Angular momentum regulation strategies for highly dynamic landing in Parkour

Abstract

International audiencePrevious studies have shown that angular momentum is regulated during daily life activities like walking and during dynamic motions such as somersaults and twists. In this paper, we propose to extend these works by studying how the regulation of the angular momentum derivative AMD contributes to mechanical stability after a highly dynamic drop. To this end, five healthy Parkour experts participated in this study and were asked to perform the Parkour precision landing technique. The derivative of angular momentum expressed at the center of mass position and the contribution of each segment to its variation were analyzed. Results show that the AMD is regulated to zero throughout landing. Our study also reveals complex whole-body strategies of Parkour practitioners such as opposed segment cancellations and a temporal organization of the motion. This study provides a new basis to better understand dynamic landing performances. Results could also be used to generate landing motions with humanoid robots or virtual avatars (human-inspired motion)