Jumping, Leaping, Hopping Landing and Take-Off Mechanics

Jumping is defined in this text as a patient athlete landing with bilateral LE’s from takeoff. Leaping is defined in this text as a patient athlete landing with the contralateral LE from which their initial takeoff occurred. Hopping is defined in this text as a patient athlete landing with the ipsilateral LE from which their initial takeoff occurred. A countermovement jump occurs when a patient athlete experiences a rapid stretch shortening cycle (SSC) of their posterior chain musculature (primarily glutes and hamstrings, but also the calf and lumbar musculature) due to the patient athlete rapidly flexing, and then powerfully extending, their hip, knee, and ankle joints from an initial tall standing starting position.

The following guidelines are recommended for the detailed progressions and regressions that follow, unless otherwise indicated:

The “bottom” position of a patient athlete’s jumping mechanics entails a patient athlete flexing their knees far enough over their ankle joints so that they are “over,” if not slightly past, their toes. “Hips” of the patient athlete should be flexed far enough posteriorly so that they mimic the previously described “hinge” position required for a deadlift (and all associated variations). This entails the patient athlete feeling “tension” in their “hamstring” muscle group due to it being in a “lengthened” position. Arms (UE’s) of the patient athlete should be fully extended at the GHJ’s and elbow joints of the patient athlete while in this position (a neutral wrist position is preferentially advocated for in this text).

Once the patient athlete obtains a stable “bottom” position as described above, the patient athlete will then act to reverse the movement through a rapid extension of all their LE joints to achieve a tall standing position [1]. The patient athlete during this same time should essentially maintain an unchanged elbow and wrist positioning with regards to their UE’s, however, the patient athlete will rapidly flex their GHJ’s by “throwing” them overhead. Thus, it should be noted that the patient athlete’s hips, and shoulders should “rise” at the same time and rate throughout this reversal period. The patient athlete will then continue to push through the floor/ground with the “balls of their feet” once they achieve the tall standing position to perform the corresponding jump, leap, or hop that was prescribed, as the “body” momentum generated from the reversal of the “bottom” position should be great enough to propel the patient athlete “airborne” off the floor/ground. All of this occurs in almost an instantaneous fashion.

While “airborne,” it is advocated in this text that the patient athlete takes advantage of the pretension concept – this is where the patient athlete dorsiflexes their ankles while in the air to develop and increase foot/ankle stiffness upon re-contact with the floor/ground. This recommendation is made with the intent that the “transferability” (dynamic correspondence) toward activities such as sprinting is greater (due to less ground contact time at initial contact) than that if the patient athlete were to keep their ankles plantarflexed as in the “takeoff” stage of jumping, leaping, or hopping. The amount of knee and hip flexion that occurs within a patient athlete while “airborne” is entirely dependent on the tasks and goals of the intervention, the environment from which it is performed, and the unique anthropometric characteristics of the patient athlete themselves.

The landing mechanics of the patient athlete will also vary based on the task demands and intended goal with regards to the intervention itself. For this reason, whether the patient athlete contacts the floor/ground initially with the “balls of their feet” (or foot if performing unilaterally), or their heels, this will be detailed individually within the descriptions of each jump, leap or hop variation.

Although the amount of knee and hip flexion experienced by the patient athlete during “landing” can vary based off of the imposed task demands and goal/intended training effect sought out by the treating clinician, a landing position resembling that of the previously described “bottom” position should be assumed unless described otherwise. The UE positioning of the patient athlete should also remain the same as that previously described - arms (UE’s) of the patient athlete should be fully extended at the GHJ’s and elbow joints, with the maintenance of a neutral “wrist” position.

Obviously, joints in the lower extremities (LE’s) of the patient athlete should remain stacked (with the knees of the patient athlete being aligned with their respective LE ankle and hip joints) when in contact with the floor/ground, although this alignment may occur at an angle depending on the amount of hip adduction/abduction [2] the patient athlete is in bilaterally/unilaterally with regards to the performance of jumping, leaping/hopping variations, respectively). Also, the patient athlete should always have 3 points of contact at their feet with regards to the ground (big toe, little toe, and heel) to procure an active [3] “tripod” foot positioning. Finally, a neutral spine (cervical, thoracic, and lumbar vertebrae stacked over one another) must be achieved and maintained throughout the duration of most, if not all, of the interventions that follow regardless of what “stage” the patient athlete is in with regards to jumping, leaping, or hopping.

[1] In a tall standing position, the patient athlete will have a LE stance width approximately that of hip to shoulder width apart with all LE’s joints extended and stacked over one another (hip aligned with ipsilateral knee and ankle joint).

[2] A patient athlete will be in more hip Adduction on the stance LE (midline) when performing a leap or a hop due to the BOS requirements necessitating from these unilateral interventions from a balance perspective

[3] An active foot is defined as a patient athlete pushing their first and fifth metatarsal heads and phalanges into the floor/ground through a “splaying” action, while maintaining their natural arches of the foot through a tripod position (big toe, little toe, and heel firmly contacted against the ground) throughout the intervention.