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Most of you probably remember learning to skip when you were real young. If not, you were taught in physical education class. It is just one of those foundational skills that lend itself to movement quality and efficiency.
I facilitate clinics often and observe young and old athletes unable to skip. This, too me, is a shame. Skipping develops many things that are important to becoming a good mover. Skipping develops coordination; quality of using opposition of arm and leg movements; force production; hip, knee, and ankle extension, as well as flexion. It can teach posture and force
transition through the body. Skipping is good!
Now do I feel skipping is one of those skills that will make you a faster runner, a better jumper, a quicker mover when you are a competitive athlete? Maybe. I certainly think it helps. Here is the key to my message; skipping needs to be learned at a young age and needs to become one of the tools in the neurological tool box we all build. Without the ability to skip, we miss a stage of movement development that can help us build other skills.
If an athlete learns to skip when young, he can use the same skipping pattern to move in all directions. My athletes learn to skip forwards, backwards, sideways, in-place, on a low box, against resistance, and any other way I can think of. Why? Because I want them to have as many different ways of moving in their motor program toolbox as possible. When needed, an athlete can pull from his brain’s storage unit the exact or similar movement skills and apply them quickly in sport. When moving backwards and having to rotate the body and hop and step while opening the hips because the wind blew the ball in a different direction is an example of using athleticism. If not the athlete is not able to perform this movement, he would be considered less athletic.
Skipping by itself may not serve a great purpose other than a sign of joy as a young child skips across the grass to play with her friend. But the coordinated efforts of the mind and body to pull off the various manipulations of the arms, legs, and center of mass in any direction are important and serve a purpose. It can be the direct link to pulling off sport specific movements even though these sports specific movements look nothing like skipping. Skipping becomes just like many of the other foundational movement skills that build the foundation of movement. From this foundation, sport specific movements become possible and breathtaking.
It is so important to remember that a foundation is built with many things to make it wide, long, deep, and solid. It may not be the final desire. A cement foundation of a new house isn’t the goal; it is responsible for the goal happening. Skipping allows the final goal to happen.
If I were not writing this article about skipping, what other foundational skills could I have used? It could be hopping, leaping, turning/rotating, landing, rolling, ducking, and shuffling just to name a few. It is our job as coaches to make sure the foundational athletic skill development is big so future success is pushed higher. So let’s all begin with making sure skipping is a foundation of athletic development and core functional movement.
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Ground Breaking
2
Ground Breaking 2 will make you into the guru on coaching athletic speed. Not only will you be able to evaluate athletic skills such as; many forms of cutting, acceleration, deceleration/change of direction, jumping/landing, first step quickness in any direction, lateral speed mechanics, tactical quickness, retreating skills, and so much more, you will also be able to correct your athletes on the spot with highly targeted coaching cues. Your athletes will love you.
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