Landing Mechanics & Athletic Development

Landing Mechanics & Athletic Development

Landing mechanics are exactly as they are implied, the mechanics of movement during the landing phase of a jump-landing movement. The importance of these are that nearly every sport (bar a select few) involve some sort of jumping-landing manoeuvre. The more prevalent these movements are, the more important correct landing mechanics become. These can also be extended to any movement which follows a land like changing direction or sprinting as your landing sets the foundation for the movement that follows. The following discussion will take you through exactly what you need to know both as a coach and as a players so you can better understand why they are significant.

Kurt Zouma knee injury versus Manchester United in 2016.

Landings are characterised as short, energy absorbing, eccentric activity to counteract the effects of gravity of the mass of a falling body (Kernozek, Torry and Iwasaki, 2008). Simply put, it's an athlete's ability to slow his/her body down during a fall. Coaching proper landing mechanics has an effect on both injury prevention and power production. They are essential to effectively cope with the high eccentric loads during deceleration of the body before jumping again or changing direction. The image above shows Kurt Zouma of Chelsea against Manchester United in 2016 (article on ACL injuries here). He suffered a horrific cruciate ligament injury after attempt to clear a high ball and landing awkwardly on one leg. This just goes to show the importance of training correct landing technique as these are the types of things that can happen. Certainly, before anyone dives in, there are other external factors that influenced this particular injury and others, but it's a good example none the less.  Teaching the correct mechanics of landing to our youth athletes is also necessary to promote hamstring and quad co-contraction to unload the ACL and to improve power production and change of direction ability.

Landing mechanics have a few characteristics which will be looked at below.

Good Landing - Front View

Good Landing - Side View

Soft landing - No excessive noise.
Feet are placed shoulder width apart - Ankles are under knees.
Knees track over your toes - Avoid knee valgus.
Knees flexed on initial contact - Absorb force.
Weight balanced on both sides evenly.
Hip flexed - Absorb force.
Trunk - Neutral spine, facing forward.
Head - Relaxed, looking forward.
​Ensure you are actively absorbing landing forces, not passively.

While there are certain characteristics of a good landing, there are also characteristics which are a predictor of injury. These are knee valgus at initial ground contact, peak knee valgus, hip adduction, peak vertical ground reaction force and hip rotation. All of these can be seen  below.

Now that we understand what we are looking for, the next step is knowing how to look for it and how do we quantify and measure it. Remember, that which can be measured can be managed. The L.E.S.S (landing error scoring system) is a valid clinical tool that reliably identifies individuals at an increased risk for ACL injury (Padua et al., 2015). It takes into account the sum of 17 possible movement errors and anyone with a score above 5 is at greater risk of sustaining a non-contact injury. Full scoring system for the LESS can be seen at the end of this article. Below, we have included a video briefly discussing each of the variables so you have  a clear in-depth idea of what you should be looking for. You should use this in conjunction with the full L.E.S.S scoring sheet.

The exercise starts with the athlete standing on a 12" (30cm) box. A landing area is marked in front of the box, half the body height away. This can be marked with tape or anything else as long as it is visible for the athlete. The athlete is instructed to jump from the box, with both feet leaving the box simultaneously. Both feet must land just past the landing area. Immediately, the athlete must jump vertically for maximum height. The athlete gets 4 attempts at this. Attempts are repeated if they don't follow the correct procedure for each jump. Ideally you should record each jump from the front and side simultaneously. For most people this won't be possible, so you should record 2 from the front and two from the side to get a better overall picture of what's going on with your athletes. 

So now we know what to look for. The L.E.S.S is a useful injury prevention tool as we can assess very quickly who is at more risk of suffering from a non-contact injury and also what movement patterns they are deficient in. The great thing about coaching landing mechanics is that it promotes flexion in the knee, hip and trunk with very little feedback needed. These movements are basic foundations of long term athletic development. Once an athlete/client learns the basics of correct jump-landing mechanics then it makes the learning of other skills a little bit easier as they will have the movements required to perform them.

What's important to remember is that the criteria we are looking for here is not indicative of sporting performance. Injury prevention and sports performance should not be confused. For example, while we are looking for soft landings during this exercise, we know that stiffer landings and shorter contact times with the floor are more representative of better athletic performance. It all comes down to knowing what you are looking for and knowing what to coach and when to coach it.

References:

1. ​Kernozek, T., Torry, M. and Iwasaki, M. (2008). Gender Differences in Lower Extremity Landing Mechanics Caused by Neuromuscular Fatigue. The American Journal of Sports Medicine, 36(3), pp.554-565.
   
2. ​Padua, D., DiStefano, L., Beutler, A., de la Motte, S., DiStefano, M. and Marshall, S. (2015). The Landing Error Scoring System as a Screening Tool for an Anterior Cruciate Ligament Injury–Prevention Program in Elite-Youth Soccer Athletes. Journal of Athletic Training, 50(6), pp.589-595.

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