B-Skips Demonstration

Recently I wrote on A-Skips, a great drill that can be used to work on knee drive. After mastering  A-Skips, consider starting B-Skips as well.

These are essentially the same thing with a twist: you hit a rhythmic high knees, but you then kick your leg out and bring it to the ground, scraping the toes back.

Here is Matthew executing the drill to perfection in slow motion (one must love the hat):


My video below isn't perfect, but it has the basic gist. My legs are not getting high enough (especially when bouncing off of my right leg which has a slight injury) and I was a bit timid to scrape the ground in my bare feet, but you need to with a bit of force. Once the slow motion kicks in you can get a better shot. Between the two shots you should be able to have the dynamics down.

What do these do for you? First you work on knee drive, much as with A-Skips, but then you work on your landing pattern, trying to get your landing under your hips. Next you engage the hamstrings a bit, getting the full flexor and extendor relationship in play.

Incorporate a couple 10-20 meter sets in before and after your runs, then think about it during the run, see if some of the cues you are learning can come into play. Helps with sprinting, forefoot landing, whole foot landing, as well transition from knee drive to landig.

A-Skips Demonstration

Quick post here on a common drill that can help you think about your running form. In both regular speed and slow motion, I have A-Skips for your visual pleasure. Basically, A-Skips are high knees, but with a rhythm.

 

Work to get the rhythm as well as the slight jump off the ground. Feel the toes lift. While I commonly have the runners I coach do these in shoes, I taped barefoot (because my shoes were caked in mud post trail run) in order to allow you to see the actual lift off the ground. 

So how do these translate? When running, work on getting the knees up. Unless you are a sprinter, you will never get them this high, but think about getting those legs up, pushing those thighs into the air, and in the process working on the generation of power.