Runners often hear about the importance of proper form—it can reduce injury risk and make you more efficient. But the practical question is: how do you actually improve your running form?
One of the most effective strategies is to incorporate drills that reinforce key elements of ideal technique. Movements like high knees, cariocas, and bounding train neuromuscular patterns, coordination, and strength that carry over into faster, more efficient running.
Another drill worth mastering is the A-skip.
Though it can take some practice to get right, once you’ve learned the movement, A skips can significantly sharpen your stride mechanics and foot strike, giving you a smoother, more powerful gait.
What Is the A Skip Running Drill?
The A-skip is a dynamic running drill commonly used in warm-ups by runners, sprinters, and athletes across many sports. It combines a high-knee action with a skipping rhythm, making it both a coordination exercise and a strength builder.
This drill is designed to reinforce key elements of efficient running form. By exaggerating the knee lift and emphasizing a quick, powerful ground strike, A-skips train proper foot placement under the hips, improve posture, and enhance rhythm.
They also strengthen the legs, core, and even the upper body through coordinated arm drive.
Incorporating A-skips into your routine can improve your foot strike pattern, neuromuscular coordination, sprinting power, and overall running economy. Because of its rhythmic, dynamic nature, it’s often included early in warm-ups to prime the body for faster running.
What Are The Benefits of A Skips?
A-skips offer a wide range of benefits, making them one of the most effective dynamic warm-up drills for runners. They increase blood flow and elevate heart rate, helping the body transition smoothly into faster running.
The movement activates key muscle groups—including the legs, core, glutes, and upper body—while also strengthening and stretching the hip flexors, calves, and smaller stabilizing muscles in the lower leg. At the same time, A-skips enhance hip mobility and increase the range of motion in the hips, knees, and ankles.
Beyond mobility and strength, the drill sharpens coordination between the upper and lower body and engages both the core and pelvic floor, reinforcing overall stability.
Neuromuscularly, A-skips encourage optimal knee lift, improve firing patterns, and reduce ground contact time by promoting a midfoot strike rather than heel striking.1Hasegawa, H., Yamauchi, T., & Kraemer, W. J. (2007). Foot Strike Patterns of Runners at the 15-km Point During an Elite-Level Half Marathon. The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 21(3), 888. https://doi.org/10.1519/r-22096.1 All of these adaptations contribute to increased speed and improved running efficiency.
Because of these benefits, A-skips are an excellent addition to a warm-up routine before speed workouts or races, priming the body for faster running.
They can also be used ahead of easy runs to stimulate quicker neuromuscular firing. And since they build strength as well as speed, A-skips can double as a simple form of both strength training and running-specific conditioning.
What Muscles Does the A-Skip Running Drill Activate?
A-skips are an effective dynamic warm-up exercise because they activate the glutes, hamstrings, calves, tibialis anterior, quads, core, and hip flexors, in addition to muscles in the upper body.
Because the ballistic movement of A-skips relies on skipping on the balls of your feet, the exercise strengthens the calves and intrinsic foot muscles, along with the core and legs.
By dorsiflexing the foot during the upward knee drive, A-skips strengthen the muscles of the shin (namely tibialis anterior), potentially reducing the risk of shin splints.
Additionally, this drill increases the range of motion in the hips, knees, and ankles.
Because the exaggerated upward knee drive requires using your core and hip flexors, A-skips are a great way to strengthen the hip flexors for regular running and sprinting.
Weak hip flexors are associated with an increased risk of running-related injuries.2Ferber, R., Hreljac, A., & Kendall, K. D. (2009). Suspected Mechanisms in the Cause of Overuse Running Injuries: A Clinical Review. Sports Health: A Multidisciplinary Approach, 1(3), 242–246. https://doi.org/10.1177/1941738109334272
How to Do A-Skips
From an outside perspective, A-skips may initially look super easy, but they take a bit of rhythm, coordination, and practice to nail.
Here are the basic steps:
- Stand upright with your core and glutes engaged, chest up, arms at your sides, and feet hip-width apart.
- Hop on the ball of your right foot as you simultaneously use your core to draw your left leg up so that your thigh is at least parallel to the ground. Dorsiflex your toes on the left foot so that they are pointing upward. The right leg should remain straight.
- Rapidly claw your left foot to the ground, directly under your center of mass like a prancing horse, landing on the ball of your foot near the toes.
- Hop your weight to the left foot as you draw the right leg up to hip height, again with your thigh parallel to the ground.
- Alternate sides, maintaining a bounce to your skip and using your core, calves, and glutes to explode each leg up with power and speed.
- Your arms should swing reciprocally with each leg as you skip, just as they do while running, but focus on really pumping hard with the arms (using an exaggerated arm swing) to drive the legs upward.
Start with just 20-30 meters of A-skips, and then take a brief rest and return to your starting position.
You don’t travel forward particularly quickly when doing A-skips because your foot is coming down directly under your center of mass rather than far in front of your body.
Most of your energy is on the up-and-down movement and the rapid, quick ground contact time of each foot, rather than super long, loping strides forward.
As you get better, you can increase the distance and speed with which you perform this running drill. Additionally, you can progress the exercise by doing high knee A-skips, as described later on.
When doing this drill make sure to:
- Keep your core tight, and really use your abs to draw the leg up.
- Use good posture with your body upright rather than leaning forward or backward.
- Swing your arms powerfully and rapidly to drive the opposite leg upwards.
- Keep your movements focused on the forward direction without rotating your torso, hips, or knees from side to side.
- Focus on moving your legs as fast as possible off the ground, really minimizing ground contact time as much as possible.
- Land forcefully on each foot, as this will help improve your explosive power; the more force you apply to the ground, the more force gets transmitted back into your legs.
- Stay on the balls of your feet near your toes.
- Start with a slower rhythm, and increase your cadence as you hone your technique.
Modifying A-Skips: A-Marches for Beginners and Advanced Progressions
As mentioned, A-skips can be challenging for beginners, and if you’re not used to plyometric exercises, you might want to work up to this running drill by doing a-marches.
A-marches are essentially the same movement patterns as A-skips, but rather than hopping or skipping between steps, you march without fully leaving the ground.
The focus should be on driving your knees up as much as possible, as if you’re trying to step over hurdles with your feet.
Here are the basic steps:
- Stand upright with your core and glutes engaged, chest up, arms at your sides, and feet hip-width apart.
- Stand on the ball of your right foot as you simultaneously use your core to draw your left leg up so that your knee approaches chest height. The right leg should remain straight.
- Rapidly march your left foot to the ground, directly under your center of mass, landing on the ball of your foot near the toes.
- Raise your right knee towards your chest, marching forward slightly with every step.
- Alternate sides.
- Your arms should swing reciprocally with each leg as you march, just as they do while walking and running. Pump forcefully with the arms to help bring your knee up.
Progress from A-marches to A-skips when you feel like you have the movement pattern down.
Here is a quick video demonstration of the A-march and A-skip drills.
Once you master A-skips, you can progress the exercise by doing A-skips with high knees. Essentially, it’s the same exact exercise, but instead of just trying to bring your thigh up so that it’s parallel to the ground, you should bring your knee all the way up to your chest.
You can also progress to performing the exercise barefoot on the grass or sand, which will further activate the small intrinsic muscles of the foot and ankle.
Just be careful about doing too much barefoot work all of a sudden; build up gradually. If your feet are used to being in running shoes all the time, the muscles need time to adapt to being unshod.
Adding just a minute or two of A-skip running drills to your warm-up routine can have a valuable impact on priming your body for a good run while simultaneously strengthening and mobilizing the hips, shins, and calves to prevent injuries, and working to improve your running technique.
For a look at carioca, another running drill, check out our step-by-step instructions:
