Todd Williams, CSCS, USAW, SPARQ

Competency in lateral movement is very important in sport. Being good at linear and lateral movements and transitioning between the two effectively can make you the fastest athlete on the court or field even if you are not the fastest straight ahead runner. Example: Athlete A may be blazing fast and leave Athlete B in the dust when running straight ahead but if Athlete B has better transition and lateral movement skill, when they are competing against each other one on one in a game where there are movements in all directions, Athlete B will be able to make up for the lack of straight ahead speed by staying a step ahead of Athlete A, making Athlete B the faster, more explosive athlete. Just as important is the fact that lateral movement change of direction is a big culprit in non-contact injuries to knees and ankles. They tend to happen during an improper change of direction during some sort of side to side movement, not when moving in a straight line.

Here we have a series of lateral movements using 6" micro-hurdles. We start off at a walking speed, then progress to a skip, and finish with a run, not moving to the next phase until the previous speed is mastered. No matter what the speed, the key here is to step over the hurdle moving laterally by picking up the knees, not just lifting the feet.(high knees, not heel flick) By punching the knee up, the hip will be flexed, putting the glute muscle in a position, ready to fire. The next concept to understand is ground contact. You want to attack the ground with inside edge of the foot of your trail leg. Make sure you are pushing yourself over the next hurdle with the trail leg, not pulling yourself over the next hurdle with your lead leg. Pushing is much more effective and safe in moving your body than pulling. Find a good speed and rhythm with proper arm swing in the walk first, focusing mainly on the techniques described above. Once you master the proper hip action and foot contact, move on to the skip. This is where you can start to put some power into the movement. The extra air time you get in the short hop of the skip gives you that extra split second of time to prepare for a strong extension of the leg and hip. Master the power delivery in both directions before finishing with the movement in a full speed lateral run.(don't get going so fast that the legs cross over though, that is a drill for another day.)