Why the ‘Jump and Bump’ Drill Should Be a Staple in Every Athlete’s Training
The Jump and Bump Drill is awesome for many reasons. It’s something we have used for years in helping with jumping and landing, and doing so after contact. Better yet, it requires zero equipment!
You can do the movement and focus solely on the landing, which is how we prescribe it with most athletes. We start with a two-foot landing and progress to one foot. If the athlete can’t land on two feet in a controlled “next play position,” there’s no sense moving to one foot. We look for a “no-squish” landing where athletes can show adequate stiffness through the entire kinetic chain.
Once athletes have achieved the two-foot landing, move to a single-leg landing and then ask them to respond quickly afterwards. Vary how hard the contact is or where it is on their hip or torso so you can keep the training environment open versus a more closed and consistent stimulus. The contact they’ll encounter during competition is going to be chaotic and unpredictable, and the Jump and Bump Drill should reflect that.
One key here is to begin with contact on the hip that occurs at the top of the jump or at peak height. This is when the athlete is weightless, so to speak, with little vertical change happening. Always stay safe here and avoid undercutting or making contact below the hip at any time.
In the above video, we progress to asking the athlete to move laterally after landing on one leg. This makes things a bit more reactive and forces them to think about foot and ankle position on contact. We must always be thinking about the “next play,” and this progression will help put them in that state of mind. Be creative with your progressions. Have the athlete move in varying planes after landing, or give a hand signal, or have them catch or respond to a ball, or use sound cue, or position another person across from the participant and have them train true agility by responding to their movement.
This is an awesome drill for sports like basketball, football, lacrosse and volleyball, or wherever jump and land techniques are important. Good landing abilities are shown to decrease likelihood of ACL and other ligamentous injury or re-injury, so even if the athlete’s sport itself involves little jumping or contact, there’s still benefit to be had. This is also a fun and super effective drill to use in a team setting, rather than just hopping around in place all by your lonesome.
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Why the ‘Jump and Bump’ Drill Should Be a Staple in Every Athlete’s Training
The Jump and Bump Drill is awesome for many reasons. It’s something we have used for years in helping with jumping and landing, and doing so after contact. Better yet, it requires zero equipment!
You can do the movement and focus solely on the landing, which is how we prescribe it with most athletes. We start with a two-foot landing and progress to one foot. If the athlete can’t land on two feet in a controlled “next play position,” there’s no sense moving to one foot. We look for a “no-squish” landing where athletes can show adequate stiffness through the entire kinetic chain.
Once athletes have achieved the two-foot landing, move to a single-leg landing and then ask them to respond quickly afterwards. Vary how hard the contact is or where it is on their hip or torso so you can keep the training environment open versus a more closed and consistent stimulus. The contact they’ll encounter during competition is going to be chaotic and unpredictable, and the Jump and Bump Drill should reflect that.
One key here is to begin with contact on the hip that occurs at the top of the jump or at peak height. This is when the athlete is weightless, so to speak, with little vertical change happening. Always stay safe here and avoid undercutting or making contact below the hip at any time.
In the above video, we progress to asking the athlete to move laterally after landing on one leg. This makes things a bit more reactive and forces them to think about foot and ankle position on contact. We must always be thinking about the “next play,” and this progression will help put them in that state of mind. Be creative with your progressions. Have the athlete move in varying planes after landing, or give a hand signal, or have them catch or respond to a ball, or use sound cue, or position another person across from the participant and have them train true agility by responding to their movement.
This is an awesome drill for sports like basketball, football, lacrosse and volleyball, or wherever jump and land techniques are important. Good landing abilities are shown to decrease likelihood of ACL and other ligamentous injury or re-injury, so even if the athlete’s sport itself involves little jumping or contact, there’s still benefit to be had. This is also a fun and super effective drill to use in a team setting, rather than just hopping around in place all by your lonesome.
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