Skater Bounds & Line Hops
Side-to-side bounds and quick two-footed hops over a line on the floor, landed soft: change-of-direction power that needs no ceiling height.
Hear the coach on this drill
Every line the Audio Coach says in this drill, played back to back; the time beside each is when it comes in the 8-minute drill. No account needed.
Set-up
A line on the floor made with tape, a rope or two markers, with a full stride of clear space on either side and nothing to land on. Shoes with grip, no ball, and a phone timer for the thirty-second rounds. The parent stands at the end of the line to watch the knees on each landing.
What you need
- 2 cones or markers for a line
The ground: 10 × 6 ft (about 3 × 2 m). One child can run it alone in a backyard. The space and equipment check lists every drill that fits the ground you have.
How to run it
- Set up. A line on the floor, tape, a rope or two markers, with a stride of clear space either side. No ball.
- Skater bounds. Push off one foot sideways and land softly on the other, holding the landing for a beat. Thirty seconds. Rest thirty.
- Line hops. Feet together, quick small hops side to side over the line, thirty seconds. Rest thirty.
- Forward and back. The same quick hops forward and back over the line, thirty seconds. Rest thirty.
- Stick it. Ten bounds each way, landing and holding dead still for two seconds before the next.
- Count it. One last thirty seconds of line hops, counting every landing on the far side. Write it down.
Coaching points
- Land quiet: a loud landing is a landing the legs are not absorbing
- The knee tracks over the toes on every bound, never inward
- Long and low, never high; the ceiling is not part of this drill
What to watch: Loud landings and a knee collapsing inward on the bound. Quiet feet mean the landing is being absorbed properly.
Common mistakes
- Loud landings, which mean the legs are not absorbing the force
- The knee collapsing inward on the landing of a bound
- Bounding high instead of long, which a low ceiling punishes and the drill never asks for
- Rushing the stick-it bounds so the hold is a wobble rather than a stop
- Landing on the heels in the line hops
What good looks like
A good target: 50 line hops in 30 seconds with quiet landings and the knee never collapsing in.
Progressions and variations
Making it harder
- Level 1: Short bounds with a full stop between each, and the hops at a walk
- Level 2: The thirty-second rounds at a pace the landings stay quiet
- Level 3: Bounds across a wider gap, still landing silent
- Level 4: A sibling calls 'left' or 'right' and the bound goes that way
- Level 5: Line hops with a ball held at the chest
- Level 6: Sixty hops in thirty seconds with the knee never collapsing
Alone, with a sibling, or in a group
- Solo: a timer and a taped line, chasing the thirty-second hop count.
- Sibling: two lines side by side on the same clock, counting against each other.
- Co-op: pairs, one hopping while the other counts landings and watches the knee.
Adjusting it by age
- U14: Short, soft bounds with the stop held every time, and the hop count a game to beat next week. The quiet landing is the whole lesson.
- U18: A wider gap on the bounds and the full rounds, placed early in the session when the legs are fresh. Follow with a cutting drill so the landing becomes a change of direction.
For the parent running it
- Call each thirty seconds and count landings. The ceiling is not a worry: these are long and low, never high.
On their own: A phone timer and a line of tape or a rope. Count your own landings and write down the best thirty seconds.
Safety
- A stride of clear floor either side of the line and no rug that slides
- Stop the round if the knee is collapsing inward on landing; slower and straight first
More on training safely at home: Safety at Home.
Related drills
Ladder & Cone Agility
Quick feet through a ladder (or cones as substitutes), followed by short sprints.
Sprint Intervals
Repeated 30m sprints with walk-back recovery.
Cut and Go
Accelerate to a cone, brake properly, cut, and accelerate away again.
Single-Leg Balance Circuit
Single-leg holds, reaches and airplane holds on a square of floor: the ankle strength a sharp first step is built on.
Run it with the Audio Coach
In Spatrian the Audio Coach talks your player through this drill while they play it, and each run goes on their own training record, which their coach or personal trainer can read and, for a homeschool family, counts as PE time. The beta is opening to a small first group of players and families.