Single-Leg Hops for Strength and Stability
Training the first line of defense against lower limb injury
When it comes to reducing the likelihood of lower limb injuries, an athlete’s first line of defense is the way that their foot interacts with the ground. The ankle, knee and hip are so interconnected that this interaction has implications all the way up the chain.
With large groups of young athletes, we are always looking for simple exercises that can be easily executed and that give you a big “bang for your buck.” Our single-leg hop series does just that.
Single-Leg Snapdowns
We start with just a single-leg snapdown to help the athlete feel the connection between their foot and the ground and work on balance and stability in a stationary position. These are very easy to put into a workout and take very little time investment. You can start slow with these by using a slow eccentric and then progress them to a faster tempo. 2–3 sets of 8–10 seconds on each leg is a great start.
Stability Hops
Once the athlete has a good feel for the single-leg athletic position, we can progress to some low-level stability hops. We can work these into our sprint drills (warm up) or throw them in anywhere in a workout, as a movement station on the turf or pair with a single-leg strength movement in the weight room, for example. 1–2 sets of 10–12 stability hops in each direction is what we typically do.
We will have the athletes do these forward, backward, laterally (away from the athlete’s midline, i.e. right foot moving right) and medially (toward the athletes midline, i.e. right foot moving left) and cue the athlete to “stab” or “punch” the ground. Again, the focus is on getting the athlete to feel the way their foot interacts with the ground when absorbing force from different directions.
Low Hurdle Hops
We then can add in a small hurdle to give the athlete something to hop over. This adds a little more height to the movement, which increases the demand on force absorption. We will usually use these early in our movement work and do 2–3 sets of 5–6 hops.
Single-Leg Cycles
The most advanced progression for our most advanced athletes would be single-leg cycles. These put the most stress on the lower half and aren’t for every population that we train. They require a large base of coordination and strength from the athlete. These are again something we would put early in the workout as a plyometric movement. These can be progressed from small to big as seen in the two videos below.
Benefits for the Athlete and the Coach
There are a plethora of benefits for working single-leg hops as an athlete, but none more than reducing the likelihood of lower limb injury by building strength and stability at your first line of defense. For coaches, they are a simple and effective way to help your athletes achieve those goals and require a very small investment of time in your workout.
There are other considerations when it comes to training force absorption on a single-leg, including leaps, bounds, etc., but those will wait for another day. Work these hops into your next training cycle and let us know what you think.
