Quickness is one of the most important physical characteristics for athlete involved in basketball, soccer, or football. These sports require athletes to have exceptional non-linear quickness. Non-linear drills also happen to be the best way to increase overall quickness in these specific athletes. In addition, these drills can also be used for athletics that are primarily linear in nature such as sprinters or cross-country runners. A common misconception is that since these particular athletes only run in a linear fashion, then that should also be the way that they train.
As a result, strength and conditioning coaches will have these athletes perform countless linear drills. With new research, it is now known that linear athletes can actually see significant gains from non-linear training. So what is non-linear training? Non-linear quickness drills involve drastic change of direction, and very limited linear actions.
Soccer Drills
There are hundreds of drills that athletes can perform to develop greater quickness, but I'm going to explain some of the most effective ones.
One of the greatest methods for increasing quickness is through plyometric drills. Plyometrics involve short, and explosive movement either a vertical or horizontal direction. Some popular plyometric drills include vertical jumps, side-to-side box jumps, long jumps, single-leg rim jumps, and depth jumps. Each of these drills are designed to strengthen the quick twitch muscle fibers.
Quick twitch muscle fibers are largely responsible for quickness in athletes. Some athletes are born with stronger and more developed fibers, while others must actively train to build them.
Other excellent quickness drills involve the utilization of a speed ladder. Speed ladders are designed to increase the foot speed and quickness in athletes. This piece of training equipment is essential because of its unlimited possibilities. There are literally hundreds of different drills that can be performed with these ladders.
Some of the most popular drills include high knees, ickey shuffle, one-foot hip rotation, two-feet shuffle, two-feet lateral hops, and one foot in each.
Another drill for developing quickness involves hills sprints. Hills sprints are one of the best ways for developing greater quickness because of its extreme level of difficulty. Typically, it is best to sprint on short distances such as 10 to 30 yards. You can stretch it out as far as 60 yards, but at that point you aren't really training for quickness anymore.
For maximum results, you should use each of these methods in combination with about 1-2 days rest in-between. These drills are purely designed for quickness, but you should also be actively weightlifting in order to see the best results.
Quickness Drills
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