In this B Skip variation the athlete WHIPS the lower leg down into the ground, working through an exaggerated range of motion as a means of dynamic tissue preparation for the hamstrings.
Common mistakes include: A quad dominant kick out of the lower leg and a passive falling of the foot in front of the body. Instead we are looking to aggressively initiate the WHIP from the hip extensors and actively strike the ground close to underneath the hips.
This drill is NOT a specific technical drill and is UNLIKELY to directly influence an athletes running mechanics. It does however provide great general coordination and tissue preparation benefits, making it a fantastic warm up option and a good adjunct to an athletes overall elastic / plyometric volume.
Learning to coordinate an effective WHIP from the hip action is extremely valuable for an athlete and this drill has the potential to serve as an introduction to this concept. Practicing this drill could play a small roll in an athletes development and awareness of this action in other activities such as upright sprinting, bounding and hopping. However these higher intensity activities have other coordinative and physical requirements, meaning an athlete may be great at displaying a WHIP like action in a low intensity B-Skip but be unable to do so during sprinting, bounding or hopping. Therefore in this case other rate limiters should be explored such as an athletes force producing capabilities, elasticity and stiffness qualities and more specific coordination, rhythm and timing.
