Coordination Ladders: Useful or Not?

It seems that coaches either love them or hate them. One camp seem to overdo them (or at least social media videos seems to be full of them) and claim magical properties (such as making someone faster and more agile), while others ditch them completely stating that they are useless waste of time. Who is right?

In my opinion, ladders are tool in your toolbox. Without proper speed, power, skill (especially 1v1s) and strength work no amount of jumping on ladders will make you a better athlete. But they are still useful in some regard – one being the fact that they are “fun” and logistically easy to setup for a big group. Can you do most of the drill without ladders? Hell yes you can, but it is much easier to do them over ladders.

In the following video I am explaining my rationale for using ladders and three (actually four) categories of exercises that you can perform on the ladders. Enjoy and let me know what you think.