Carioca – Agility Ladder

Carioca – Agility Ladder Drill for Improved Lateral Movement

This page looks at the lateral agility ladder drill known as Carioca (or Karoake). This martial arts agility drill helps to improve an athlete’s lateral coordination, balance and speed. This advanced footwork exercise involves a martial artist running laterally across an agility ladder with their feet crossing on top and then on the bottom. This drill differs from the lateral crossovers agility ladder drill where only the front or rear foot crosses.

Lateral agility training helps martial arts students to quickly maneuver around an opponent. This allows martial artists to evade an attack or launch a strike at undefended area (i.e. moving laterally in order to avoid an opponent’s blow and thus being able to quickly launch an effective counter attack against an off-balance opponent). Agility ladder drills should also be part of every martial artist’s speed training routine as improved footwork helps martial artists to generate faster kicks and quicker reaction speed.

All stretches and exercises should be supervised by a trained martial arts instructor in order to prevent injuries and to ensure the proper technique is utilized. For more agility drills, please visit Black Belt Wiki’s main Martial Arts Agility section (for cone drills, dot drills, etc.).

Carioca Agility Ladder Drills