The A Skip

Awesome
Written By Sarah Walls

Today we will take a closer look at the A Skip running drill. There aren’t many things worse than being outran by someone either in competition or when trying to snag a seat on the Metro and this drill is here to help you with your high speed running mechanics. The purpose of the A skip drill is to improve the coordination of your upper and lower limbs during running while also engraining proper arm and leg positioning into your movement library. Below is a video of the A-skip in action with solid technique. https://youtu.be/RKmVZe45CJI

Key Points:

  • Maintain a tall posture keeping the hips and chest up throughout the movement to avoid slouching
  • Arms rotate from the shoulders
  • Elbows bent at 90?
  • Avoid rotation and focus up keeping movement in a strictly forward and backwards motion
  • Find you rhythm and stay relaxed to avoid looking like a malfunctioning robot
  • Keep your knee and toes up and quickly strike the ground
  • STRIKE THE GROUND UNDER YOUR HIPS AND PUSH YOURSELF FORWARD

For those who don’t feel comfortable hopping directly into a skips this drill can be regressed by following the key points listed above and turning it into a march like the video shown below.

https://youtu.be/DUSnDnUDm5Y

Sarah Walls
A little about me: I've worked in pretty much every corner of the fitness industry for about 10 years. I've had the great fortune of spending most of this time working with gifted athletes at every level. I've also had the great opportunity of designing and conducting research projects, writing occasionally for various publications and blogs, competing in powerlifting, and just generally having a killer time pursuing my passions wherever they may take me. Now I own two businesses: one is an athletic performance training company that I started in 2007 at age 26 and the other is a software company startup that was launched in 2014. Paramount to all the awesomeness of my professional career, is my family. My kids are a thrill and my husband continues to be my most critical and important supporter.
www.strengthboss.com
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