Working side to side over an obstacle, in this a cone, it can be a small hurdle, or even an empty milk jug. Just something to enlist to get off the ground and overload the landing a little bit. We want to respond quickly to the ground and go back and forth as quickly as we can. Over and back is one repetition. Do three sets of 10 repetitions. Now let’s move to hops. This is the more advance skill. We are going to go over and back using one foot at a time. Start with the pushing aspects of the leg you are using. So the left leg here pushing and going over coming back as one repetition. Do five repetitions per set.
Front to back, the same as side to side but now we are working a forward and backward motion. Trying to keep the feet together do not split the feet and go around the obstacle but rather go straight over the top.
Next, the more advanced skill, single leg, over and back using one foot. This is a difficult skill to perform.
Ski jumps, here we want to have enough distance between landings to force good lateral movement. Keep the feet together as if there had one shoe. It is touch and go. Emphasis again on good body control as we work side to side, we are going down a line. We do not want athlete to deviate from that line very much.
A series of obstacles, we are going to use 12-inch mini hurdles this time made out of PVC pipe. They can be cones milk jugs, anything just to create the opportunity to get more vertical lift off the ground.
Let’s work to the advance skill of single leg. We are still using the obstacle to get the vertical lift but now we are going to add the cycling action of the leg along with the jump.
Here is a variation of jump to sprint. Two foot first to explode into a five yard sprint, this is great application of plyometrics to sports skill. We get stronger in the weight room. We develop more force against the ground with plyometrics and then we need to put it into an athletic skill such as do the plyometric and then sprint out or do the plyometric drill and do slides. Add the athletic skill to the explosive training.
