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How Parkour athletes land and don't get hurt

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Summary on an article measuring the impact of Parkour athletes’ landings from heights of 0.9, 1.8, and 2.7 meters.

Who

17 males aged 23.9 ± 4.7 and 3 females aged 26.2 ± 1.3 doing Parkour for at least 2 years and training at least twice a week for 2 hours (USA).

Parkoura sport incorporating combination of acrobatics, gymnastics and running utilised to move rapidly through the environment (often urban).

Design

Experimental study:

  • landings from 0.9, 1.8, and 2.7 m (in this order)
  • landing techniques (in random order):
    • squat landing (soft landing on feet)
    • forward landing (feet first, then hands)
    • roll landing (rolling motion from feet to hands to back)
    • stiff landing (on feet with a purpose of runing forward as soon as possible after landing)

Outcome measures

  • landing time
  • vertical and horizontal velocity at initial contact, at the end of landing, and during the first 100ms of landing
  • joint angles

Main results

  • Landing time decreased with increasing height for the squat, forward, and roll landings. For stiff landings (only data for 0.9 and 1.8 m), the landing time increased with height. Landing time was the shortest (by far) for stiff landing.
  • At initial contact:
    • vertical velocity increased with increasing height for all landing techniques.
    • horizontal velocity did not change across the heights for squat, forward, and stiff landings, but increased with hight for roll landing.
  • End of landing:
    • vertical velocity did not change across the hieghts for forward and roll landings, but increased with heigth for squat and stiff landings.
    • horizontal velocity did not change across the heights for squat and forward landings, but increased for roll and decreased for stiff landing.
    • roll landing resulted in downward velocity while other landings resulted in upward velocity.
  • During the first 100ms of landing:
    • vertical velocity increased significantly with the height for all types of landings
    • vertical velocity changes were the highest for the stiff landing, then squat, and the lowest for roll landing.
    • horizontal velocity changes were simiar across hights for squat, forward, and stiff landings.
  • Peak knee flexion angles increased with hight for squat and stiff landings, were the highest for forward landing and the lowest for stiff landing.

Take home message

For a clinician & coach
Stiff landing had the shortest landing time. Roll landing was effective in decreasing changes in vertical velocity (while extending the landing time).
For a parent
Stiff landing had the shortest landing time. Roll landing was the most gentl in slowing down.
For an athlete
Stiff landing had the shortest landing time. Roll landing was the most gentl in slowing down.

Original article

Dai B, Layer JS, Hinshaw TJ, Cook RF, Dufek JS. Kinematic Analyses of Parkour Landings From as High as 2.7 Meters. Journal of Human Kinetics. 2020 Mar 31;72(1):15-28.

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