Want to have quick feet, blazing speed and the ability to juke people out of their shoes? Fast feet and power do not happen overnight. They take a lot of repetition and hard work.

At Xceleration, our speed work starts with making our athletes efficient and powerful as they move from one plane of motion to the next. This allows them to focus more on their sport as their body moves quickly and powerfully and in a safe position.

You can get started today by doing these awesome speed drills.

Drill 1: Transition Ladder

 How to:

• Start by moving your feet back and forth fast while staying in place.
• On a cue from your coach, jump, turn your body 90 degrees and land on one foot.
• Immediately upon landing, drive that foot into the ground and jump back to starting position.
• Repeat down the ladder.

Benefits:

• Rapid change of direction, lower-body power, injury prevention
• By landing on one foot (which you do all the time in sports) you are able to find and fix flaws with your landing.

Drill 2: Backwards Quick Feet to Reaction Cut

 How to :

• Start by moving your feet back and forth in an athletic position.
• Move backwards just a little while moving your feet.
• On your coach’s cue, plant your outside foot and cut in the direction to which he points.
• Land safely and immediately resume moving your feet back and forth in the athletic position.

Benefits:

• Foot quickness, hip mobility, backpedal efficiency
• Helps a with making cuts.
• Great for DBs or any athlete who requires backpedaling. When you switch and make that cut, you will start to feel where your feet should be and the best way to make a strong cut to burn your opponents.

Drill 3: Shuffle/Slam/Sprint

 How to:

• Shuffle 5 yards quickly.
• Slam a 12- to 14-pound med ball hard to your outside foot.
• Shuffle 5 yards the opposite way and slam the ball again.
• On the third slam, push the ball away and go right into an all-out sprint in the opposite direction.

Benefits:

• Shuffling skills, full-body power, foot speed, sprint form, first-step quickness
• By shuffling with the added weight, you make your feet work harder. The slam adds explosive power.
• The best part is when you slam, turn and sprint you are learning how to apply more force into the ground, which is huge for first-step quickness.

Drill 4: Lateral Scissor to Knee Drive

 How to:

• Perform the Lateral Scissor drill
• On your coach’s cue, perform a Lunge Jump and drive your knee as fast as possible.
• Come back to the Lateral Scissor drill.

Benefits:

• Lateral movement, knee drive, foot speed
• This is a great drill for moving laterally, and it’s pretty tough to do. By jumping quickly and driving your knee, you really force your legs to move quickly and efficiently.

Drill 5: Quick Foot to Hurdle Hop

 How to:

• Perform the Icky Shuffle inside the ladder moving forward.
• When you get to a hurdle, jump over it with your knees staying over your toes.
• Land safely and go back to foot jabs.

Benefits:

• Foot speed, lower-body power, jumping ability, change of direction
• Forces you to move fast from one plane of motion to performing a Jump to going back to the forward plane of motion.
• Great way to teach kids how to react and jump in a safe and effective position.

Drill 6: Boudro Circus

How to:

See the above video.

Benefits:

• Foot speed, jumping ability, lower-body explosiveness, full-body power
• I’m not going to lie—I was having some fun when I designed this. It incorporates multiple layers of speed and agility.
• Best of all, it takes some energy to get through this entire drill without messing up. So it’s a great way to develop your conditioning.

So there you have it. Remember, speed and agility are all about developing efficiency and power when moving from one plane of motion to the next.

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