Broad Jump to Bound: A Coach's Guide to Building Horizontal Power

Vertical jumps get all the attention, but baseball and softball are forward-moving games. The first explosive step off a lead, the stride a pitcher drives into the plate, the burst out of the batter's box - those happen in the horizontal plane, pushing the ground backward to move the body forward. The broad jump, and its progression into bounds, is the most direct way to train that quality in a 13-to-18-year-old athlete.

This guide covers why horizontal power matters, how to build the progression safely, and the mistakes coaches and parents should watch for. The athlete-facing steps live on the broad jump to bound drill page.

What the broad jump actually measures

The standing broad jump is a simple field test with a clear meaning. As Greg Vogt of PRP Baseball describes it, the standing broad jump captures power output in the horizontal plane:

"The standing broad jump (power output in the horizontal plane)." - Greg Vogt, PRP Baseball (source)

That's the whole appeal: unlike a vertical jump, which tests how hard you push DOWN, the broad jump tests how hard you can direct force FORWARD - the same direction the game demands.

It's worth being honest about the research, though, because it sharpens how we should use the drill. Studies looking at simple bilateral, two-footed jumps - including the broad jump - have generally found weaker direct correlations to throwing velocity than unilateral, frontal-plane jumps that mimic a pitcher's stride. In other words, a longer two-foot broad jump alone doesn't guarantee a harder throw. So why program it? Because horizontal power is a foundational athletic quality that feeds acceleration and explosive movement broadly, and because the broad jump is the on-ramp to the more game-specific work: repeated jumps, continuous jumps, and single-leg bounds. You build the general quality first, then channel it into sprint-like, single-leg expression.

The progression that matters

The value isn't in one max jump - it's in the staged build. Like all plyometric work, it starts with landing. An athlete has to be able to absorb and stick a single broad-jump landing before they earn the right to chain jumps together. From there the progression climbs in reactive demand:

1. A single broad jump with a stuck, two-second landing - master force absorption.
2. Repeated broad jumps, sticking and resetting each one - repeatable force.
3. Continuous broad jumps with a quick reset - reactive, elastic power.
4. Alternating bounds, pushing off one leg and landing on the other - the single-leg, sprint-like form.
5. A bound series finished into a short sprint to transfer power into acceleration.

This matters because bounding is essentially exaggerated sprinting. A bound is one giant running stride, so teaching an athlete to produce big horizontal force on one leg and absorb it on the other directly rehearses the mechanics of acceleration. But it's also higher-impact, which is exactly why it sits late in the progression - only after the two-footed landings are clean and controlled.

How to coach it

Cue the athlete to jump out, not up. The most common fault in a broad jump is too much height, which trades distance for hang time. Load the hips back into a quarter-squat, swing the arms back, then throw the arms forward and drive the hips out while pushing the ground behind. The landing is the test: soft, both feet, hips back, knees over toes, and a frozen two-second stick with no stumble or extra step. If they can't stick it, they jumped beyond their control.

Program broad jumps and bounds early in a session when athletes are fresh, since power and landing quality both fade with fatigue. A practical dose is 3-4 sets of 3-5 maximal reps with full rest - 60-90 seconds - between efforts. Train on turf or grass when possible to spare the joints, especially during the higher-impact bounding stages.

Common mistakes

The first is jumping up instead of out - height is the enemy of distance here. The second is a dead arm swing; the arms are a real part of the engine and a hard forward throw of the arms adds measurable distance. The third is stumbling on the landing instead of sticking it, which means the athlete is producing more force than they can absorb - shorten the jump until the stick is clean. The fourth is rushing reps when tired, which degrades both output and mechanics. And the fifth is skipping straight to bounds before single jumps are controlled - the most common way young athletes get sore knees and shins from plyometrics.

Is it age-appropriate?

Yes, with supervision and a sensible build. A standing broad jump with a stuck landing is appropriate from roughly 13U upward for athletes with basic strength and body control; the continuous-jump and bounding stages, being higher-impact, should be reserved for athletes who have already mastered the single jump and have adequate training experience. Keep volume modest, prioritize forgiving surfaces, and never let a young athlete grind out sloppy reps for distance.

The takeaway

The broad jump and bound progression trains the forward power the game actually uses. Coach the landing first, demand a stuck two-second hold, then climb the progression from single jump to repeated to continuous to bound. Build it that way and you develop horizontal force an athlete can absorb safely and pour into a faster, more explosive first step.

Sources

• PRP Baseball - The Correlation Between Broad Jump and Mound Velocity - Greg Vogt on the standing broad jump as a measure of horizontal-plane power output.
• Driveline Baseball - Examining the Relationship Between Vertical Jump Force and Velocity - on lower-body jump force and its relationship to throwing.
• Eric Cressey - Developing Baseball Power: What the Latest Research Says - on jump testing, plane-specific power, and what carries over to throwing athletes.
• Sportsmith - Implementing the Plyometric Continuum - the graded jump-and-land progression that underpins safe plyometric build-up.