Landing with Proper Mechanics

If you are a dancer, you have most likely heard at least one of your teachers say, “Roll through your feet!” or “Get your heels down when you land!” These instructions are given to help dancers land with proper mechanics and reduce their risk of injury while maintaining their jump height during a combination of successive jumps.

Rolling Through the Foot

What it means

During proper jump landings, the first part of your foot to contact the floor is the ball of the foot (the heads of the metatarsals). Then, as the landing motion continues, the foot progressively increases its contact area with the floor from the ball of the foot to the heel. This motion is the same as coming down from a relevé in class and is the opposite of pushing off during a jump.

What it does for you

• Reduces your risk of developing impact-related overuse injuries like stress fractures in the foot and lower leg
• Helps you land softer and prettier without losing any jump height

How it works

Flat-footed landings are basically the foot’s version of doing a belly flop – they’re loud, they don’t look nice, and they can hurt. A lot. With flat-footed landings, the bones of the foot and lower leg absorb most of the forces acting on the body from the ground. If these forces are repeatedly absorbed by the bone, they could overwhelm the bone, leading to a stress fracture. However, with landings that roll through the foot, the muscles in the foot and lower leg absorb these landing forces, sparing the bones from having to absorb most of these forces. By rolling through the foot during a landing, the forces acting on the body from the ground are absorbed by the body over a longer period of time. This is important since forces absorbed over a very short period of time often are absorbed by bones rather than muscles. When bones have a high rate of force absorption, they are more likely to develop stress fractures.

Landing with the Heels Down

What it means

While it sounds like “landing with the heels down” is the opposite of “rolling through the foot”, the two motions are actually complimentary and are necessary for proper landing mechanics. Landing with the heels down is simply a reminder to complete the landing motion by rolling through your feet all the way to your heels. Oftentimes, dancers are in such a hurry to go from one jump to the next that they don’t finish a proper landing from their jumps. Frequently, dancers start taking off for their next jump or move on to the next step before their heels make contact with the ground.

What it does for you

• Reduces your risk of developing a tight or inflexible Achilles tendon/calf muscle complex, which elevates the risk of developing injury and reduces dancing ability
• Helps you avoid developing foot and lower leg muscular pain and injury caused by incomplete jump landings
• Reduces your risk of developing stress fractures through repeatedly placing too much stress through the metatarsals (foot bones)
• Sustains your jump height through a quick succession of jumps

How it works

Putting your heels all the way down to finish rolling through your foot while landing ensures that your calf muscles will be lengthened regularly during functional motions. If the calf muscle-tendon complex isn’t moved through its full range of motion (especially the part that stretches the complex), it will stay in a shortened position for extended periods. This will lead to functional shortening of the muscles, exposing them to an elevated risk of suffering a strain. Additionally, if you are constantly dancing with your heels elevated, this would be the equivalent to going through your daily life walking only on your toes – your calf muscles would be contracted throughout the entire time you were dancing. Extended muscle contraction without any rest will lead to spasm and pain.

By getting your heels all the way down when you land, you will use your calf muscles and tendons to absorb most of your landing forces. If you don’t get your heels all the way down, a higher percentage of these forces will have to be absorbed by your metatarsals (foot bones). Metatarsal stress fractures are quite prevalent among dancers and can force dancers to sit out from dancing for varying amounts of time, from several weeks to a couple of months.

Rolling all the way through the foot and putting the heels down when landing is especially important in a combination with back-to-back jumps. Using proper mechanics in this situation helps decrease the incidence of overuse injury and will help you maintain your jump height throughout the sequence of jumps. Landing and subsequently jumping with the heels off of the floor will significantly stress the muscles and connective tissue in the sole of the foot. This repeated stress will inflame these tissues and will lead to plantar fasciitis. Putting the heels all the way down between landing and taking off places the calf muscles on a maximal stretch, taking full advantage of the stretch reflex properties of muscle tissue. This is the same concept that plyometric training is based upon. The larger and quicker the stretch placed on a muscle right before a muscle contraction, the more forceful the subsequent contraction will be (which translates into a higher jump).



Sorry to tell you this, but your teachers actually do say these things for a reason.  Make sure you always use proper landing mechanics every time you jump – whether you're dancing, playing sports or working out.