We’ve discussed this before but it bears repeating, everyone stands to benefit from plyometrics if they are programmed properly.

Ramirez-Campillo, et al 2013 assigned 18 distance runners to a control group where they ran 3 days/week and 18 to a training group where they ran 3 days a week and performed plyometric exercises 3days/week.

Pre-post tests were 2.4km run time, 20m sprint time, 20 and 40cm drop jump and countermovement jump with arm swing.

After 6 weeks of plyometric training the athletes were retested. The control group showed no major improvement in any score and scored lower on some tests. The experimental group demonstrated a 3.9% reduction in run time, a 2.3% reduction in sprint time, an 8.9% improvement in counter jump movement, and 12.7% and 16.7% improvements for the drop jumps.

Clearly, even for endurance athletes who will have to sprint in the last 400-1000m of their events, even short-term plyometric training can have a major effect on performance.