Landing Tutorial
Read the following sentences. If you don't get it, ask a grown up to help. If you find it too simplistic, you have my apologies.

- Gravity will accelerate you downwards, regardless of your mass. Air resistance is negligible.

- Any change in speed or direction is acceleration, and requires a force. A greater change in speed, or a shorter time to change speed, requires a greater force.

- Energy is neither gained nor lost; it is only transferred.

- Applying a force imparts kinetic energy. To remove speed, kinetic energy has to be transferred. Kinetic energy can be misdirected, and damage bodily parts.

- The human body is constantly being damaged and repairing itself. If the body builds itself faster than the damage occurs, it can become stronger. If damage occurs too quickly, or in a way that can not be easily repaired, it becomes weaker.

- Taking longer drops puts your body under a lot of strain. Taking lots of drops puts your body under lots of strain. Landing in ways that take advantage of the way your body is built helps minimize the strain you put your body under, and prevents permanent injury.

- Learn to land as well as you can. Regardless of what you feel like when you are young, you will have to deal with being injured when you are older. You will regret it later in life if you let yourself become damaged.


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~~PRINCIPLES~~

Now that we've got that of the way, here are a few things to think about.

As far as I can see, you want to achieve 3 things when you land:
(1) Getting to the destination. (2) Travelling from the destination effectively. (3) Minimizing damage and ensuring safety.

There are, of course, a few optional aims:

(4) Expending no more energy than is necessary.
(5) Remaining hidden. (
6) Looking gooOOood...
…and so on.

As with all of Parkour, how effective a landing is, is largely dependant upon the situation; i.e. your surroundings, your conditions and what your objectives are. You might be jumping up onto a rail, or across onto gravel, or down onto grass, or swinging round something onto a wall.


[1] GETTING THERE

For the most part, whether or not you get to your destination will depend on how you launch. By the way, go read my jumping tutorial.

Jumping Tutorial

After the launch, you can not change your course in the air. You can, however, alter your rotation, twist against yourself to align part of yourself with a target, extend limbs, or contract limbs.

You can improve your chances of getting to an object further away, by spending more time in the air, and / or getting to it earlier. This can be done by piking, tucking or launching more effectively.


[2] STOP / GO

You should try to land in a way that helps you continue in the desired direction if you want it. For example, if you land on a wall leaning forwards, it can be hard to stop, whereas if you break fall into leaves, it can be hard to keep running. You want to utilize the forces involved in the landing as effectively as possible.

While you speed up, the forces pushing you forwards exceed the forces holding you back. You are falling forwards.
While you slow down, the forces holding you back exceed the forces pushing you forwards. You are falling backwards.
Don't believe me? Then go outside for a run and try to speed up while leaning back or slow down while leaning forwards.

If your centre of mass is directly above the part of you that makes contact when you land, you will carry on with the same speed until you touch the ground again. If you have no horizontal speed, you will not gain any in falling, but if you are already moving you will continue to move in that direction.

If your centre of mass is ahead of the part of you that makes contact when you land, you will accelerate in that direction, until you touch the ground again.

If your centre of mass is behind the part of you that makes contact when you land, you will decelerate in that direction, until you touch the ground again. This means that you will fall backwards if you have little or no forwards momentum. If you have plenty of horizontal momentum, this can slow you down or even stop you.

Be aware of when, where and how you place your feet as you land.

Landing with one foot first can make it easier to carry on running when you land, but this can have various disadvantages. You can only apply 1/2 the force into the ground to start with, so you may find it less suitable for big jumps. You may also require a larger landing area, or more accurate foot placement.

One way to help ensure effective deceleration, or even stopping, is to land on the edge of something. This puts your weight behind your feet at the same time as providing extra traction.


[3] INJURY PREVENTION

As for safety, you need to make sure that no tissue of the body is put under strain it can not handle and no part of the body is strained in a way it can't handle. You also want to have control over what you do as far through the landing as possible and afterwards.

-> Relax.
- - Keep everything smooth. This applies for the launch as well as the landing; sudden decreases in resistance to muscular force can jar joints like sudden increases can.

-> Make sure joints are not twisted in the wrong axes.
- - Be wary of landing with a twist, or with sideways motion. It's very easy to twist ankles.

-> Do NOT allow any joint to bend too far.
- - Do NOT collapse completely

-> Do NOT land with joints locked straight.

-> Do NOT take big drops unless you're physically and mentally prepared.

-> Do NOT take big drops unless you're PHYSICALLY and MENTALLY prepared.

-> Do NOT take big drops unless you're PHYSICALLY AND MENTALLY PREPARED!

If you don't think you can do something, don't do it. If you want it, train until you know you can do it.

Control what your body does. What your body assumes is correct is not the same as what you know to be correct. Instinct is there to protect you, but most people are not hard-wired to act in the optimum way as standard.

If you do feel injured, then you can always stop and RICE (Rest, Ice, Compress, Elevate) or dress the wound, or seek medical attention.


I'm sure those of you who want [4], [5] and [6] can work it out for themselves once they get [1], [2] and [3].


You want to be able to achieve all of your aims, and do so at any time you need to, without needing time to prepare. This requires training; practice landing in various ways in readiness for various situations.

I can see that a lot of you are bored already, so I'll skip a bit, and give you some more specific advice.



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~~METHODS OF LANDING~~

TAKING DROPS

This is an area I feel that too many people have trouble with, whether they admit it or not. That's why I'm going to go on about it at such great length.

-> The simplest method of landing after a drop is to land with your feet. Most drops you take will be dealt with in this way.

All joints from the toes upwards should be bent and relaxed enough to give way a little. Have the legs extended in mid air; this allows you to slow yourself with your legs as much as possible. Land with the toes and balls of the feet first; the landings of the heels should be clearly delayed. As you land, you should allow every joint to bend gradually. Increase resistance to the drop gradually. The force of the drop should be taken by the muscles, not by the joints.

Avoid:
- Landing loudly - silent landings indicate smooth dispersal of kinetic energy.
- Excessive tension - this jars your joints
- Collapsing too far - bending the knee more than 90 degrees puts it at risk of injury. Also, if you do not resist the drop at all, you will just fall in a crumpled heap. Crumpled heaps do not run very fast.

This method can be used landing both feet together, one foot leading, going sideways, etc. However, it may not be as effective at dispersing kinetic energy as other methods of landing.


-> Sometimes, you will be going too fast, and will have accumulated too much kinetic energy to disperse it safely using the legs alone. In these circumstances, it may be a good idea to drop down further, ending up on all fours.

Remember, this is an extension of the previous method; if you want to land well this way you should be able to land the simpler way as well. This technique requires confidence and arm / wrist strength, as you should drop forwards more than down after the feet have landed, in order to avoid collapsing and bending the knees too much. The arms should be used in a similar way to the legs. Bend the elbows, resist gradually, take plenty of the force with your arm muscles.

Avoid:
- Slapping the ground loudly (as above)
- Excessive / insufficient tension (as above)
- Bending the fingers backwards - people tell me this hurts after a while, and I believe them.
- hitting your face with your knee (it happens!)

Because this takes you to all fours, this can be awkward for people who are used to running on only 2 legs. I deal with this in different ways depending on the situation. I might:
- Bounce back up - which requires some strength, flexibility and timing to execute well
- Carry on for a short distance on all fours - but some people can't run on 4 legs, or switch to / from 2
- Accelerate until I'm upright (like starting a race from the blocks)
By lowering your centre of gravity a lot, you retain a plenty of control, so you may find this is good for dropping into a specific area.


-> There are times when you have too much speed to safely land using the above methods. You may need to adapt the above technique by rolling to dissipate more energy. As with the above methods, much of the energy from the drop should be absorbed safely by the legs, and some of it should be absorbed by the arms.

The roll can be aided by more specific hand and foot placement. I like to land with one foot ahead of the other for control; some people land with feet close together as the instability assists a roll.

This roll is diagonal, so one side (left or right) leads, and that shoulder makes contact with the ground. The opposite side follows, so that hip touches the ground.

There are a few different ways of using the arms. Some people use them exactly the same way as above, but just roll. Some people try to have the leading elbow bent outwards a little, so they can use their arm to take some of the force more smoothly. Some people take no weight on the leading arm and throw it underneath themselves in order to spin quickly and avoid injuring the shoulder / back against the ground. Some people do something in between. I think it is good to try all of these, and find what works for you.

Either way, you need to make sure your shoulder does not hit into the ground too hard, and you roll along rather than grazing yourself. Tuck your head in.

Remember, you are rolling diagonally across your back. Going more sideways can give you too much sideways rotation and going straight over can damage your spine. Keep your back arched, and stay focused on where you want to go.

Even after starting a roll well, many people hit their hip as they right themselves. If you feel this, adapt your rolls to minimize this. Pull your feet towards yourself again, so that you roll up onto your feet. If you tuck the rear foot against the hip and let the leg on the leading side trail a little, you can roll straight into a running position, and minimize wasted momentum.

Rolling is great for dissipating a lot of speed, but unfortunately it is hard to use rolls for straight vertical drops. It can be done, by doing things like leaning and rolling backwards, or twisting while dropping, but I would not advise a beginner to worry about these until they are happy with conventional landings.

I could draw some nice diagrams to show you rolls, but they wouldn’t be very helpful. I’d encourage you to seek footage of experienced traceurs, and watch how they roll.


-> There are many other things you can do to minimize the potential damage of falling. First and foremost, is going to be finding a safer way down. This incorporates a favourite of mine, lowering yourself before dropping. Simplest of all is to duck before dropping. It is also easy to lower yourself into a hanging position, but it is faster (and trickier, and more dangerous) to drop into a hanging position. Watch out if you're doing this; if you swing as you drop, you can land on your back, which has been known to cripple people. If you drop straight down, you may have difficulty rolling, and you might collide with a wall as you land as well.

Another method I like is somewhere between hanging, and the all fours landing. You lower yourself to all fours while you drop off the edge. It gives you slightly less height to accelerate from, it can be done while running, standing or squatting, and can be done fully or partially depending on whether you prefer speed or safety.

Skidding down the wall can be effective, but there are the risks of grazing, and colliding with the wall as you land. You can skid with hands as well as feet, at the cost of skin as well as shoes.

One thing you can do more easily in some places than others is to turn a big drop into a few smaller drops. You don't have to stop dead at every point along the way, but splitting up the landing can really help.


JUMPING UP

I have three words for you: Centre. Of. Mass.

The issue here isn't getting rid of excess kinetic energy. The issues are in fact, using your energy properly to get the height, and using that height. You want the part of you that catches the object you're landing on to be as high in relation to your centre of mass as you can manage. For a simple double footed landing, the simplest way to do this is to tuck your feet as high up as possible (1 on the diagram). Similar to this, and more useful if you are travelling forwards, is to pike in mid air, leading with the feet (2 on the diagram). Your feet are nearly as high as your centre of mass, and they get to the landing place a little earlier.

Avoid:
- busting your knees when you tuck tight
- rotating too far forwards or backwards (falling backwards is more likely if you pike). You can use your arms to compensate to some extent.

One useful method I have heard described as “the crane”, is to get one leg high, and let the other leg trail (3 on the diagram). Doing so allows the landing foot even higher in relation to the centre of mass. This also has a tendency to stall you as you land, and prevent forwards movement / rotation immediately after landing. This can be good if you are unsure of the landing, but it is not so effective if you plan on running from the landing.


When you need to get onto an object higher than you can get your centre of mass, the arms come into play. I'm not going to go into a full cat grab / saut de chat tutorial, but I will point out a few things. For example:
-You may wish to be piked in mid air to avoid smashing your knees.
-If you are stretched further vertically, you can grab higher objects at the risk of trailing your legs into something.
- Limb positions will affect the ease with which you can climb up, depending on climbing method used.




JUMPING LONG

Jumping long is like jumping up, in that you want to get high in the air, and manipulate your body about your centre of mass, to maximize your air time and thus how far you can travel. It is also like dropping, in that you are falling for an extended period, so your landing will need to be suitable for dealing with the resultant kinetic energy. Because of this, the way you land will bear similarities to the way you will drop or go up. You may try picking to get maximum air time and cover maximum distance, only to roll at the end.

You should consider how compatible and how safe landing styles are. Again, you should also consider the aim of the jump. Are you landing on a specific area, or do you have plenty of a margin for error? Is there space to roll? Do you want to run straight afterwards?


BREAK FALLS

The aim of the break fall is to dissipate the energy of a fall effectively. They are taught in various martial arts, e.g. Judo, Aikido, Han mu do... There are many different break falls, for when a person falls or is thrown in any number of different ways. I'll use a break fall if it feels like I need to use one, in a dojo or when practising Parkour. However, many people frown upon most of them because they kill your momentum, leaving you prone on the floor. I could describe a few ways of break falling, but in my opinion it's not worthwhile trying. If you want to learn to break fall, learn a martial art that involves a lot of grappling.


HANDS FIRST

If you are aiming to jump upwards in order to hang or cat grab, this doesn't tend to damage the joints too badly. Nonetheless, watch for swinging out and letting go. Also make sure you don’t smash your knees into a wall, your face into your knees, hyper extend your ankles on impact with the wall, or even bounce off by accident.

If your arms are going to go below where your centre of mass started, it becomes a lot riskier. The human arm is not as strong as the human leg, and the hand and wrist are not as good for taking impacts as the foot and ankle. There are various reasons you might do this.

You might dive roll over something. You might handspring if you are over rotating and a roll would not be effective, efficient or safe. You might need to cat grab something level with yourself, or even lower. You might want to kong / saut de chat something that is level with yourself, or even lower.

When using any of these, the arms and hands have to take all of your weight for a period, so they have to be strong enough. You also need to get the hand placement right, and know how to use the rest of the body in conjunction with the arms. Otherwise, things could go horribly badly...



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Right, that's it for now. It's not over by a long shot; there are all kinds of other ways you can land. I haven't even started on changing horizontal direction or jumping to specific obstacles and I can't really be bothered. Basically, I want you all to read what I just wrote, digest it, try some stuff, think about how you can improve upon what you're doing, and improve upon it.


- Lukman / QuadDamage -
- November 2006 –


DISCLAIMER:

This article is based upon my experience. You may disagree with some of the things I write. I don’t really mind, so long as you take time to think about what you’re doing and how, and you do your best to look after yourself and others.