Landing Mechanics for Athletes: What Coaches Look For | Starke Industries

Watch a group of athletes land from a jump and you'll see a wide range. Some land softly and in control. Others land stiff-legged, loud, or with their knees collapsing inward. Landing is a skill, and like any skill, it can be coached.

This post covers what coaches look for, how landings are commonly assessed, and an important limit on what those assessments can tell you.

What a good landing looks like

Coaches generally look for:

• Soft, quiet contact. Absorbing force through the ankles, knees, and hips.

• Hip and knee bend. Not landing with straight legs.

• Knee alignment. Knees tracking roughly over the toes, rather than collapsing inward.

• Trunk control. Chest up, not folding forward or leaning to one side.

• Symmetry. Both feet landing at the same time on two-leg landings.

• Stability. Able to "stick" the landing.

How landings are assessed

Coach observation. The simplest method. A trained eye watching from the front and side.

Video. Filming from the front and side lets coaches slow the landing down and compare over time.

Structured scoring systems. The Landing Error Scoring System (LESS) is one example. Padua and colleagues tested it with a jump-landing task recorded on standard video cameras, with 2,691 subjects [1]. Athletes with high LESS scores (poorer technique) showed significantly different lower-extremity movement patterns than those with low scores, compared with 3D motion analysis. The authors described the LESS as a valid and reliable tool for assessing jump-landing biomechanics [1].

Force plates. Can show landing forces and how quickly an athlete absorbs them.

What landing assessments can't do

Here's the important limit. Assessing landing mechanics describes how an athlete moves. It does not reliably predict whether an individual athlete will get injured.

Krosshaug and colleagues studied this directly. Over several seasons, they tested elite female soccer and handball players using 3D motion analysis of a vertical drop-jump landing, then followed them for ACL injuries [2]. Of the five factors they looked at, only medial knee displacement was associated with increased ACL injury risk. But it had poor combined sensitivity and specificity as a screening test. Among players with no previous injury, none of the drop-jump variables were associated with increased risk. The authors concluded the drop-jump test cannot predict ACL injuries in this population [2].

That's an important finding, from a lab with full 3D motion capture. A simpler field assessment shouldn't be presented as doing better. Any facility, including ours, that markets a landing test as an injury predictor is going beyond what the evidence supports.

So why assess landing at all?

Because landing is a trainable skill, and better control makes for a better athlete. Assessment gives a starting point and a way to track progress, and it helps coaches decide what to teach. That's useful even though it doesn't forecast injuries.

Use landing observations—and force-plate jump metrics when available—to guide coaching, not to label athletes as "high risk."

How to coach better landings

1. Start from a standstill. Snap-downs and drops from a low box. 2. Add movement. Jump and land in place, then forward, then sideways. 3. Go to one leg. Single-leg hop-and-stick, starting small. 4. Add reactivity. Land and immediately jump again, once control is solid. 5. Use simple cues. "Land quiet," "knees over toes," "hips back."

Questions parents ask

My daughter's knees cave in when she lands. Does that mean she'll tear her ACL? No test can tell you that. It does mean landing mechanics are worth coaching, and a strength and conditioning coach can help. If there's pain or a medical concern, talk with a physician or physical therapist.

How long does it take to improve landings? It varies. Regular practice over weeks, with feedback, is typical. Re-check with the same assessment to see if it's changing.

Common coaching mistakes

• Only cueing the knees. Trunk position, hip bend, and foot contact all affect what the knee does.

• Too many cues at once. One or two cues per set is plenty.

• Testing without teaching. Filming a landing is pointless if nothing changes in training afterward.

• Going too high too soon. Drop height should increase only when control is consistent.

Landing and fatigue

Landing quality often changes when athletes are tired. Coaches sometimes notice cleaner landings early in practice and sloppier ones late. That's a reason to coach landings when athletes are fresh, and to keep an eye on technique during long sessions.

The bottom line

Landing is a skill worth assessing and coaching. Tools like the LESS can measure it reliably. But the research is clear that landing screens shouldn't be sold as injury predictors. Assess to coach, not to label.

Related reading

• Summer Off-Season Training for High School Athletes: How to Plan the Break
• Training in the Heat: Heat Illness Basics for Summer Workouts
• Squat Jump vs. Countermovement Jump: What the Difference Tells You
• Single-Leg vs. Double-Leg Jumps: Why Test Both
• Sprint Testing 101: 10 m, 20 m, and the 40-Yard Dash
• Back to School: Getting Ready for Fall Sports Tryouts
• The Nordic Hamstring Exercise: What the Research Says
• The Copenhagen Adductor Exercise for Field and Ice Athletes

References

• Padua DA, et al. The Landing Error Scoring System (LESS) is a valid and reliable clinical assessment tool of jump-landing biomechanics: the JUMP-ACL study. Am J Sports Med. 2009;37(10):1996–2002. https://doi.org/10.1177/0363546509343200 (online Sep 2, 2009)
• Krosshaug T, et al. The vertical drop jump is a poor screening test for ACL injuries in female elite soccer and handball players: a prospective cohort study of 710 athletes. Am J Sports Med. 2016;44(4):874–883. https://doi.org/10.1177/0363546515625048 (online Feb 11, 2016)

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