Welcome to yet another drills for your athletes brain. Today we will feature our third drill. If you have not reviewed Brain Drills for Athletes-Drill 1 or Brain Drills for Athletes-Drill 2 you will want to do that so that you are primed for this next one.
As a reminder, not only are these drills beneficial for hand-eye coordination, tracking, concentration and a neural stimulus it adds a new element of fun. Fun in the beginning of a training session is a great way to start out a session. If your athletes come to training dragging
their feet have them use these drills to wake up their nervous system.
DRILL #3 For Athletes Using Agility Ladder
Lay out your agility ladder. Have your athletes perform a one-out and two-in, as they travel down the ladder. The catch is as they perform the one-in and two-out with their feet, they must use their hands to circle a tennis ball around their waist as they go. You can also have them perform this in the frontal plane.
If you have more than one section of an agility ladder you can place these sections to make a maze, if you will. I have my athletes travel down the agility ladder and change planes of motion when a new section of ladder appears all the while they are circling a tennis ball around their waist!
To make this drill even more challenging give them a multiplication problem to solve as they are executing the drill. You may want to hold off on introducing mathematics until they have mastered the initial phase of this drill.
Author: Doug Heslip
Doug Heslip is the owner of Heslip Elite Sports Performance Training in Negaunee, MI and the creator of Seek & Destroy – Elite Running Back Drills a video product for football coaches. He works with young athletes in a variety of sports and teaches football coaches how to incorporate speed & agility training into their sessions.
For more information on developing athletes, the IYCA Certified Athletic Development Specialist is the gold-standard certification for anyone working with athletes 6-18 years old.
Use Code HESLIP15 at checkout to receive 15% all of the IYCA resources.
The course materials were created by some of the most experienced and knowledgeable professionals in the industry, and the content is indisputably the most comprehensive of any certification related to athletic development. Learn more about the CADS certification here:
