By Stephen Portee, MS, CSCS
If you're a parent of an athlete, you've probably seen videos claiming speed ladders will make your child faster, quicker, or more agile. Maybe it's a social media post. Maybe it's a drill from practice. Some even add resistance bands and promise improved strength and stability.
So what's the truth? Like most things in training, the answer is nuanced.
Speed ladders aren't useless — they're just often given too much credit. They can be great for warm-ups, coordination and rhythm, and focus and engagement.
For younger athletes, ladders provide structure and help develop body awareness. For older athletes, they can be a useful way to prepare the body for more demanding work later in a session. Used this way, they're a tool, not the main event.
The biggest limitation is that ladder drills don't train the qualities that truly drive speed and agility. A 2020 systematic review in the International Journal of Sports Medicine looked at the available research on agility ladders and found the evidence base "scarce and problematic," with poorly described protocols and mostly single-dimension performance measures across the handful of qualifying studies. The authors concluded that claims of meaningful agility improvement from ladder training are premature given the quality of the existing research.[1]
Athletes get faster by learning how to produce force into the ground, absorb force when slowing down, and redirect force efficiently. Most ladder drills involve quick, light foot contacts. While they may look fast, they don't challenge an athlete's ability to generate the levels of force required in sport. Agility isn't just fast feet. It's the ability to create and control force.
You'll often see ladders paired with resistance bands around the ankles or knees. While these drills may create a burning sensation, they're usually not providing enough resistance to build meaningful strength, especially once an athlete moves beyond the beginner stage. Real strength comes from progressive loading over time through a structured strength training program.
If the goal is improving speed and agility, training time is often better spent on sprint mechanics and acceleration work, deceleration and change-of-direction training, plyometrics, strength training, and resisted sprinting when appropriate. These methods directly target the qualities that carry over to sport performance, the same qualities we build progressively in How I Approach Training Someone for Speed and Speed and Power Training for Active Adults.
Speed ladders can be a useful part of training, especially for warm-ups, coordination, and younger athletes. What they shouldn't be is the foundation of a speed program.
Athletes develop real speed and agility by getting stronger, learning how to apply and absorb force, and following a training program that progresses over time. Ladders can play a role in that process — they're just not the shortcut they're often marketed to be.
Stephen Portee, MS, CSCS is the Managing Partner and lead strength and conditioning coach at Apollo Performance Chiropractic & Training in Pleasantville, NY.
