What are the benefits of practicing ladders and staying sharp with ? I am a lazy reader, I want to play by intuition but I feel I am hitting a wall. Does reading ladders help with visualizing when reading out other situations?

Any sort of reading practice helps but I would not put this high on the list.

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Still officially AGA 5d but I play so irregularly these days that I am probably only 3d or 4d over the board (but hopefully still 5d in terms of knowledge, theory and the ability to contribute).

It will save you from the embarrassment of playing out a long ladder that doesn't work. I'm guilty of doing that a couple of times.

Per Kageyama, even a beginner can read out a ladder. To not is lazy.

Mumen - If you want to get better at intuition, get better at reading. While I can't recommend playing on intuition without reading, having done the required work to improve reading will also improve your intuition. Intuition gives you an instinct of potential possibilities, but you have to read those possibilities to make sure they work. Also, if you do practice reading, it becomes second nature to read out the next few moves in your head, without feeling like it's work.

Of course, the stronger you get, the more you're going to have to read...it's a double edged sword.

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Go Books

OK.

As a terrible reader who got to my current level and then hit a wall mostly on feel and intuition, this feels true to me. My intuition is starting to improve again now that I'm trying to learn to read.

Man, I wish I'd learned to read earlier. It's hard.

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Confucius in the Analects says "even playing go is better than eating chips in front of tv all day." -- kivi

reading ladders helps with reading in general and more importantly with the visualization portion of reading, which can be a huge plus.

since ladders are so simple, in that there are very few options and variation trees, they are good practice in helping develop and stretch your reading abilities. Ladder problems can become quite elaborate and complex, so start with the easy ones and work your way up.

then these will help with general reading of other life and death problems too.

reading and visualization are very important, and it takes practice. overcoming laziness to practice takes discipline. discipline takes determination. determination takes desire... you get the picture

"Place yourself in the same freedom as the sky."

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The Adkins Principle:
At some point, doesn't thinking have to go on?
— Winona Adkins

Visualize whirled peas.

Everything with love. Stay safe.

Thank you everyone.

I'm a lazy reader too. But it appears that my problem was that the exercises in my books were too difficult for me. It is much more enjoyable to solve easy problems, and it is as much profitable.
I'm currently reading trough Graded Go Problems for Beginners vol 2. The difficulty of the book increases in the middle part, so I started over from the beginning And it is faster the second time.

And don't forget, part of learning how to read ladders is spotting potential "ladder breakers". Whether a ladder is good or bad for you often depends on whether there is a sente ladder breaker.

There are certain joseki moves which are joseki only when the ladder works or else you have to play something else.

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http://tchan001.wordpress.com
A blog on Asian go books, go sightings, and interesting tidbits
Go is such a beautiful game.

You might enjoy this thread: viewtopic.php?t=9194

_________________
The Adkins Principle:
At some point, doesn't thinking have to go on?
— Winona Adkins

Visualize whirled peas.

Everything with love. Stay safe.