Welcome to Drill of the Week, a series on ACTIVEkids.com that explains individual and team drills for parents and coaches to help kids improve at the sports they love.
This week's drill is A Skip and B Skip, running lateral drills brought to you by CoachUp.com.
Running countless hours on a track, treadmill, or outdoors is a good way to build your stamina, but improving your technique as a runner takes more than just miles under your sneakers. Practicing form drills in small doses of just 20 minutes at a time can improve your running exponentially.
We all have different tendencies while running, depending on what feels comfortable to us and which muscles we fire from the most. Form drills are intended to increase running speed and efficiency by accentuating aspects of good running and correcting any biomechanical constraints that an individual may have. When you practice these movements repeatedly, you train your body to incorporate them into your everyday runs through muscle memory.
More: Efficient Running Form
Form drills can be done either before or after your regular run or workout, but shouldn't be attempted while running in order to avoid injury. When performing each drill, it's important to focus on executing the precise movement.
More: Dynamic Stretching for Runners
Check out the two lateral drill's, A Skip and B Skip, that CoachUp has highlighted in the video below. They aim to reinstate good running form by working the body through the lateral plane in order to help increase the range of motion for the hips
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