Hop the dome and dare your ankles to stay sharp.
Land soft and reactive, knees slightly bent, don't crash flat-footed onto the dome.
Front-back cross jumps over the dome hammer your calves with rapid stretch-shortening reps, since every landing on an unstable surface forces the ankle complex to absorb, stabilise and rebound in a fraction of a second. The soft top means your feet can never fully relax, so the calves and everything around the ankle work overtime between hops. It earns its spot as ankle conditioning and reactive foot work, the kind of springiness that carries over to sprinting, jumping and change of direction.
Yes, if you start slow and land on the balls of your feet with soft knees. The wobble is the point, it teaches your ankles to react, but crash landings flat-footed are what get people in trouble. Master small controlled hops before chasing speed.
Either works, and the steps allow both. Landing on the dome is harder on stability, clearing it entirely keeps the rhythm faster. Pick one for the set rather than mixing mid-rep.
Same calf-driven spring, but the unstable dome adds a stabilisation demand that flat ground never asks for. It suits athletes working on ankle reactivity more than someone purely chasing calf size.
