Lateral Agility Ladder Drills

List of Lateral Agility Ladder Drills

This page focuses on lateral agility ladder drills. These drills help to improve lateral (side to side) speed, coordination and footwork. These drills can be done with one foot or two feet. While ladder drills commonly use two feet, athletes also use one foot drills (i.e. hopping on one foot from square to square) in order to improve ankle strength, balance, etc.

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 the Agility Ladder Drills page or the main Martial Arts Agility section (for cone drills, dot drills, etc.). You should also visit the wiki section on Lateral Agility for lateral cone drills and lateral plyometric exercises.

Lateral Agility Ladder Drills – The pages below contain videos and/or written instructions

  • Ali Shuffle – This agility ladder drill is named after Muhammad Ali, the famous boxer.
  • Carioca – Also known as Karaoke
  • Lateral Crossovers – Front Foot or Rear Foot
  • Lateral High Knees
  • Lateral Hop – One Foot Hop
  • Lateral Hop – Two Feet
  • Lateral In & Out – One Foot
  • Lateral Scissor Jumps – Face the side of agility ladder. Left foot in square and right foot out. Jump and go to next square. Land with right foot in and left foot out. Repeat with alternating feet until reach end of agility ladder.
  • Lateral Rotation Shuffle
  • Lateral Run – Two Feet
  • River Dance – The river dance agility ladder drill uses a cadence of in, behind and out.
  • Other Agility Ladder Drills – This section lists many more agility ladder drills.

Lateral Agility Ladder Drills

Lateral Crossovers

Variety of Lateral Agility Ladder Drills