The B-Skip

It may be hard to believe, but one great way to improve your speed is to skip. Why is that? Skipping is an over-exaggerated form of running. When you break skipping down, it really helps an athlete hone in on their movement technique, such as driving their knees up and pumping their arms. In last month’s newsletter, we focused on the “A Skip.” To refresh your memory, when doing the “A Skip,” you want to make sure you bring your leg up and are making a 90-degree angle at the knee before you drive your leg back into the ground. It is important to know this because for this month’s training tip, we are going to piggyback off of what we learned last month.

In the video above, with help from my son William, we are going to take you through the next skipping progression, the “B Skip.” This drill is very similar to the “A Skip,” but has one important difference…you have to extend your leg more before bringing it back down into the ground. To know if you are doing this correctly, you should be able to look down past the knee of your extended leg and see the tips of your toes. By extending your lower leg out, you are creating more foot strike force to propel your body forward, or what is called “negative foot-speed.” If you want to improve your game, increase your negative foot-speed by practicing the B-Skip. You will run faster with less effort and take your performance to the next level.