Power-Up Lateral Movement With Hips

Your lateral movement during games must be powered primarily by your hips. Lateral speed and change-of-direction quickness and explosiveness are critical components that you need in order to be successful in your sport. There are numerous drills and exercises that can be used to improve your lateral speed, quickness and agility. See my post dated 8/9/07 that discusses lateral speed development.



The positioning of your hips is critical when training for lateral speed and quickness. It is important for you to keep your hips at a constant level during all change-of-direction movements.

If your hips go up and down (or yo-yo) during change-of-direction movements, it will slow you down and the movements will not be efficient enough for you to succeed at a high level of play.

A good example would be the game-time actions of a cornerback in football. The cornerback is one of the most skilled players on the field. He must have great straight-ahead speed, lateral speed, quickness, agility and explosion. On a single play, he may have to backpedal, shuffle, carioca and turn and run while attempting to cover a speedy wide receiver. If this cornerback's hips are not kept at a constant level during all of these movements, he will not be successful (burnt toast would be an accurate description!)

You must possess a strong and powerful core, upper body and lower body to be able to keep the hips level during all movements.

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Mark Dilworth, BA, PES
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