The speed skater is a bodyweight plyometric bound performed side to side, taking off from one foot and landing on the opposite foot, training the quads and side glutes. Unlike thelateral ski jump, where both feet leave and land together, every landing here arrives on a single leg, so the drill trades rhythm for distance and asks the outside hip to stop your whole body weight. The trailing leg sweeps behind you and never touches down. Coaches program it early in a session as lateral power work or in a conditioning circuit.
What Muscles Does the Speed Skater Work?
- Primary: Quadriceps, gluteus maximus, gluteus medius (side glute)
- Secondary: Hamstrings, adductors, gastrocnemius (calf)
- Tertiary: Obliques, peroneals (outer shin), erector spinae
How Do You Set Up for the Speed Skater?
Clear about two metres of non-slip floor to each side and stand in the middle of it. Set your feet under your hips, then shift your weight onto one leg and lift the other foot behind you. Sink into a quarter squat on the standing leg with the knee tracking over the toes. Hinge the chest slightly forward, bend both elbows and hold the hands in front of the hips ready to swing.
How Do You Perform the Speed Skater?
- Load the standing leg by sinking deeper into the quarter squat and swinging both arms across your body.
- Push sideways off that foot, driving the hip out so you travel laterally rather than upward.
- Reach the opposite foot out and land on the ball of that foot two to three feet away, arms swinging the other way.
- Sweep the takeoff leg behind you and hold it clear of the floor as the landing leg absorbs your weight.
- Absorb into a quarter squat on the new standing leg, knee over the toes and hips back, until you are balanced.
- Bound straight back off that foot to the other side, continuing in an unbroken alternating rhythm.
What Are the Key Form Cues?
- Land and stick, then go: feel the outside of the hip catch your weight before you push off, so each landing is controlled rather than caught.
- Push sideways, not up: aim the takeoff foot at the floor behind you to send the body across.
- Keep the trailing foot off the floor for the whole set; touching it down turns the bound into a step.
- Let the arms cross the body in time with each landing to steady the trunk.
- Keep the standing knee out over the little toe as the hip takes the load.
What Are the Most Common Mistakes?
- Bounding further than you can land: distance you cannot absorb makes the trailing foot drop for balance, so shorten the bound until every landing sticks.
- Letting the landing knee collapse inward: knee valgus under a single-leg landing loads the medial knee and the ACL, so land with the knee over the little toe.
- Landing stiff-legged: a straight knee sends the impact through the joint instead of the quad, so bend into the quarter squat as the foot touches.
- Standing upright between bounds: losing the forward hinge puts the hips ahead of the feet and kills the push, so keep the chest over the front of the knee.
- Turning the torso toward the landing leg: the hips rotate and the push goes diagonally, so hold the shoulders square to the front.
What Are the Best Speed Skater Variations?
- Lateral step-out: step to the side and touch the trailing toe down, a regression for learning the landing.
- Skater with a pause: hold each landing for two seconds to build single-leg control.
- Speed skater with a floor touch: reaching the opposite hand toward the floor adds hip hinge range.
- Lateral ski jump: both feet leave and land together, keeping the rhythm faster and the landings shared.
- Bounding skater for distance: cover as much ground as you can per bound for a power progression.
How Do You Progress the Speed Skater?
- Keep it bodyweight and progress by lengthening the bound six inches at a time.
- Build from 8 landings per side to 15 with every landing sticking.
- Add sets from three to five, or a second lateral power day per week.
- Once the landings are quiet, remove the pause and bound continuously off the rebound.
How Should You Program the Speed Skater?
Place the speed skater early in a lower body session, after the warm-up and before heavy squats, while the legs are fresh, or run it as a conditioning finisher at lower effort. Train it one to two times per week for 3 to 5 sets of 8 to 15 landings per side, resting 60 to 90 seconds between power sets. Pair it with a squat jump to cover both jumping planes.