Bounding Drills For Sprinters | Runners Tips
All athletes strive to run faster each and every day through strenuous training. They wake up early, and go to bed late thinking of the goals they want to achieve. To sprint faster and excel at your sport it is key that you understand how to properly manipulate your body to get maximum results. Bounding can be an effective way to build power off the ground and mimic proper running form with powerful strides. Take a look at the video below and review the running form.
As you can see in the video this drill is pretty simple to complete. You can exercise indoors or outdoors. Let’s first dive into the proper foot, knee, and hip alignment. Every stride you want to perform dorsiflexion with your front foot. This means you will pull your toes towards your shins. This will help load your muscles as you strike the ground. Don’t focus on driving off the ground with your toes, but rather focus on cycling your leg back to the chambered position. This portion is mimicked during the second phase of this drill.
As you move through the bounds, stride out as far as you can while maintaining a tight core. Lift the front knee up and perform great arm separation between one another. Your hand should never go above your face on the front side and the rear arm should rotate backward stretching the muscles for a more explosive forward motion.
Now you have a good idea of how to complete a bound, we will take a look at the second phase. During this phase you will complete 2 to 3 small hops in between each transition. This part of the exercise will challenge balance and help with consciously building the proper form on the front side during sprinting. Understand that when you drive your knees up, you will have better acceleration when sprinting. These motions will help build better consistency in your stride and increase your speed.
As you have also seen we are using Kbands. These leg resistance bands are an essential training tool for all upper level sprinters. By building hip flexors and enhancing glute activation, you will truly feel the difference when sprinting. The bounding drill is specifically great for utilizing Kbands because of the power off the ground and the knee drive phase. This extreme separation between legs will help activate the muscle groups utilized to sprint faster. Every repetition you will feel the extreme difference in the way your body has to move when working with these resistance bands. Take the time to focus on form, and understand how to complete each movement properly before adding resistance.
In conclusion, you will complete 8 to 10 down and back sprints. Every time you move down 10 to 15 yards you will be bounding, and then on the way back you will be doing a modification bound. The 8 to 10 repetitions should be resisted, and then you will follow the resisted repetitions with 2 to 4 unresisted repetitions. Your legs will be feeling very light and explosive. Maintain your intensity and finish the drill strong. Utilize the Kbands Wall Drill or Suicide Sprints Drill next to complete a great days worth of workouts.