Assessing landings using a spring and damper element model

Assessing landings is of importance in many sports, due to the relevance of being able to attenuate force efficiently. This project investigated whether a simple spring and damper element model can be used to model a drop and stick landing task. Landing data collected from 13 surfing athletes were fitted to a mass-spring-damper model. Some athletes, who landed controlled and with low peak force could be modelled with low residual. Furthermore, there was a strong correlation between the model spring constant and peak acceleration (R2=0.71). The model parameters and residuals may provide useful information about an athlete’s landing strategy. Further research on this topic may provide value to landing practice.