Demon's Drills are back! Have you ever taken a precision jump or cat leap and landed higher, shorter, or further than expected? Chances are that this may have surprised you as you were forced to instantly adapt to a slightly different landing technique. By practicing the landing continuum, you will prepare yourself to handle any jump and landing with ease, even if you miscalculate how you are going to land. 

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Drilling the Landing Continuum

Seven Degrees of Landings

By Ryan Ford

Overview

Have you ever taken a precision jump or cat leap and landed higher, shorter, or further than expected? Chances are that this may have surprised you as you were forced to instantly adapt to a slightly different landing technique. By practicing the landing continuum, you will prepare yourself to handle any jump and landing with ease, even if you miscalculate how you are going to land.

Application

Sometimes jumps are too difficult to jump over or land on with two feet. Sometimes jumps are right at that questionable distance where you ask yourself, “Can I precision this? Or should I crane precision it? Or should I do a cat leap? Or should I land in a support (half cat) position?” Sometimes these questions cannot be fully answered until you start trying the jump. And sometimes, after landing a type of jump, you will ask yourself, “Can I stretch this a little further? Jump a little harder? Maybe land with one foot on the wall, or even 2 feet?”

These questions that we have all asked ourselves while training sum up the landing continuum. The landing continuum is a progression of different landings that can all be applied to the same obstacle as you jump harder, higher, and further. The following landings make up the progression, starting from the result of the shortest jump all the way to the biggest jump.

1.      Cat leap abort – You did not jump far enough to land the cat leap. As a result, you must keep your hands and legs out in front of you so you can push away from the wall and (hopefully) land back on your feet.

2.      Cat leap – You jumped just far enough to land a cat leap on the wall.

3.      Cat leap letdown – You were going for a cat leap and had a little more jump than expected, landing you higher on the wall than anticipated. As a result, you must control and let your landing down into a full cat hang position on the wall.

4.      Support landing (half cat) – You were able to jump with enough power to land with your torso above the wall and weight over your arms in a support position.

5.      Crane landing (with hands) – You jumped with enough power to land one foot on the wall and the other foot a little lower, pushing into the vertical face of the wall. In order to stay on the wall, you had to use your hands to balance or pull you up all the way.

6.      Crane landing (without hands) – You jumped with enough power to land one foot on the wall and the other foot a little lower, pushing into the vertical face of the wall. You did not need to use your hands to balance or pull you up all the way.

7.      Two foot landing – You were able to jump with enough power to land both feet up on the top of the obstacle.

The ability to instantly adapt to any of these landings, depending on the outcome of your jump distance, is a valuable skill to have in parkour. When you are caught off guard with too much or too little power, the failure to adapt can lead to falls and injuries. By practicing the landing continuum, you will prepare yourself to succeed in the inevitable big jump scenario where you must make last second changes to your landing techniques.

Obstacle and Equipment Checklist: Obstacles to jump between. The obstacle you will be landing on should be at least 4 feet tall.

Preparation of Drill

1. Find some obstacles to jump between. The obstacle you will be landing on should be at least 4 feet tall. These obstacles should be a challenge for you to jump between and land on with 2 feet. Cat leaps and crane (one footed) landings should be easier to land.

Execution of Drill

1. Warm up and get comfortable jumping to the obstacle.
2. Start out by practicing your cat leap aborts.
3. Slowly jump harder each time, progressing through the seven different degrees of landings.

Other Notes

• On every one of these landing progressions, it is important to be leading with your feet for absorption, and your hands for catching or balancing.
• Perhaps the most important thing to drill in the landing continuum is purposely jumping too hard but still letting down into a cat hang. This skill develops the particular sensitivity and reactivity needed to safely control big jumps with lots of speed and impact.
• Try drilling the landing continuum in different scenarios. In the video, I have showed you it can apply to a jump from lower to higher obstacle and a cat hang to precision on a wall. You could also apply this idea to a vault to cat/precision, a standing jump between level obstacles, and more.

Video Example

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