Alternate Leg Diagonal Bound
Also works: Abductors · Adductors · Calves · Glutes · Hamstrings
A bounding drill in which each push-off sends you forward and across to the opposite side, landing on one leg before immediately bounding back the other way. The diagonal path is what separates it from a straight bound: every landing has to be controlled sideways, which is where knees and ankles actually get tested.
Own the movement
Set up first, then execute. Every cue below is something you can check on your next set.
Before the first rep
- Warm up properly — a few minutes of jogging, some skips and a set of bodyweight squats before the first bound.
- Use grass or a sprung floor if you can. Concrete makes every landing more punishing than the drill needs to be.
- Chalk or tape a straight line on the ground to bound across, so you can see whether both sides cover equal distance.
- Start in a split stance, one foot slightly ahead, weight forward on the front leg.
- Clear at least 15 metres of run-out and check for anything you could land on.
Every rep
Breathing & tempo — Breathe with the rhythm of the bounds rather than holding anything — one breath every two or three contacts. Explosive off the ground, and the ground contact itself should be as short as you can make it while still landing under control.
Before you load it
- Single-leg diagonal landings are unforgiving on a bad ankle or an unrehabilitated knee. If either has been injured in the last few months, build up with double-leg jumps first.
- Avoid concrete and avoid uneven grass. Landing at an angle on a surface you misread is the realistic injury here, not the bound itself.
Sets, reps & load
Where to start, and what to change when it stops being hard.
Bodyweight, and no vest. Before you start, you should be able to squat roughly bodyweight for 5 reps and land a single-leg hop without wobbling — that is the entry standard for absorbing these forces. Progress by bounding further with the same quiet landing, then by adding a set. Never by adding contacts within a set.
What goes wrong
The errors that show up most often, and the cue that fixes each one.
Shorten the bounds until the knee stays stacked over the middle of the foot on every landing, then build distance back. If it still caves, spend a few weeks on single-leg strength work before returning.
Bound to about 80% of your longest effort and land quietly. Distance is a byproduct of good push-off, not the target — a bound you cannot land under control is a failed rep.
Cue the free knee up to hip height on every push-off and hold that shape for a fraction of a second in the air. Do a few slow single bounds with a pause on landing to feel it.
Keep sets to 6-10 contacts with two minutes rest. Stop when the bounds get shorter or the landings get loud — fatigued bounding carries the joint load without any of the adaptation.
Why bother
Squats and jumps train force in one plane — straight up and down. Almost nothing that hurts a knee happens in that plane. Bounding diagonally makes the glute medius and the adductors decelerate your body sideways on a single leg, at speed, on every landing. That is a quality you cannot get from a barbell.
It also exposes an imbalance no bilateral lift will. Bound ten times and you will notice one side covers more ground, or lands with the knee drifting inward while the other stays stacked. That asymmetry is the useful information here, more than any strength adaptation the drill provides.
Where it fits
Early in a lower-body session, after a full warm-up and before you lift, once or twice a week. Three to five sets of 6-10 total contacts with two minutes rest. Single-leg landings from a bound produce forces in the region of four to five times bodyweight, so treat the volume with the same respect you would a heavy set.
If this one isn't it
No kit, too hard, or too easy — here's where to go instead.
Same job, different kit
When this gets easy
Asked and answered
How far should each bound go?
Far enough to feel like a bound, short enough to land in control — for most people that is one and a half to two normal strides, and around 80% of the furthest you could physically reach. Distance you cannot land quietly is not progress, it is a landing you got away with.
Do I need to be strong before I start bounding?
Yes. A rough entry standard is a bodyweight squat for 5 reps with load, and the ability to hop onto one leg and hold the landing still for a second. Without that, the drill delivers four to five times bodyweight through a knee that has no way to control it.
Is this better than straight-line bounding?
Neither is better; they train different things. Straight bounds build horizontal power for sprinting. Diagonal bounds add lateral deceleration, which matters for any sport with a cut in it. If you play a field or court sport, the diagonal version is the more specific of the two.
One side goes noticeably further than the other. Should I worry?
A small difference is normal. A gap over about 10% is worth acting on — add single-leg strength work such as lunges and step-ups, doing the weaker side first and matching the stronger side to its reps. Do not fix it by bounding more on the weak leg; that trains a compensation, not a correction.