Boost Your Game: 7 Proven Ways to Increase Speed and Lateral Quickness

You might be a parent watching your child play basketball, and maybe you're seeing a need for them to increase speed and lateral quickness. It's common, so don't feel bad if they aren't quite keeping up on defense or maybe they struggle to get around an opponent. You may start searching online on how you can help them and you end up finding our blog post.

It is something you will notice quickly if your kid just does not move as fast. We are here to walk through many reasons to train your body in different movements. Improving how an athlete moves side to side and reacts is useful in basketball and many areas of life because it will give advantages.

• Why Lateral Quickness Matters
  • Lateral Movement in Sports
  • Everyday Life Benefits
• Key Muscles Used in Lateral Movement
  • The Importance of Proper Form
• Exercises to Improve Your Agility
  • Plyometric Drills
  • Strength Training for Legs
  • Agility Ladder Drills
  • Cone Drills to move sideways faster
  • Low Box Shuffle Drill
• Building a Training Program
  • Warm-Up and Cool-Down
• Nutrition and Hydration
  • Proper Sleep is needed for peak performance
• Common Mistakes
  • Gradual Improvements over time
• Advanced Training Techniques
  • Sport-Specific Drills
• FAQs about increased speed and lateral quickness
  • How to get faster lateral quickness?
  • How to speed up lateral movement?
  • How to move side to side faster?
  • How to improve side-to-side agility?
• Conclusion 

Lateral quickness is your ability to move rapidly from side to side. This is much different than how fast someone sprints because it requires different movements to get results. It’s all about shifting your body left and right while staying balanced and ready.

Dr. Jordan Duncan, owner of Silverdale Sport & Spine, highlights its role in sports. Think of a shortstop in baseball moving to catch the ball or a running back getting away from a linebacker. Even a tennis player uses quick side movement during play.

Many sports need quick side-to-side movements. If you do not train lateral movements it will show quickly and could change a play in a big way.

For basketball, think about guarding someone closely. If the opponent drives to get a shot, a defender must move quickly and smoothly to avoid getting outpaced, so lateral quickness in basketball

is very important. Basketball players need to train to move better because if they don't it will stand out a great deal.

It's not just about sports. Quick movements are needed to avoid all types of problems in your life.

Think about dodging someone on a busy sidewalk. As Pete McCall, host of the All About Fitness podcast, points out, we use lateral speed frequently. You use it quickly walking around at an airport too because there's a lot going on and sometimes a step to the side goes a long way.

Several muscles contribute to improving movements when you increase speed and lateral quickness. If you do not train properly then some of these key muscles can become underused.

Your glutes, especially the gluteus medius and minimus, stabilize your pelvis. The hip adductors, located on your inner thighs, are needed for bringing your legs together.

Quadriceps on the front of your thighs help a ton too. Working your hamstrings, located at the back of the thigh helps improve the motion. Even your core helps, they assist in maintaining balance and body control.

Using the proper technique prevents injuries. Without proper form, all you are doing is just training a different kind of weakness.

Focus on controlled movements. Engaging your core muscles gives you the power that athletes need to compete because they are trained properly.

There are a number of drills athletes can add to their training that will help improve lateral quickness

Plyometric training develops fast-twitch muscle fibers. Doing this strengthens the connection of the nervous system to quickly generate more power. Using plyometrics correctly will greatly increase the abilities and advantages it can give.

Try incorporating box jumps and jump sideways into your routine. Single-leg exercises on your left leg can improve balance and coordination also.

Improving leg strength will allow force applied to your body. With lateral shuffles, you will focus on quickness on covering the area rapidly.

Exercise Description Benefit

Agility exercises can increase speed and coordination. You should have quick steps for your drills.

Drills like the 'icky shuffle' help your quick change of movement and speed. It will help improve movement patterns that your body might not be used to using often.

Cone drills will test your ability to do quick changes of movement at high speed. The key is pushing at angles on all drills to maximize movement. Being able to control the ability to shift in different directions is one of the largest things separating different levels of basketball.

Try speed drills that change it up and are difficult. You must go fast because speed gives you all the advantages that coaches are looking for in high-level players.

The T-Test is one way to judge improvements. Using drills without lateral training to increase speed, improved a lot.

The low box shuffle emphasizes staying low while moving and improving rapid force.

Stay wide with feet hip-width while monitoring the rapid change of pace. It allows you to cover more ground at the right angle.

Design a well-rounded plan with exercises for several skills and methods. Schedule days focusing on agility to enhance performance.

Always start with a dynamic warm-up. Getting blood flowing through your muscles prior to exercise gives you an advantage to start out with.

After your training do some work to help your recovery process. Incorporating light work into your routine reduces soreness.

Eating meals with protein will maintain and build your muscles. Fuel your training for optimal results, there's no other shortcut in the gym.

Getting good rest is important for muscle healing. This is overlooked so much in many ways with basketball players because they are simply not properly recovering from sleep. Sleep restores the body because there are many processes that rely on enough rest and if they are missing then it affects performance.

Aim for at least eight hours of quality sleep each night. Recovery goes up dramatically when you are properly rested because of all the different training and practice.

Athletes make mistakes, but the quicker you fix the mistakes it will help to correct them long term. Avoid starting training before you do warm-ups because warming up helps get blood flowing.

Improving lateral movement takes consistent practice and training of movement in different directions. Improving your mechanics over long periods of time produces a better chance of building muscle memory. Good habits stick for longer and progress over time by consistently working hard over weeks.

Advanced techniques such as complex training are useful too. Use all training to help your advantage of getting on the court and getting extra playing time.

Try using the '1-2 Crossover & Stick' to simulate different exercises. This can include balance work with upper body weight training at the same time too. There are many different ways of combining your efforts because this can enhance coordination by maximizing performance gains that matter in games.

Tailor drills to mimic basketball game movements to improve movement on the court. Train how the sport works.

A crossover acceleration 1-step exercise develops force production and body control. Practicing moving laterally and shuffling side to side quickly simulates defense for basketball players because they are trained using actual motions.

Lateral quickness for soccer is completely different. They train with drills and also different things that require quick movement.

Develop explosive leg strength through targeted strength training and use your body in ways it does not want to normally. Focus on drills like lateral shuffles and skater jumps to target important muscle areas. Quickness in basketball will not occur unless you make time in your routine for this training

Concentrate on proper movement to allow fast-twitch muscle fibers to assist you. Stay low, with shoulders facing straight and you explosively push on angles to improve stability when starting and stopping movements. Use the angles properly when making each cut and you will feel all parts of your body getting results in this way.

Practice agility exercises and maintain good balance by using core muscles correctly. Cone drills will force change directions quickly with explosive actions because you push into the ground, just at different positions than running fast.

Train how your sport is played for the best improvements. By working on drills and strength exercises with your feet shoulder-width it will help with making consistent results happen and you will find the benefits of improving lateral quickness

Being quick with lateral movements gives athletes advantages in most sports. It really assists basketball players with their reaction time because much of the game needs it.

Dedication is needed because there are not many shortcuts to the end goal when changing direction. But also improving lateral quickness takes time. With good nutrition, proper recovery, and focused training efforts an athlete will definitely increase speed and lateral quickness.