Welcome to Impact landing


Traceurs always take proper precautions to help their longevity and ensure they can
still practice parkour many years down the road. To help keep their body at top functioning
shape we ensure that we don't subject our bodies to unnecessarily large impacts with the ground.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9uHZMYrCvWw
Jumping off of things is in our nature as humans and our knees and other joints are meant to take a
certain amount of ware and tear but precautions and proper technique can help avoid the extra damage.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNdVJABkc3c
Impact is the force applied to a body over a given time.
The gif above is recording instantaneous force on the body
This force is applied to the body as soon as part of it contacts the ground and continues
till the center of gravity collides with the ground. The impact can be dissipated by increasing the time
between initial contact and final collision. There are many (technically infinite) ways to minimize impact.
I will be talking two specific techniques widely used by many traceurs. The first is called a tap out.
This method has already been shown above and helps reduce impact on the knees and feet by
slamming your hands on the ground. This technique is great for landing in small spaces.
The next technique requires more space to dissipate the impact and is the roll.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNdVJABkc3c
Fundamentally you'll notice that there is a visible change in distance (∆X)with a change in height(∆Y).
This distance increases the time from  body contact to C.O.G. collision which minimizes the impact on your body.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgPd29MlHpg
Proper execution as shown above is making sure your head is curled sideways and that your
roll goes directly from your shoulder blade to your opposite hip and even across your glüt.

gifbin.com
Using these proper techniques can with proper
circumstances make the stunt above less dangerous.




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