We are all about speed with this blog, my facility, and my coaches. Thus, we are always looking for the next best drill to get you faster. Sometimes we don’t think those drills match our philosophy for training. And other times, we can’t wait to implement the drill.

One of our coaches, Chris Cones, came across a drill that we have kind of done before, but not necessarily in the manner that he found. It is so simple that you could probably do it at home and really become explosive.

The drill he found was single leg vertical jumps.

I am a big believer that single leg plyos need to be done for athletes (who are ready for it) if you really want to get them faster. Knowing that running is a series of single leg explosions, it makes sense to have your legs do that type of training during your workouts.

With our training, we do single leg vertical jumps onto an adjustable box. We have also done them over plyo hurdles. Being single leg though, the chance of screwing up, or injuring yourself, obviously increases. Thus, the single leg vertical jump comes into play.

We get the athlete on our vertical jump mat which records their jumps. We have them do a set of 6 – 8 per leg and record the average height of those jumps.

Doing this we can see how big of an imbalance there might be between the right and left leg. We can also gauge how the athlete is improving over time by recording those average heights. Getting more powerful with the single legs will in turn make them run faster because they are generating more force with each stride.

Plus, eliminating jumping over a hurdle or onto a box, you can reduce the chances of any mishaps which could cause an injury. This could be one of the best ways to improve your athlete’s speed.

You need to observe your athlete’s ability to see if they can handle single leg plyometrics. If they can, this will be your secret sauce. Trust me!

Photo courtesy of Istolethetv on Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/istolethetv/