The classic warm-up skip that sharpens your stride.
Stay tall and bouncy, drive the knee high and strike the foot down under your center.
A-Skips are the sprinter's alphabet, a rhythmic skip that drills the knee punch and the down-strike of fast running. The calves do the defining work, every contact is a springy rebound off the ball of the foot with almost no heel involvement, building the stiff, reactive ankle that sprinting demands. They earn a permanent slot in warm-ups because they rehearse sprint posture and firing patterns at a fraction of sprint intensity.
They groove sprint mechanics, tall posture, aggressive knee lift, and striking the foot down under your hips instead of out in front. Do them before speed work and your first sprints feel sharper.
Because staying on the balls of your feet and rebounding off every contact is essentially rapid-fire calf plyometrics. That springiness is the point, if your heels are thudding down, slow the drill and find the bounce.
Two to four passes of 15 to 25 metres, or short timed sets, is plenty inside a warm-up. Quality of rhythm beats distance, stop while the skips are still crisp.
