“Do you work on ladder drills/foot speed drills/ (insert any type of foot speed development buzz word here) with your athletes?”
We will hear this when we work with our athletes as they are coming back from an injury and preparing for return to sport. Parents and athletes will commonly ask if they are performed in rehab and/or in strength and conditioning to help prepare the athlete.
When we work with athletes at Move Strong Physical Therapy inside of Cressey Sports Performance in Hudson, MA,
any type of foot speed drills or ladder drills would be considered a very small part of our rehab/strength and conditioning that we implement with an athlete coming back from an injury.
We have worked with countless athletes who have done ladder drills or some other variation to work on their foot speed, but don’t see a return on their investment by being able to move faster on the field.
Years ago, we heard an analogy that was used when it comes to ladder drills that made 100% complete sense and why drills like that have a time and a place, but the proper foundation must be in place.
“Doing ladder drills is like putting a nice coat of paint on a Ford Prius in order to try and make it drive faster.”
You can substitute any small, insignificant change that you could make to any model of average car.
The underlying theme behind that analogy is that in order for you to run faster, you need to put more force into the ground. In order to put more force into the ground, you need to have the pre-requisite strength in order to do that OR you need become stronger. In other words, you need to build up the horsepower underneath the hood of the car in order to drive faster.
Simple strength training movements such as:
If an athlete is coming off of an injury and has been deconditioned, incurred some strength deficits, or is just untrained, performing loaded strength training movements is typically a better place to start. This is not to say that an athlete can’t do ladder drills or foot speed drills, but if they don’t have the pre-requisite “horsepower” underneath the hood of the car, you are eventually going to reach a limit on how fast you can move.
Another post where we spoke about the importance of strength and conditioning after an injury is Why Are Athletes Weak Months After ACL Surgery?
We work with athletes coming back from an injury and/or who are looking to optimize their performance. Take that first step to getting back to what you want to be doing, click HERE, we can help.