Airplane with knee drive & hop
Category: Balance
Level: 3
4-8 reps each side
Carla van den Berg
Airplane
- Initiate movement by pushing hips backwards into the hinge position as torso slowly lowers towards the floor
- Flat back and neutral neck position throughout the movement
- Slight knee bend as torso lowers
- Hips remain square
- Slow, controlled movement
Knee drive & hop
- From extension, back leg comes forward and up into knee drive as the other leg pushes off the ground into a hop
- Knee stacked over ankle at take-off and landing
- Move opposing arm & leg together at each direction
- Round back
- Cue "Pinch shoulders back"
- Cue "Push hips back"
- Hips externally rotating (turning outward)
- Cue "Point foot of free leg towards standing leg"
- Cue "Hips face the floor"
- Knee collapsing inward
- Cue "Drive knee out towards pinky toe"
- Neck extension (looking up) during the hip hinge
- Cue "Look up through the eyebrows"
- Same arm and leg moving forward together
- Cue "Opposite arm and leg"
- Moving through too quickly
- Cue "Stick your landing"
- Cue "Slow and controlled"
- Dynamic balance
- Ankle stability
- Knee control
- Reinforces soft landing technique
- Develops arm/leg coordination
- Hip-dominant movement targets posterior chain (back, glutes, hamstrings)
- Reinforces safe, neutral spine position