Hurdle Hops

Introduction:

The hurdle hop is as simple as jumping over anything and landing on the other side. The jump can be executed laterally, straight ahead, on one leg, two legs, or a combination of these.

Hurdle hops are a combination of a depth jump and a box jump. An athlete performs a box jump when they jump a specific height and land at that same height. Athletes step from a height and land during a depth drop. Both are fairly standard plyometric workouts.

Athletes must leap a specific height and then return to the ground when participating in the hurdle hop. Typically, a sequence of leaps is created by placing hurdles one after the other. The number of hurdles that athletes must jump over determines how many times they must jump, land, jump, land, and jump and land.

Placing the hurdle directly in front of the athlete is the simplest technique to do a hurdle hop. After that, the athlete clears the obstacle by leaping. Similar to a tuck leap, the hurdle hop uses an apparatus to guarantee that the goal is at a specific level, depending on height.

Muscle Work During Hurdle Hops:

• Hip Flexor Muscle
• Gluteus Muscle
• Quadriceps Muscle
• Hamstring Muscle
• Calves
• Core Muscles

How to Perform?

The majority of plyometric activities are quite similar to the hurdle hop approach. It starts the same way as a box jump.

The jump begins with a countermovement, just like practically every other jump (except for sitting jumps). In essence, the countermovement is a quarter squat. The arms swing back, and the trunk remains in control during the quarter squat.

After completing the countermovement, the arms raise and swing forward, the chest rises, and the leg muscles contract with a twitching force to clear the obstacle.

Landing on the box would be the only remaining action if this were a box. However, this obstacle is being overcome rather than climbed.

The knees are tucked up, as is the case with most jumps over or onto objects. The tool is easier to clear when the knees are curled up. It also indicates athleticism, core strength, and mobility.

Thus, the hurdle hop necessitates a landing, in contrast to the box leap. Elastic landing is required. The hips, knees, and ankles must be supple but rigid. To load the muscles, there should be some give, but not so much that no stretch shortening occurs. Additionally, athletes must avoid being so loose that they sink into the squat’s bottom.

Because hurdle hops are rarely performed as a single jump, the landing is crucial. Usually, a sequence of two to six hurdles is used during hurdle hops. The jumps should ideally be performed quickly and consecutively.

Nonetheless, there are excellent methods for developing the hurdle hop in the rapid-fire style. The stutter leap is one of the best strategies to develop the rapid-fire style. Make a small jump in between each hurdle hop. Athletes can restore the elasticity they may have lost during the depth drop portion of the hurdle hop with the mini leap.

That’s it. Be elastic, jump again, land, and jump over the hurdle. Start with a manageable height and work your way up to increasingly difficult obstacles over the course of several months. ensuring that, regardless of the hurdle’s height, competitors maintain their jumps’ flexibility.

Benefits:

The hurdle hop, like all plyometric exercises, is very beneficial for athletes who want to increase their speed, build explosiveness, and get an intense workout.

Benefits of hurdle hopping include increased vertical leap height, improved jumping ability, and improved direction-changing skills (imagine landing from a hurdle hop and rebounding into another leap).

Athletes benefit greatly from being able to absorb the depth drop phase of the hurdle jump and reapply force. A recipe for speed, agility, and power is the required force to be elastic, take the stretch shortening cycle, and reapply force to generate high levels of impulse to power against gravity and soar over a hurdle within the sequence.

Athletes’ explosiveness is greatly enhanced by the hurdle hop plyometric in addition to their ability to accelerate, decelerate, and change direction. Because they move quickly, explosive athletes seem twitchy. In order to be as forceful as possible, the twitchiness produces the capacity to produce large levels of impulse in a brief period of time.

Conclusion:

An excellent plyometric exercise for athletes to use on an athlete day (or even as part of lower-body contrast training) to build power, acceleration, and explosiveness is the hurdle hop. Hurdle hops are a wonderful training tool for athletes of various disciplines, including those in closed- and open-skilled sports.

The hurdle hop might be the ideal plyometric exercise to use if you need to make a cut to change direction on the field, cross up a defender on the court, fire a shot put from the shoulder, win a track race, or have a strong, forceful dip in a jerk.

FAQs

References:

• Kunkle, E. (2024, July 3). Hurdle hop. Garage Strength. https://www.garagestrength.com/blogs/news/hurdle-hop?srsltid=AfmBOooNxE1FC6V6efCuITTWj38vHMbkqHr3X3K9NNWx3mi3eqnBrPAa
• Lee, J. (2015, January 14). Hurdle hops and extended bounding. SpeedEndurance.Com. https://speedendurance.com/2014/11/04/hurdle-hops-and-extended-bounding/