find ways to make it more challenging...