Training cones can be used in a number of ways for speed, agility, and reaction time training. You can arrange them to do a predefined drill or devise one of your own. They can be used for individual or team drills with the same effectiveness, simplicity, and convenience.
However, cone drills are, by no means, the perfect workout, practice, or drill options out there. They do have their disadvantages and drawbacks.
Cone Drills are Not Perfect
The biggest drawback of sports cones is that they are not interactive. They are sports equipment that only marks points. Let’s elaborate on that with an example. Suppose you set a course for a sprinting and shuffling drill with cones. You can time yourself for the entire drill using a stopwatch, but you cannot time how long it takes you to get from one cone to another, how fast you change direction, and what’re your shuffling and sprinting speeds separately.
You’d also need a partner, coach, or trainer to time you, shout commands or otherwise help you with the drill when you are using drill cones.
All those problems can be solved by giving the cones some interactive ability, which can help you communicate with them. Enter Blazepod.
Blazepod - Making the Perfect Training Cones
These drawbacks of training cones were identified by Blazepod, who came up with a brilliant piece of sports equipment with the potential of drastically changing how professional athletes and fitness enthusiasts approach workouts and training drills. The solution comes in the form of Blazepod light pods and their smartphone app.
What are Blazepod Light Pods?
Blazepod light pods are wireless pods with an RGB light that can create eight bright colors and respond to touch. They come with a smartphone app that can be used to control and record the stats through them. Using the pods, you can transform any athletic sports equipment into an interactive one. You can even completely replace the field cones with the pods.
How do Blazepod Light Pods Transform Your Workout and Drills?
The main concept behind Blazepods is divided into two parts, firstly they eradicate the need of having a second person aiding you in the workout process, and secondly, they record your workout stats with extreme accuracy. With the app, you can:
- Use one of the numerous pre-defined workouts and activities.
- Help you set custom activities for cone agility drills and other drills.
- Track all your activity and performance during one workout and across your training period to tell you how you improve.
The goal of Blazepod is to help you focus on the workout while the pods and the app take care of everything else. This lets you focus your best on the sport.
Example Drills With Blazepod Light Pods
You can use Blazepod light pods with virtually any cone exercise that you can think of. Here are a couple of examples that show how these pods can transform your workout.
Basic Speed and Agility Drill
- Place 4 Blazepod Light Pods on top of 4 cones or on the ground to form a square measuring 5 yards in each direction.
- Set the pods to randomly light up and stand in the center of the square with an athletic stance.
- As soon as a pod lights up, shuffle to it and tap it and then move to the next pod that lights up.
- Continue the drill for as long as your fitness allows.
Now, the same drill can be done by having a partner shout the name of a cone, and you shuffle to that. What Blazepod does here is it eliminates the need for a partner, but more importantly, it will tell you very accurately how long you take between the pod lighting up and you tapping it. That’s something even a partner cannot do for you. This data will tell you how you are improving over time and the areas you need to work on.
Pods on the Wall Drill
This drill does not need cones and can be done just with the pods. It involves just reaction time and is not concerned with fitness, speed, agility, or endurance.
- Place 5-8 Blazepod light pods on a wall in front of you in such a way that you can touch any of them without having to move your feet.
- Set the pods to light up randomly using the app.
- Your task is to tap the pod that lights up as soon as you can.
- Continue the drill until you have tapped 50 lights.
Once you are done with the drill, you can use the Blazepod app to see how long it takes you between the light coming up and tapping it. This kind of data is impossible to record even with the help of a partner and gives you a clear picture of your reaction time.
If you still want to do this with cones, you can place pods on top of cones to do this drill. Just make sure that the cones are arranged around you in such a way that you don’t have to move your feet to reach them.
Reaction Sprinting
This drill will help you increase your speed, agility, and reaction time while also building up stamina and endurance.
- Place 6 to 8 cones with Blazepod light pods on top of them at random locations, 10 yards from each other.
- Set the pods to light up at random and stand in the middle of them to start.
- As soon as a pod lights up, sprint to it and tap it.
- Keep doing that until you have tapped 30 pods.
This drill will give you a combined metric of your speed, agility, and reaction time. The ability of Blazepod light pods to light up at random makes it possible to do the drill without a partner, and the app provides you with the data that reflects your performance and improvement over time.
Conclusion
Exercise cones are among some of the most widely used training equipment, but they are not interactive. If you want to measure exactly how you are doing and want a workout without a helper, you need cones that can communicate with you. That is made possible by Blazepod light pods. Controlled by a smartphone app, these pods can help you work out alone and track and record your performance to identify the areas where you need to improve.
Take this short quiz to find out which Blazepod kit fits your needs best!
