Fast Feet / Chinese Footwork

**nbonkowsky** · 05-25-2011, 03:28 AM

Hello all, I made this video and I thought it would be helpful to others on this forum so I am posting it here. It is fast feet/Chinese footwork exercises that are meant to train explosiveness and quickness for your muscles to aid in moving around the court. As well yes that is me in the video doing all the exercises.

What you need is quite simple just a timer or clock with seconds hand and an open space. A water bottle and a towel would be very useful to have too.

I know there are many different exercises that can be used in a sequence like this. These are just 10 of the many that I use. Hopefully some of you will find this helpful and useful. Let me know what you think, feedback is always great.

30 seconds work followed by 30 seconds active rest (keep moving)

1. Side to Side
-Small Quick Hops
-Balls of Feet

2. Forward and Backwards
-Small Quick Hops on Balls of Feet

3. Staggered Switch
-Staggered feet, switch back and forth

4. Forward, Forward, Back, Back
-Small Quick Steps, LOOK UP!

5. In and Outs
-In just to shoulder width and back out

6. Square Jump
-Balls of Feet, Land and Push Off

7. Side to Side Lunges
-Lunge, Hop in Center, Lunge

8. Lunge Jumps
-Lunge, Jump & Switch Feet, Lunge

9. 180° Squat Jumps
-Squat, Jump Up & Spin, Squat
-Don't spin in a complete circle, alternate direction

10. Tuck Jumps
-Knees Up
-Land quietly on balls of feet

**cappy75** · 05-25-2011, 04:45 AM

Thank you Nick! I think I will incorporate the Tuck Jumps into my routine. Takes alot of strength to land 'quietly'.

**MSeeley** · 05-25-2011, 08:14 AM

Good video

Some excellent fast feet exercises - always useful!

**staiger** · 05-25-2011, 08:31 AM

is funny to watch at least

made me laugh all the way through .dont think I will be doing anything like that anytime soon. I got my own routine which is more subtle and adapted to my level

I have to say that you got fast feet , excellent -no wonder you are playing at higher level

**troynguyen** · 05-25-2011, 08:33 AM

Thank you. Very nice video!

**thejym** · 05-25-2011, 01:50 PM

Good stuff Nick. What other sequences do you know of? When my brother and I do this, we typically do about 10 sequences for 10 minutes, then run it back again for 20 minutes. However, we only have one fast feet exercise, so I will definitely be incorporating some of these other ones in your video.

This is our ~20-25 minute routine:

Lunge jumps (deep lunges, 20 secs; short quick lunges, 10 secs; deep lunges, 10 secs)
Fast feet (pump up and down in one place) (30 secs)
Squat and lunge (20 reps)
Squat hops (arms behind back, tiny hops for 30 secs)
180 jumps (30 secs each way)
Cross-pattern jump with both legs (30 secs)
Cross-pattern jump with one leg (30 secs each leg)
Star jump (20 reps)
Knees-to-chest (20 reps)
Squat jumps (20 reps)
[Repeat everything above again]
Frog jumps across gym and back
Side-to-side jumps (150 reps)
Duck walk across gym

**nbonkowsky** · 05-28-2011, 01:34 AM

Cappy75: No problem, yes it can be hard to land without a sound does require a lot of strength for sure.

staiger: Thank you for the complenment, I will always keep working on footwork and excercises like this. Hope that you stuff helps you as well and keep with it.

thejym: That's not a bad set of stuff that you have there though, there are a few other excercises that I incorperate like mountian climbers, rebound jumps, one legged jumps/hops, crossover split, etc. I will make another video once I have healed up and everything about difference excercises that can be used.

***kwun*** · 05-28-2011, 02:17 AM

thanks Nick. did some with my students last night for around 20 mins and then mixed in some front and side jogging afterwards. i was genuinely tired and sore today. will do this routine every week from now on.

**nbonkowsky** · 05-29-2011, 08:49 PM

No problem Kwun, glad that it worked for you and that you were genuinely sore the next day. Keep it up!

**bedon97** · 05-31-2011, 09:03 AM

my thigh muscles are burning while i do these exercises.. is that a good sign??

**MSeeley** · 05-31-2011, 11:49 AM

bedon97: you are pushing yourself which is good. If you don't do proper recovery exercises (lots and lots of different types of stretches) afterwards, then you are not going to benefit as much as you could.

**WoOZY** · 05-31-2011, 11:51 AM

That looks like an aerobic type exercise... Maybe it'll help me lose some weight :P

The only exercise I think is difficult would be the 180 Squat jumps and tuck jumps.... Might get dizzy with the squat jump and the tuck jump... Can't do it at home... Might hit the ceiling :P

***kwun*** · 05-31-2011, 04:28 PM

it is a plyometric exercise designed to train speed and power. it looks simple but in reality is very tiring when one try to push the boundary of one can achieve in speed.

**MSeeley** · 06-01-2011, 10:27 AM

As kwun pointed out, this should actually be an anaerobic exercise: pushing your body extremely hard without being able to rely just on the energy from breathing to supply your muscles. This specific anaerobic exercise is plyometric.

***kwun*** · 06-07-2011, 03:03 AM

i wonder how often we should be doing this. we try to do one round of 15mins every week. seems like very little. but then we are also not professionals.

**viver** · 06-11-2011, 03:32 AM

Well, assuming you'd like to see the benefits and return of the invested time, guess you'll have to work enough repetitions to see improvements. I have been working with some kids, one hour per week for the last year. I spend 10 mins for the exercises, the results are not that relevant but believe it would be better if the kids did them at home during the week.