How to Do Parkour Safety Landings

Parkour is an exciting, but inherently dangerous sport. Some of the most dangerous maneuvers in parkour are the large drops traceurs perform from high areas. If the drop is taller than your body height, it's a good idea to roll out of the landing. For jumps lower than this, though, you'll need to execute a safety landing. This simple technique works to absorb your body's impact as it meets the ground.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

1. Use the safety landing only for jumps shorter than your body height. Higher jumps require different techniques to land properly.

2. Land on the balls of your feet. Your heels should never touch the ground during the landing. Landing flat-footed translates the jump's impact directly to your knees, which can cause serious injury.

3. Bend your knees at just more than a 90-degree angle as you touch down. This allows you to use the large quadricep muscles in your legs to soften the landing.

4. Place the palms of your hands on the ground between your legs. This distributes the force of the jump more evenly throughout your body and lets you use your upper body muscles to control your landing.

5. Pop out of the safety landing with a quick hop. Staying planted on the ground longer than necessary reduces your momentum and interrupts the flow of your parkour routine.

Tips & Warnings

• Practice the safety landing from low heights before using it on more challenging drops. If you don't have an object to drop from, jump into the air to practice the technique.

Resources

• See this short clip for a demonstration of a good safety landing.

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