IOL Strength and Conditioning

At last weekend’s Power Systems strength and conditioning workshop, Jay Dawes did a session “Developing Total Athleticism,” which included about an hour on agility ladder drills. This part was an audience participation bit, and being a bit of a klutz I seriously considered standing to the side as the rest of the hundred or so personal trainers went through the ladder training.

I was startled to discover how fun it was, and that I wasn’t quite as terrible at it as expected. Heck, I didn’t even fall! So, after the session I popped over to the Power Systems sales booth to pick up an agility ladder just for the fun of it. What’s twenty bucks, right?

Wrong. Those things cost $70 and up, and I’m not kidding. I yanked my hand back off that goodie and backed away thinking, jeez, I can make one of these.

Turns out I could. Total cost in money, $5.43. Time invested, about three hours because of fumbling fingers. (Reminder to self: Add finger mobility to joint mobility sessions.)

Here’s how to make an agility ladder for under six bucks.

The material you’ll need is 20 yards of fabric trim and a spool of outdoor canvas thread. The trim needs to have a little heft to it because it needs the weight in order to lay well. Too wispy and your ladder will flutter with the breeze.

Measure out two lengths of 15 feet of the trim. This is your ladder length.

Depending on the material chosen, you may need to address end frill. The trim I got started unraveling at the cut, so instead of simply making cuts, I instead marked the cut and wrapped a piece of scotch tape around it. Then I cut in the middle of the tape, making a ravel-proof end on both sides. Cloth athletic tape would have been better, had there been any handy.

Lay the two lengths together, outstretched. Measure 17-inch lengths, beginning the measurements 3-4 inches from the end, and mark both lengths with a Sharpie. These will be your openings, the ladder boxes.

Cut the remaining yardage in 36-inch strips, again taping before the cuts if there’s any potential for end frill.

Line up the 36-inch strips and mark at the 10-inch and again at the 26-inch points.

How you’ll put the ladder together depends on your work space. Once you have the trim measured and cut, this will make sense and you’ll organize yourself without instruction. I started with the intention of laying the entire piece out and wrapping the joints while in place on the floor, but quickly realized I’d be fully incapable of any agility whatsoever after hunching over the project for the duration.

Using about 20 inches of the canvas thread, knot the center of the thread around the first junction, carefully lining up the Sharpie marks. Wrap the thread over and over the junction points using a figure-8 wrapping to heavily secure each section.

We’re in a bit of a dispute around here over the last bit. Dave thinks I should fasten a dowel to one end to enable rolling it up. I like the rolling-up part because this thing is nice but could easily slip into a tangled mess. On the other hand, I’m not so keen on making any part of it less flat and may just use a dowel roll up, unattached. Dave thinks that’s silly, that I’ll never trip over it. I think he said, “what was I trying to make, something froofroo, or an aggressive training tool.” You’ll have to work out the roll-up attachment issue on your own.

Calculating and cutting took about an hour; the thread work took another couple hours. If you or a willing accomplice has agile fingers, this part will go much quicker. No duh.

Side note: In looking for a link to agility drill videos for the “using your agility ladder” guide, I happened upon a 15-foot ladder for $39.95 over at jumpusa. If a DIY project is beyond your interest level, this one’s close to half the price of the strength and conditioning models.

Next we’ll talk about what a beginner might do with this goodie: Using an Agility Ladder.