The lateral ski jump is a bodyweight plyometric exercise in which both feet hop side to side over a line, training the quads, glutes and calves for frontal-plane power and landing control. Unlike a skater jump, the feet stay together and land together, so every landing is absorbed by two legs and the rhythm can stay fast. The low jump height and short ground contact make it a reactive drill, not a max-effort one, and the lateral direction loads the outside of the hip and ankle. Coaches program it early in a session as a power or conditioning block.
What Muscles Does the Lateral Ski Jump Work?
- Primary: Quadriceps (front thigh), gluteus maximus, gastrocnemius (calf)
- Secondary: Gluteus medius (side glute), hamstrings, soleus
- Tertiary: Adductors, peroneals (outer shin), obliques
How Do You Set Up for the Lateral Ski Jump?
Mark a line on the floor with tape, a low hurdle or the edge of a mat, and stand beside it on a non-slip surface. Set your feet together or no wider than hip width, knees and hips bent into a quarter squat, weight on the balls of your feet. Hold your torso slightly forward with your arms bent at your sides like ski poles. Look ahead, not down at the line.
How Do You Perform the Lateral Ski Jump?
- Load the legs by sinking into the quarter squat and swinging both arms back.
- Push off both feet and drive the arms forward, jumping sideways over the line with the feet staying together.
- Land on the balls of both feet on the far side of the line, roughly one to two feet from where you took off.
- Absorb the landing by bending the knees and hips into the same quarter squat, knees tracking over the toes.
- Rebound immediately from the bottom of the landing, pushing back across the line without pausing.
- Land and repeat in a continuous rhythm for the set, finishing balanced in the quarter squat beside the line.
What Are the Key Form Cues?
- Land like a spring, not a brick: Meet the floor with soft knees and let the hips sink, then use the rebound for the next jump.
- Keep the feet glued together: Both feet leave and touch the floor at the same instant, so one leg never takes the whole landing.
- Hold your chest over your toes so the hips stay behind the knees on landing.
- Push the floor away sideways through the outside edge of the trail foot.
- Keep the landings quiet; noise means the legs stopped absorbing.
What Are the Most Common Mistakes?
- Jumping too high or too far: chasing distance lengthens ground contact and turns the drill into a slow broad jump, so keep the hops low and quick.
- Landing with the knees collapsing inward: a valgus knee on a lateral landing loads the medial ligaments and the ACL, so land with the knees over the toes every time.
- Landing flat-footed or on the heels: the calf and ankle stop absorbing and the impact goes straight to the knee, so stay on the balls of the feet.
- Letting the feet split apart: the rear foot lands first and takes the whole load, so keep the ankles nearly touching.
- Pausing between jumps: standing up tall after each landing kills the stretch reflex, so rebound directly out of the quarter squat.
What Are the Best Lateral Ski Jump Variations?
- Lateral line hop: a smaller, faster version over a floor line for beginners learning the rhythm.
- Lateral hurdle jump: a mini hurdle raises the height demand and punishes lazy foot lift.
- Forward-and-back ski jump: hopping over the line front to back shifts the load into the sagittal plane.
- Single-leg lateral hop: jumping and landing on one foot per rep for a hard balance and ankle stability progression.
- Speed skater: a wider, one-foot-to-the-other lateral bound that swaps rhythm for distance.
How Do You Progress the Lateral Ski Jump?
- Keep it bodyweight; progress by raising the hurdle height in small steps or widening the line you clear.
- Build from 8 to 15 jumps per set with landings that stay quiet the whole set.
- Add a set at a time up to 5 sets, or a second plyometric day per week.
- Speed up the rhythm and shorten the ground contact time rather than slowing the movement down.
How Should You Program the Lateral Ski Jump?
Place the lateral ski jump early in the session, after the warm-up and before heavy squats, while the legs are fresh, or use it as a conditioning finisher at lower intensity. Train it one to two times per week for 3 to 5 sets of 8 to 15 jumps, resting 60 to 90 seconds between power sets. Pair it with a squat jump or a skater jump to cover both jumping planes.