Single-leg hops can be scaled to higher frequencies and higher volumes than sprinting and are an unbelievable primer for sprinting and for building raw athleticism.
So what are single-leg hops?
They’re essentially jumping slash running as far as you can on one leg.
You can manipulate variables. You can bring the heel to the glute. You can go multiplanar — frontal plane, sagittal plane, transverse plane. But for the purpose of this blog, I want to talk about single-leg hops for speed.
So why are they so damn potent?
The key thing is this: with running, we get contralateral force sharing, pelvic rotation, and transverse-plane dissipation of force. However, on one leg, you have to produce, accept, brake, and reproduce force without the help of the opposite side of your body.
What this does is build massive eccentric rate of force development, trunk, pelvic, ankle, and foot-complex stiffness, neuromuscular rhythm, and low inhibitory tone.
The ground reaction forces are enormous with single-leg hops, especially as you build up slowly from 10–15 metres to 30–40 metres, and you start racing your peers or doing it timed. You can get up to really high speeds — 15 to 20 km/h plus.
Then when you switch back to sprinting or alternating bounds left-right, the contralateral force sharing feels like you’re running on clouds.
Single-leg hops will also expose asymmetries massively, and very easily, with any coach’s eye.
If you can explode for 20 metres on your right leg, but your left leg feels like you’re running on banana skins, then we’ve got issues.
We may have neurological issues. We may have strength issues.
We may have stiffness issues on the weaker side.
Remember, in single-leg hops the same limb must accept the entire landing impulse, stabilise the pelvis immediately, store elastic energy and release it in rapid timeframes, and re-express that force concentrically — all without the aid of the contralateral limb.
So how do you get into single-leg hops?
If you haven’t been sprinting or jumping, don’t jump straight into three sets of 21 metres as fast as you can against your best mates. That’s a recipe for disaster.
Start by hopping on the spot. See if you can do 30 seconds, low amplitude, barely getting off the ground. Do that for two to three sessions.
Then hop on the spot for maybe 20 seconds, but jump a bit higher. If that feels okay, give that a week.
The week after, jump as high as you can on the spot, same leg to same leg, bringing your heel to the glute. This increases the angular velocity of the foot — the foot is getting higher, right? So it’s going to hit the ground at a higher force.
Once you’ve got that, over about a three- to four-week period, start to move forward horizontally again.
Start at low amplitude. Small jumps forward. Do that for a week or so, two to three exposures.
Then start to jump forward at a medium pace — third gear out of five.
Once that feels fine, you can start racing your friends.
What’s key here is ecological stimulus overload — meaning you’re racing against your mates or racing against the clock. Don’t go through the motions.
Start with short races — GAA to the 13-metre line, rugby 10 metres out — then build to 21, 30, 40 metres.
This can be scaled to be performed two to three times per week.
I think they’re an excellent primer at the end of your warm-up — two to three reps on each leg, 20–40 metres — before you get into your pitch sessions.
They’re an excellent primer for sprinting. You’ve accepted the same forces as sprinting, and then you can get into your session.
So there you have it.
Single-leg hops demand massive neurological control, low inhibitory tone, descending motor drive, pelvic, ankle, and trunk stiffness — and they will make you a better athlete.
Again: start slow, build slow, and then you have the rest of the season to hammer single-leg hops.