Looking to gain a competitive edge in foot speed? Spin that rope! Jump rope for speed conditionings the cardio system, but also adds the benefit of creating quick feet.

Jumping rope allows the athlete to focus on properly landing on the power pads (forefoot) and quickly, repetitively reacting with a mini jump.

Medicine balls are great for generating force by throwing and tossing them away from your body. It’s different them lifting weights for power, since with med balls you can push or throw the weight away from you without having to slow it down.

Med balls, when used creatively, can add the element of lower body explosiveness to your training routines, such as sprints, shuffles, and backpedals.

The sprint training parachute is one of the best pieces of training equipment to add to your training arsenal! Chutes can be found on the market made in various shapes (single cup, multiple cup, etc.) and of various materials (single lines, multiple line, etc.) but their goal is the same—-provide resistance and to make athletes explosive!

This resistance can be applied sprinting forward, backwards, shuffling, hopping forward—-the list is almost endless. Today I am going to list some speed parachute drills combined with the agility ladder to help improve your game speed.

Plyometrics have long been considered a key in developing explosiveness. Such explosiveness is referred to as “Strength in Motion”. Plyometric training links together strength with speed to create power. It’s essential to athletes, primarily to those who jump, lift or throw.

Plyometric training is designed to enable a muscle to reach maximum strength in a short amount of time. This in turn leads to muscles that propel athletes faster, higher and more explosive.

To gain better mobile, catlike agility, cones can be an integral part in building such a training program. By using cones set up in various configurations, athletes can gain better cutting and slashing ability, and at the same time make it sports specific.

With 6-8 cones and an imagination, several drills can be created. Use the following guidelines to make an agility program

1. Set up cones in certain patterns distances. Idea distances are short, up to 5 yards.

Combining the use of box jumps and sprints provides athletes with a perfect way to increases athletic speed and explosive reaction at the same time. Plyometric training is very useful for training muscle fibers to react explosively with power. Plyometric box jumps are an efficient way to achieve this activating of fibers. Jumping off the ground and then landing on an elevated surface (such as box jumps) builds leg strength and exlosive endurance.

Training for volleyball players should focus on the skills, movements, and power requirements that are specific to the game of volleyball — duh, right? Although sport-specific training is being implemented more now than ever before, there’s still far too much training being conducted that is archaic and in many cases counter-productive (do we really care how much weight a volleyball player can bench press or power clean? I sure don’t!). Surely there is a role for resistance training but it should be targeted to meet the demands of the sport.

Everyone who has even thought about exercising has heard the warnings about lactic acid. It builds up in your muscles. It is what makes your muscles burn. Its buildup is what makes your muscles tire and give out.

Coaches and personal trainers tell athletes and exercisers that they have to learn to work out at just below their "lactic threshold," that point of diminishing returns when lactic acid starts to accumulate. Some athletes even have blood tests to find their personal lactic thresholds.

During hot and humid days, we lose excessive amounts of water from our bodies through perspiration. You can get dehydrated very quickly if you don't take proper precautions, especially if you are involved in outdoor physical activities.

Stretching can take as little as 10 minutes, but provides multiple benefits to the body. Stretching decreases pain and soreness after exercise and improves circulation, range of motion, posture and decreases muscle tension.