Check out this kids feet going through a speed ladder!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxgoWMcNS4U

Watch from 40secs onwards.

Amazing!


Never seen how ladders help for sports though. Soccer teams love 'em; esp in the US. At this point in time I'm yet to be convinced of their uses.

Good for speed of movement drills and rapid co-ordination. Some sports like tennis benefit a lot from them imo.
Always good to get the HR up also and used for a bit of HIIT in a circuit.

Amazing near the beginning, although towards the end it did look like he was standing all over it.

Yeh he lost his flow a bit, the girl was a let down.

Coop_de_Ville wrote:Good for speed of movement drills and rapid co-ordination. Some sports like tennis benefit a lot from them imo.
Always good to get the HR up also and used for a bit of HIIT in a circuit.

I disagree. I was a county tennis player and never once did ladder drills. I feel that in 10 years of county standard tennis I wasn't missing anything. You never do a movement like the ladder drill in tennis. We used the court for speed drills (sprints from one place to another and placing a ball etc etc) and lots of tennis. And when I started to weight train my game got sooo much better.

I know many coaches that would disagree. However I admit it isn't going to change someone into a new player but the coordination and timing of movement can only be positive, I can only see an improvement by using these drills.

Coop_de_Ville wrote:I know many coaches that would disagree.

Of course, I do not dispute that.

tbh I should've been more accurate in my opinion. I think that once you can play the game and are fairly decent (hold a rally for at least 10 shots [say]), it's a waste of time. For young children and learners then I see it being useful for say 2 months. After that, not so good imo.

Just improve fitness using sprint drills on the court, that also involve quick changes of direction... just like in a game of tennis, e.g. from baseline centre mark, sprint to far right hand corner of service box and place ball on corner, then side step across service line, pick up ball that's there and sprint back to another corner on baseline... etc etc... you get the idea. That is very much like tennis. Not like ladder drills.

health4ni wrote:

Coop_de_Ville wrote:I know many coaches that would disagree.

Of course, I do not dispute that.

tbh I should've been more accurate in my opinion. I think that once you can play the game and are fairly decent (hold a rally for at least 10 shots [say]), it's a waste of time. For young children and learners then I see it being useful for say 2 months. After that, not so good imo.

Just improve fitness using sprint drills on the court, that also involve quick changes of direction... just like in a game of tennis, e.g. from baseline centre mark, sprint to far right hand corner of service box and place ball on corner, then side step across service line, pick up ball that's there and sprint back to another corner on baseline... etc etc... you get the idea. That is very much like tennis. Not like ladder drills.

Have played tennis a little bit and i agree... being able to move (at speed) from one position in the court to another whilst also arriving in position to deliver good technique is integral. Doesn't matter how perfect your groundstrokes or volleys are if you can't get into position to use them!

I agree that other types of drills should be used in the majority but I don't see any negative effects from using these drills as part of a circuit. In more relation to tennis it is a useful tool in my opinion for slowing down to a ball as these small steps are essential for that. I see so many people just striding up to their shots and this could be helped to change by conditioning using the ladder (amongst other drills).

I totally agree that it shouldn't be the main focus of a fitness session but used an an auxillary to develop both fitness and tennis specific movement patterns.