How many reps of the Power Skip should you do when you are new to the exercise?

Start with 3 sets of 8 to 10 skips per leg over about 15 to 20 meters, walking back to fully recover between sets so every rep is genuinely explosive. Once height and float time feel consistent rep to rep, add a set or stretch the distance before you ever add more skips per set.

How do you make the Power Skip easier or harder?

To regress it, drop the arm punch and just work knee height and float time from a standing start, or shorten the distance so fatigue does not creep in. To progress it, extend the distance, add a slight uphill grade, or chase maximum height for fewer, higher-quality skips instead of more of them.

What is the Power Skip good for?

It builds the triple extension and vertical force production that feed into sprinting and jumping, making it a staple for track athletes and field-sport players working on power. It is a poor choice before a thorough warm-up has primed the tissues, and it adds little for someone training pure endurance or general fitness.

Intermediate

Power Skip

This is the aggressive cousin of the warm-up skip: instead of a light rhythm you drive each skip for all the air you can get. It trains the hip, knee, and ankle to extend forcefully in sequence and teaches a hard upward arm and knee drive. Use it early in a session as a bridge between low-intensity plyometrics and true bounding.

Equipment: Body Weight
Body part: Glutes, Quads
Type: Cardio, Plyometric
Browse by muscle: Gluteus Maximus, Rectus Femoris, Vastus Lateralis
Browse by movement: Gait Drill

How to do it

1
Start tall with a light jog rhythm, then push into a skip off one foot.
2
Drive one knee up hard while punching the opposite arm skyward.
3
Extend the ground-leg hip, knee, and ankle fully to project yourself up and forward.
4
Land on the ball of the foot and immediately skip off the other leg.
5
Keep the torso tall and the arms swinging in opposition throughout.
6
Continue for the prescribed distance, resetting to a walk between efforts.

Tips

Chase height and float time, not step frequency.
Punch the lead knee to hip height so the drive stays vertical, not just forward.
Stay tall through the trunk; leaning back kills the extension you are trying to build.

Variations

Common mistakes

The trail leg drags flat behind instead of fully extending the hip, knee, and ankle, so the skip loses the extension that projects it upward.
Arm swing turns into a wide circular pump instead of a straight opposition punch, which bleeds rotational energy sideways instead of up.
Once the distance gets long, the rhythm collapses into a fast running stride instead of discrete skips, so the plyometric intent disappears.
Landing flat on the heel instead of the ball of the foot turns each contact into a stomp that kills the spring for the next skip.
Some athletes reset straight into the next skip without the walk-back the instructions call for, so fatigue creeps in and the last reps turn sloppy.

Frequently asked

How many reps of the Power Skip should you do when you are new to the exercise?: Start with 3 sets of 8 to 10 skips per leg over about 15 to 20 meters, walking back to fully recover between sets so every rep is genuinely explosive. Once height and float time feel consistent rep to rep, add a set or stretch the distance before you ever add more skips per set.
How do you make the Power Skip easier or harder?: To regress it, drop the arm punch and just work knee height and float time from a standing start, or shorten the distance so fatigue does not creep in. To progress it, extend the distance, add a slight uphill grade, or chase maximum height for fewer, higher-quality skips instead of more of them.
What is the Power Skip good for?: It builds the triple extension and vertical force production that feed into sprinting and jumping, making it a staple for track athletes and field-sport players working on power. It is a poor choice before a thorough warm-up has primed the tissues, and it adds little for someone training pure endurance or general fitness.

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