Max Velocity drill
Straight-Leg Bounds
Teach the hamstrings and glutes to pull the ground underneath you at top speed.
- Time
- 8 minutes
- Players
- 1 to 30 players
- Intensity
- Medium
- Equipment
- None
- Space
- 20m lane
- Positions
- All positions
Setup
A 20m lane on soft, flat grass.
How to run it
- Stand tall with a straight back and pull your toes up hard towards your shins - hold that the whole way through.
- Scissor your legs forward and back with almost no bend at the knee, letting the front leg rise to about 45 degrees.
- As each foot comes down, grab the ground directly underneath your hips and pull yourself along, swinging your arms strongly from the shoulders.
- Do 3 passes of 20m with a walk back between each.
- Never do this cold - warm up thoroughly first, because it loads the hamstrings hard.
Coaching cues
- Push your toes to the tops of your shoes
- Grab the ground and pull yourself along
- Contact under your hips, not out in front
Common mistakes
- Leaning backwards, sometimes almost to the point of toppling over
- Kicking the legs up instead of pulling, which uses hip flexors instead of glutes and hamstrings
Related drills
- Flying 20Develop and hold genuine top-end speed, which is where line breaks are finished.
- Float RunLearn to run at 90-93% of top speed while relaxed, so you have a gear left late in games.
- Sprint-Float-SprintTrain re-accelerating back to top speed after easing off, which is exactly what a support runner does.
- Wicket RunsForce front-side knee recovery and a tall sprint rhythm at close to top speed.
- A-MarchGroove the knee drive, foot strike and tall posture used at top speed.
- A-SkipAdd sprint rhythm to the A-march position so you arrive at training ready to run fast.