Part 4: Stepping Over the Opposite Knee and Driving Down Beneath the Hips: "A" Skip Drill

In parts 1 and 2 - I mentioned the 4 drills that teach the principle of "Stepping over the opposite knee and driving down and back beneath the hips." Which are the "A march, A skip, A run and partner assisted march drill.

I explained how the 4 drills will assist in reprogramming the athlete's neuromuscular system where they will fire their muscles in that pattern that will produce the greatest power into the ground - overcoming inertia, capitalizing on Newton's 3rd law and thus increasing their speed!

In Part 3 - I gave you my instructions on how to teach the "A March" Drill to your athletes.

In this - Part 4 - I want to focus on the "A Skip" Drill.

First, it is important that you teach these drills in progression, beginning with the "A March" Drill and ending with the "Partner Assisted March" Drill. The 2nd drill in this progression is the "A Skip" Drill.

The "A Skip" is one of those types of drills that requires a lot of coordination - and if your athletes haven't yet perfected the "A March" they will flounder in the "A Skip!" So make sure that your athletes have the "A March" down and are performing it with good form. Also be prepared, because everyone goes through a learning curve when it comes to the "A Skip!" It is rare that I find an athlete who can perform the "A Skip" correctly with one attempt. So be prepared to take your patience up a notch as your athletes fumble through the learning curve - smiling!

Like the "A March" you will want your athletes in the beginning to perform the "A Skip" without the use of their arms. Once they get it down - insert the use of their arms.

I have enclosed my instruction on the "A Skip" below, however the "A Skip" like all of the "A", "B" and "C" drills is hard to conceptualize without a visual image so I have included an excellent video of the "A Skip" produced by HPC Sport .

The "A Skip" Drill by HPC Sport


Matt Lydum, Professor of Sport Sciences at Defiance College and my USA Track Field School Director turned me on to Mike Young with HPC (Human Performance Consulting) Sport as an excellent resource for dynamic warm ups and new and original drills. Matt as usual - was right. As you can tell by the quality of the video above - HPCSport Rocks! HPC Sport has a video library of hundreds of drills that you can use for free. I highly recommend them to keep your warm up routines fresh and add some newness to your otherwise -- "stale" dynamic routines.

HPC Sport's You Tube channel is: http://www.youtube.com/user/HPCsport

"A Skip" Drill Instructions:

1. Place hands on hips
2. Chin up, Chest up, Toes Dorsiflexed
3. Bring heel up over the opposite knee during the entire drill
4. Athlete's talk to themselves, "hop, hop -- hop, hop" to help coordinate the double hop.
5. Recover the active heel beneath the hips while hopping with the support leg
6. Step over the opposite (support) knee
7. DRIVE the active leg down into the ground as soon as the heel clears the knee.
8. DO NOT drive the ankle out while hopping on support leg
9. DO NOT PAW while hopping on support leg
10. DO NOT CYCLE Past the hips while hopping on the support leg
11. Foot should strike the ground with the rounds of the foot
12. DO NOT strike the ground with the heel
13. Active foot should strike directly underneath the hips
14. Active foot lands no more than 1/2 foot length in front of support foot.

Coaching Points:

1. The key to the "A Skip" is the double hop on the support leg. There are 2 hops.
2. The two hops are only a couple of inches off the ground
3. The 1st hop happens as the active leg recovers and active ankle steps over the knee.
4. The 2nd hop happens as the active leg is decelerated into the ground.
5. If Performed correctly, both feet will hit the ground at the same time.
6. Once the athlete has successfully coordinated the double hop - the deceleration drive down of the active thigh will be noticeably faster and more forceful than the initial recovery of that active leg.

The writen instructions do not look much different than the ‘A’ MARCH but as the above enclosed video reveals - the "A Skip" is much different.

Practice this until your athletes demonstrate it with perfect form. Once your athletes can coordinate the double hop you can let them cover some ground as is shown in the video. Also, once they perform the drill with good form without their upper body movement, add the upper body movement. It is important that you do not let them progress until they get this down! Remember -- if they can't do this with proper form - then how in the world will they be able to do it when they are running at full speed!

In Part 5 I will go over the "A Run" Drill.

A big smile to you.
Coach Pete