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MASTERING THE LATERAL SHUFFLE

The lateral shuffle pattern has been a staple for basketball players
5.00/5 (100.00%) 1 and lineman for decades now. Although its generally only
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executed momentarily in most sporting environments, its still
essential that ANY athlete perfect this exercise to the best of their ability to ensure no
deficiency and increase their odds of athletic success. With the high prevalence of
excessive lordosis or Anterior Pelvic Tilt (APT) still present in athletes everywhere this
drill serves as a natural prehab/rehab technique for anyone, and in my decades
worth of experience training hundreds of athletes of all sport types, I still feel that all of
the involved musculature and just general functioning in the frontal plane of motion is
lacking, and this lends into how well someone performs with other movements in
other directions as well.

In this article Im going to break down this exercise into its key components and
provide you with some strong scientific evidence for why you should practice each
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technique, and then leave you with a proper demonstration of how to perform the
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exercise at the end. We can dissect the lateral shuffle into 6 elements.
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#1-Athletic Stance

#2-Proper Hip Height

#3-Arm Drive

#4-Lead leg mechanics

#5-Trail leg mechanics

#6-Stride Length

ATHLETIC STANCE

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I believe sound cueing of the athletic stance can best be taught when the coach takes
an observational view from the side of the athlete. Signaling the athlete to stack the
joints seems to work every time in my experience. Starting from the neck and
working our way down, the cervical spine should be in a neutral alignment. Next, the
trunk should aligned at a 45 degree angle with the rest of the spinal column in neutral.
The hips are pushed back (hinged), the shins are vertical and the heels are resting
down on the ground. When all of this completed, you should be able to draw a
straight line from the athletes shoulders down through their knee caps and toes. Arm
positioning is still controversial, but I prefer to have athletes position their upper limbs
with their hands on the front of their thighs. Ive observed a potentially stronger
countermovement out of the start stance since the arm musculature is placed under a
bit more of a stretch in this position. Here is exactly what your stance should look
like.

HIP HEIGHT

Creating and sustaining solid hip height is one of the most common errors that
Ive witnessed with the shuffle movement. Too often athletes want to raise their hips
and extend their knees when they attempt to move, and I suppose this is a natural
compensation due to Anterior pelvic tilt and quad dominance which occurs for a
variety of reasons. Cue athletes to get in the joint stacked position and level the hips
while shuffling.

ARM DRIVE

I found a study as it relates to the contribution arm drive provides in both the vertical
jump and sprint pattern which are both obviously linear based movements, but I think
the same validity could be granted to the lateral shuffle as well. A researcher by the
name of Hinrichs found that arm drive in a sprint contributes too over 10% of vertical
force production which is signficant for the development of several other effective
sprinting techniques (lift, hip height, stride length, etc.). Comparable numbers where
reported for the vertical jump also. The arms feed our legs and vice versa. When
considering lateral human motion the arms wont directly feed energy in the intended
direction as much as they do with sprinting and jumping, but that doesnt mean they

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arent increasing structural production elsewhere. Enter The Posterior Oblique Sub-
System.

This independent system of our anatomy helps increase the speed of any athletic
based movement including the shuffle. When we drive our arms correctly (up and
back), this feeds the opposite side glutes to fire more into the ground. Dont worry, I
will include a video of what proper arm drive should look like at the end. When this
happens we will accelerate faster and generate even more of a reflex from our
muscles creating a strong chain reaction.

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** Notice that my right foot is turned out towards the right where Im going to initiate
movement. You will always be more stable, stronger, and quicker with this type of foot
positioning!

LEAD LEG MECHANICS

I first heard this subtle and very influential technique from renowned speed coach Lee
Taft years ago and he was absolutely right. Lee mentioned that when we externally
rotate the inside leg in the intended direction approximately 45 degrees, we create a
naturally stronger line of pull in the glutes and hamstrings, while increasing our base
of support in the process. He called this technique a Directional Step.

Notice that my right foot is turned out towards the right where Im going to initiate
movement. You will always be more stable, stronger, and quicker with this type of foot
positioning!

This function comes naturally to many athletes when you watch it, but not for some so
please pay attention. Quite simply, when the foot is forward we will recruit the
groin/adductor muscle group more. Unfortunately, these muscles are not as naturally
big and strong as the glutes and hamstrings. I also think keeping the foot forward
versus turned out may feed overstriding, since the body would have to
overcompensate somehow for the disadvantage in foot position and move longer to
get the same level of strength it would achieve with the foot turned out.

TRAIL LEG MECHANICS

FEATURED POSTS

Trail leg mechanics are also very important when it comes to applying a faster shuffle
movement. Hip Abduction is naturally lacking in most athletes and individuals if you Coaching the Cue to Maximize
want to manually muscle test, so it becomes imperative to ensure that this sub- Jump Height and Distance
movement is present in the overall pattern. Generating a massive push-off and fully by ATHLETES' ACCELERATION

extending both the knee and especially the outer or lateral aspect of the hip is key. I
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CATEGORIES

Coaching Theory
STRIDE LENGTH
Flexibility
Stride length has rapidly become another critical feature to a more efficient and fluid
Injuries
shuffle pattern. Too often athletes will bring their feet to close together after their
Mental Training
push-off into the ground with the trail leg has been completed. Not only does this take
more time, but it decreases control and stability and predisposes the athlete to ankle Program Design

inversion which is the most common cause of ankle sprain. I know there are several Recovery and Rehab
other issues associated with sprains (injury history, proximal glute weakness, overall
Speed Training
foot positioning, and more), but this error in form definitely doesnt help matters. Once
you perfect the directional step which was discussed earlier, the other thing you can Sports Nutrition

do is make sure that the athlete doesnt let their feet come closer than shoulder width Sports Specific Training
after their return from push-off.
Sports Training Business

Strength and Power Training

Training and Conditioning

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER.
Uncategorized

Workout Planning/Program Design

Athletic Development

Youth Training

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SCIENTIFIC REFERENCES:

#1-Hinrichs, R. Cavanaugh, P, and Williams, K. Upper Extremity Function in Running.

Journal of Biomechanics 3: 222-241, 1987.

Coach Travis Hansen is Director of the Reno Speed School and author of the speed
development book The Speed Encyclopedia.

**If youre a speed training nerd like us, you should definitely check out this resource
The Speed Encyclopedia.

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FILED UNDER: ATHLETIC DEVELOPMENT, SPEED TRAINING TAGGED WITH: MASTERING THE

LATERAL SHUFFLE, TRAVIS HANSEN

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2 Comments Sort by Oldest

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Robert Manuel Capital University

great for tennis !
Like Reply Oct 20, 2015 3:40pm

Peter Mclean Redding, Connecticut

We do not teach an open lead foot as this foot position predisposes the athlete
to move in the direction of the rotated foot and hip. If the sliding player is in a
defensive position, a good offensive player may "read" the open foot and cut
back across the grain. From an open foot slide it is also slower and more difficult
to redirect and re acquire the offensive player.
Pete mclean, speed wins ltd
Like Reply Oct 20, 2015 7:23pm

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