I would have thought skipping would help a lot with footwork, it helps with being 'nimble', forces you to adjust your footing when you land, gives you balance and also is a good exercise for stamina and conditioning - all of which contributes to faster feet?
I actually thought about taking ballet classes to improve my footwork, jumping rope and lots of shadowboxing has helped me too.
Traditional jumping rope, as in jumping on the spot, isn't going to do anything for footwork. You have to train how you're going to move. Maybe try something more like Buddy Lee's style if training. No idea how effective it is, but the movements he does while jumping rope closely resemble what you require as a boxer.
Is useless and doesn't improve agility. When you're doing it it's not agility anyway, it's change of direction. Agility is in response to a stimulus, not a preplanned movement. Agility ladders are a gimmick and don't mimic anything. Getting stronger improves agility and footwork, your tendons and muscles are stiffer allowing faster RFD to rebound from the ground quicker when you put force into it. Fast feet isn't about lifting your feet up then moving them, it's about absorbing and applying force into the ground quickly to move them quickly.
Fair enough. But we're just dwelling on semantics here. I don't really care how "agility" is defined. In my opinion, it does help because it improves coordination of your legs and feet. Which is essentially, the basis of footwork. Shifting weight and changing direction is a big part of that, so my regimen involves a more involved movement than simple tippy-tap steps, but some forceful side and front hopping movements and pivots mixed with plyometric movements.
Learn how to move slowly, properly, first. So you get a feel for where your weight is at all times, when it shifts, and how, and what that means to what you are trying to do.
Nobody shows up to the gym having or not having something. Don't think like that. Stay on your toes and hop back and forth. Not big hops but small hops, just transferring weight slightly back and forth. If you are just standing still your feet will be slow.
You either have them or you don't, HOWEVER you can learn technique and work on short area agility for defensive work, or to cut off the ring. For whatever reason fast hands tend are almost required for fast feet, but average or slow handed people seldom have fast feet.
Dealt_with, What are your opinion re single leg exercises with the agility ladder? Surely there are many single leg exercises where you can practice absorbing and applying force into the ground quickly whilst using the ladder ... ? Cheers, Rich.
