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Increasing Lateral Foot Speed
How can your team increase lateral foot speed? Renowned performance trainer offers up advice.
By Jackie Ansley
Q: My team has trouble defending. What can we do to help our lateral foot-speed?
Jackie: Working on a player's/team's body
position (loading their hips) will help get the player/players on balance and in a more explosive defensive stance. Once the player/players are playing on the balls of their feet, with their hips loaded, lateral foot-speed drills (ladder and hurdles), explosive drills (sidewinder) and reactive drills (change of direction on visual command) will increase not only their foot-speed but their first step as well. Getting a post player to defend the paint and push the offensive player out by moving his feet or a guard not giving up baseline penetration and chasing is what we strive to achieve.
Q: My team does lots of weight training, but they can't seem to put power and quickness together. How can we fix that?
Jackie: Lateral and vertical explosion is a measure of how quickly a player moves left/right and straight up and how much distance he covers in doing so. Training the player to be in the correct body position before the movement will enable him to move more precisely and effectively when called upon to react. Training with resistance provides the player with the overload he needs to gain strength. When the resistance is removed and freedom of movement is restored, a player will experience sharper, more focused reactions.
Cutting off the sideline in a press or the baseline in half court is very much a function of lateral explosion. Vertical explosion is jumping effectively a second or third time consecutively for a rebound or block. Often we know where the player is heading or where the ball is coming off the rim, we just can't get our body there in time. Training for better lateral and vertical explosion changes that.
Q: I know injuries can't be prevented but is there anything we can do as a team to minimize them other than lifting weights?
Jackie: Turned ankles. Twisted knees. These injuries are common on the basketball court, and are due in large part to poor balance and body position. Too often, players are in a position on the court (offense or defense) that places undue stress on the knees.
By teaching players to transfer their body weight from their knees to their hips, their on-court movements become more fluid and their chance of injury is reduced significantly. Since most ankle injuries occur when the foot is returning to the floor, it is important to train the player to keep his foot in a better position while it is in the air and land on the balls of his feet, keeping the ankle in a good stabilized position (rather than on his toes).
Most knee injuries happen when a player plants (usually not contact) and tries to change direction whether it is lateral, linear or vertical. Drills to improve balance and stabilization of both the ankle and knee can be easily incorporated into every practice, either as a stand-alone exercise or combined with other drills. OC
 About Jackie:
From player, to coach, to director of specialized exercise conditioning programs for the likes of Nike and adidas, to clinician and speaker, Jackie Ansley has been enriching the lives of athletes in all sports around the world. The premise behind her training program – Speed, Agility and Quickness (S.A.Q.) – is to increase and utilize speed, agility and quickness in training and performance in all types of athletic pursuits. These techniques help train athletes from middle school to the professional ranks.
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