Agility Ladder (free and Easy)

Agility ladders are great for improving your footwork and agility. Crossfit gyms, sports teams, and fitness nuts use them extensively. You can buy one for $25-30, but since they are pretty simple, there's no reason you can't make one yourself. All you need is a roll of duct tape and some free paint-stirring sticks, which happen to be exactly the right size for a regulation agility ladder.

1. Duct Tape: You will need 30 feet of it.
2. Paint Stirring Sticks: You will need 11 of them. Get the big ones, which are just over 20 inches long. Go to the paint counter at Home Depot: they will give them to you for free.

This project takes about ten minutes to make. All you need is a measuring tape. The results are very functional: my wife uses ours at the fitness class she teaches.

A standard agility ladder is 15 feet long and 20 inches wide.

Place two strips of duct-tape on the ground, sticky-side up. Each strip should be 15 feet long and spaced one paint-stick apart (center to center).  You can stick the ends of the tape to the ground to hold them in place.

Start at one end and lay your paint sticks down on the duct tape. The ends of the paint sticks should touch at about the middle of the tape.

Spacing is 18 inches. That is, a paint stick at 0", 18", 36", 54", 72", 90", 108", 126", 144", 162", and 180".

Fold over the tape edges. You may have to shift the paint-sticks slightly to get the tape edges to match up.

And... you're done! You can fold up the ladder to take it with you, then lay it out on the pavement or grass to do your drills. Here are a few links that have drills to try:

http://www.kingsportstraining.com/blogs/training-blog/7694405-13-speed-and-agility-ladder-drills-for-faster-footwork

http://www.power-systems.com/n-62-agility-ladder-exercises-drills-.aspx

http://footballgc.com.au/uploads/files/Tony_Raynolds_The_Ultimate_Agility_Ladder_Guide.pdf