Skater Hops

Skater hops are a rhythmic, continuous side-to-side bounding pattern that imitates a speed skater's stride: push laterally off one leg, land on the opposite leg, and immediately push back the other way. They are essentially a continuous, lower-amplitude form of the lateral-bound, emphasizing frontal-plane power, single-leg landing control, and (at higher rep counts/tempo) conditioning.

Technique: start on one leg in a slight athletic squat, push off laterally, sweep the free leg behind, land softly on the outside leg with the knee over the toe and the hip controlling the descent (no valgus collapse), then immediately reverse. Keep a low athletic posture and reactive, balanced contacts; the arms swing for rhythm and balance.

They scale from a controlled, moderate drill (general fitness, lateral stability, warm-up) to a fast reactive/agility drill or a conditioning interval. Because they are single-leg and lateral, they reinforce the gluteus medius and ankle stability that protect against knee valgus during cutting.

• Continuous side-to-side single-leg hops (speed-skater pattern).
• A continuous, lower-amplitude variant of the lateral bound.
• Train frontal-plane power, single-leg landing control, and lateral stability.
• Land knee-over-toe, hip-controlled, no valgus; reactive, balanced contacts.
• Scale from stability/warm-up drill to reactive agility or conditioning.

• lateral-bound — the higher-amplitude single-effort relative.
• cod-mechanics — lateral push-off/landing transfers to cutting.
• single-leg-hops — sagittal-plane single-leg counterpart.
• gluteus-medius / hip-abductors — frontal-plane stabilizers.
• plyometrics-definition — a frontal-plane plyometric drill.