Continuing our research into proper landing techniques, we found this recently published article that took 17 healthy collegiate males and had them perform drop landings from .35m (just over 1ft) using three different landing positions: Toes-In, Neutral, and Toes-Out.
In the parkour coaching world, very rarely do we see people landing with a toes-in position, but it does happen on occasion. More often, we find students landing in a toes-out position. At RocPK, our go-to cue is to keep the feet parallel.
Data from the article:
From their Discussion:
“From the perspective of combined loading, TI position was the most harmful position because of peak valgus moment and internal rotation moment together immediately after landing.”
“TO position did not showed
[sic] valgus moment immediately [upon] landing but it is not a recommendable position either. Since TO position induced the largest varus angle and internal rotation angle with the largest varus moment, it has potential risk of noncontact ACL as well. Biomechanically the neutral position showed decent kinematics and kinetics of the knee. Therefore, with intention or with the help of balanced training the neutral foot position on landing is recommended to minimize the risk of non-contact ACL injury.”While their findings for toes-out position wasn’t highly conclusive, we’re still satisfied with their extrapolation that toes-out could lead to improper wear and tear on knee ligament tissue. We’ll be using this reviewed research as evidence to support our decision to cue our students into neutral foot positions during all landings.