Skip Schumaker and How To Increase Baseball Speed

St. Louis Cardinals leadoff hitter Skip Schumaker enhances lateral speed and foot quickness by performing an Agility Ladder Series with coaching by Todd Norman.

Todd Norman explains how St Louis Cardinals hitter Skip Schumaker increases his baseball speed. Skip Schumaker improves his footwork by completing ladder drills and shuffles. Skip uses resistance bands for first reps and then nothing for the second.

TRANSCRIPT

Todd Norman: Today with the agility ladder, I had Skip put an ankle band on, and all the drills we did were specifically drills that were going to hit his hips. And when Athletes are trying to change direction and move side to side, you've got to have good lateral power and strength. So when he's doing those drills, he was having to overcome that resistance all the time. We did icky shuffles, we did in and out shuffles, we did lateral two in keeping the feet separated. I was having him do a lateral punch where you had to pop that foot in. Again, in all of them he had to stay low, keep the toes straight and then, if you notice when he took that band off, his feet fire so fast he barely could keep up with himself. And that's what you're looking for.