What ski jumpers train away from the hill: why the imitation jump is the best predictor of distance and why knee valgus costs you twice.
Away from the hill, ski jumpers train almost exclusively explosive strength, jump power and core stability — not endurance. The reason is in the movement itself: the take-off is a maximal, precisely timed explosive leg extension out of a deep crouch, and leg extension power plus core stability are the decisive performance determinants [3].
How tight that link really is was measured in a laboratory study with ten elite ski jumpers. Barbell squats, drop jumps and imitation jumps were compared with actual season jump performance. Result: the vertical take-off velocity in the imitation jump related most strongly to distance on the hill (R = 0.718 — a clear relationship: whoever rises faster in the imitation jump also jumps further on average) [1].
And then comes the uncomfortable part. The more the knees collapsed inward in these exercises — so-called valgus — the worse the performance: R = 0.729 for imitation jumps and R = 0.685 for squats [1]. Knee valgus therefore costs you twice: distance and safety.
This section describes what ski jumpers train off the hill — it is not a training plan to copy and does not replace guidance from a coach or therapist.
What is trained is not "legs" but a movement pattern: explosive extension out of a deep crouch, forward rather than up, within a force window of fractions of a second [6]. Which is why lifting heavy alone achieves little — the force has to arrive at the right moment at the right point [6].
The imitation jump is the take-off movement without a hill — and it is the most informative off-hill exercise there is: the vertical take-off velocity in it correlates most strongly with distance on the hill (R = 0.718) [1]. A comparison of six imitation jump variants with real hill jumps in nine professionals also shows what matters: imitation jumps from a rolling platform match the target movement better than jumps from a standing start, and three of four movement criteria are matched best when jumping boots are worn [2].
Both remain standard: the squat builds maximal strength, the drop jump reactive strength — how fast you can call up force again after ground contact [1]. But they are means, not ends. Their value only appears when the movement looks clean: the more valgus, the worse the competition performance [1].
The inward collapse of the knees is explainable in these exercises — the movements run extremely fast [1]. Explainable does not mean acceptable: valgus is at the same time the marker where worse performance shows up [1] and a known risk factor for the cruciate ligament. Clean beats heavy.
The season structure is clear: general preparation in summer, specific preparation in late autumn, competition phase in winter [4]. And the load moves with it: in internationally competing ski jumpers, strength training frequency and maximal isometric squat force drop markedly in the competition phase [4]. In winter nothing is built any more, it is held.
Important and often underestimated: overuse injuries in ski jumping arise mostly in dry-land training, not on the hill — typical are shin complaints and patellar tendinopathy, the so-called jumper's knee [5]. Athletic training is therefore not the harmless part of the sport but the place where most chronic complaints are made.
So the same holds here: this guide explains and motivates, it never replaces supervised training in a club or on the hill — and no individual training or therapy instruction. Drop jumps and imitation jumps are high-intensity jump loads; they belong under guidance, built up progressively and planned with enough recovery, not as a self-experiment after reading an article.
And the most important sentence to close: off-hill training does not make you hill-ready. The way onto the hill runs exclusively in stages under supervision — dry-land practice, smallest hill, then bigger.
Film your squat from the front once instead of from the side. Almost everyone films the side because that shows depth and back — but valgus you only see frontally. In the elite study it was exactly that inward collapse that related to worse jump performance (R = 0.729 for imitation jumps) [1]. A single frontal video per training block tells you more about your take-off quality than any load increase.
Explosively above all: barbell squats for maximal strength, drop jumps for reactive strength and imitation jumps as the sport-specific lead exercise [1]. Plus core stability, because in-run and flight demand a stable body position [3]. Endurance plays hardly any role — the take-off is a maximal leg extension in fractions of a second [3][6].
Enough that it measurably decides distance: in ten elite jumpers, vertical take-off velocity in the imitation jump correlated at R = 0.718 with season jump performance [1]. What matters is not maximum load but how fast the force arrives in the right fraction of a second [6].
Overuse complaints above all — and in ski jumping these arise mostly in dry-land training, typically as shin complaints or patellar tendinopathy, the jumper's knee [5]. Which is why: dose jump loads progressively, technique before volume, and correct valgus consistently [1].
Yes, ski jumping is a year-round sport. Matting hills allow jumping in summer as well; the summer season runs roughly from late April or May to October and offers more consistent conditions than winter [7]. In parallel, exactly this period holds the general athletic preparation [4].
The Imitation Jump: The Dry-Land Drill That Makes Your Take-Off Measurable