Body Preparation or warming up, has to be the most important aspect of a workout program. For those who preach crap such as "A lion doesn't warm up before chasing it's prey." Well, we don't live in a society where we have to chase our food or run so we're not food.
An important exercise in the maturation of an athlete. Might look simple and seem simplistic, but the ability to move laterally while perpendicular to the direction of movement, is a skill many should perfect.
Another aspect of the locomotion gamut. Skipping is actually the catapult to numerous higher forms of sporting prowess. We've seen a direct correlation between the ability to skip, and the ability to make consistent contact with a bat, club, racket or stick to a stationary object.
There are very few substitutes for running fast! We know very few people who run extremely fast and are poor all-around athletes. Those two just don't go together. So, we take our time getting the body prepared to do just that - run fast!
An amazing way to work on lower-body explosiveness. Granted, the whole body will feel this exercise because it takes a serious amount of coordination to do it properly.
High knees are a great part of the sprinting process. Doing them on stadium steps only intensifies their action. The steps also force the athlete to lift the knees higher than normally would happen without the incline.