Hey Andrew,
I have a question if you don't mind
How would you go about fixing bad dorsi -> plantar flexion in single leg bounding?
Basically, I tend to just land on my forefoot/toes instead of keeping dorsi flexion mid air as I cycle the leg and doing a proper heel to toe roll.
Is it just a matter of practicing it + dorsi flexion strengthening exercises?
not andrew, and not an expert, but my n=1 is that the way to fix the footstrike in SL bounding is just to reach farther in front. if your lead foot is far enough ahead, you have to land on your heel. that plus building up intensity over time.
ya agreed, reaching out in front helps (it's a good cue). you just don't want to land too far out in front. This alone could perhaps fix Merrick's issues.
surprisingly there aren't any good single leg bound progression videos on youtube?
I used to teach them using hurdles (with break-away ropes on top for safety) and by just slowing them down. We would gradually increase the distance between hurdles to work on power. Eventually we would move away from hurdles and do traditional bounds. We taught 'toes up' on all sprinting & plyo/reactive drills.
Merrick, here's an example of how I taught SL bounding, check out Eddie in this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmmFejsnfysThat drill forces people into a reasonable form, very quickly. Most people don't have hurdles though so..
If you're having problems landing on the heel, you need to 'slow everything down' and focus on cycling the recovery leg. I'd start with sub-maximal exaggerated jogging, single & alternate leg bounds first.
For the exaggerated jogging, all you want to do here is start off jogging a few steps then fully cycling each leg for several more steps. Think "toes up" the entire time. Torso completely vertical (but not at all leaning back). So those 3 components: fully cycling legs with toes-up the entire time & torso vertical.
Initially for bounds, don't worry about maximum distance per bound. Instead you want to worry about just extending your hip at take off, then cycling that leg underneath your butt. Simply imagine there are small hurdles you need to jump over. Start off with some "imaginary 12 inch hurdles", ie, small circles. Just this thought process alone should get you cycling your leg properly.
You want to dorsiflex as your foot cycles under your butt, think about pulling your heel to your butt directly underneath you. At this point you should already have your ankle dorsiflexed (locked).
Your torso should be fairly vertical. The more you lean forward, the more you'll want to land on mid/fore foot.
You could also use some kind of markers (cones, off to the side, not in the jumping path) to add in a visual cue for the distance per bound; ie 3 feet between cones, 4 ft, 5 ft, 6 ft etc.. 5-8 cones will do. Using something like this, you can easily measure where your form is breaking down (beyond just not landing on your heel) or eventually changes in power.
Are you thinking about keeping your "toes up" aka "ankle locked" on all of your reactive/sprint drills? If not, you should be.
hope that helps, sorry don't have many vids on it.
pc!