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Stations · Coach the Coach
COACH THE COACH · JUMP & STICK

Coach the
landing.

Everyone scores the height — how high, how far. Nobody scores the landing. But the landing is the half that matters: it's deceleration, the brake, the part that protects the knees — and it's the half almost no one coaches. The rule is four words: "quiet feet, stick it." This page teaches you to read a soft, silent, knees-over-toes landing — and to spot the two faults that get kids hurt.

▶ Run the station Where you are & what's next
1 · SEE IT

What good looks like.

A good landing is soft and silent. The knees bend and track straight over the toes, the hips sink back, and the body FREEZES like a statue. Cue it as a picture: "land like a ninja — quiet feet, then stick it." The stick matters more than the height.

The climb runs from a two-foot hop to a single-leg stick to a reactive rebound — but it all sits on one thing: a quiet, frozen landing.

Jump & stick · the flow
A child landing soft and sticking it, quiet feet A child jumping off a low step and landing A child sticking a single-leg landing
Stick it · quiet feet

Good vs. the tell — train your eye.

Two faults you'll actually see. Spot them and you're coaching.

Child landing soft, knees bent and tracking over the toes
Good · soft, knees over toes
Silent landing, knees bent and tracking over the toes, hips back, frozen.
Child landing with knees caving inward
Watch · knees caving in
Knees collapsing inward on landing (valgus) — the dangerous one to fix.
Child holding a balanced single-leg landing
Good · single-leg stick
One knee bent over the toe, balanced and frozen — owned it.
Child landing flat with stiff, straight legs
Watch · stiff, straight legs
Landing flat with locked, unbent legs — jarring and uncontrolled.
2 · RUN IT

The flow.

Setup

A low step or curb

A low step or curb, chalk hopscotch — no gear (a $5 rope comes later). The floor is the tool.

The play

Hop, land soft, freeze

Hop and land soft → stick it (freeze) → single-leg stick → pogos. "Land like a ninja." The freeze is the whole rep.

Dosage

Quality is the ladder

The quality of the landing is the ladder — not reps, not height. Cap real bouncing to a couple of short sessions a week.

Make it a game

Give it a challenge

"Stick it — freeze!" Floor-is-lava jumps. Hopscotch. The game does the work — you never say "bend your knees more."

THE SAFETY LINE

NO mini-trampoline under age 6 (AAP) — route under-6 bounce to a floor or a low step. Low box only, foam over wood, a shock-absorbing surface. Soft landings before any intensity. A bad landing is the hazard, not the jump.

3 · COACH IT

Best practices.

The cue

"Quiet feet — land like a ninja and FREEZE." A picture, not "control your deceleration." The stick matters more than the height.

Watch for

Loud, hard landings · knees caving inward (valgus — the dangerous one) · can't freeze / wobbles · stiff, straight-legged landing. Coach the one that shows most.

The fix

"Land soft and silent, then freeze like a statue." "Knees over your toes, not caving in." Too hard → lower the jump.

Parent traps

Chasing height / cheering the big jump instead of the clean stick · a mini-tramp for littles · too much volume · ignoring the knee-cave.

Keep it play

Jump off the bottom stair every time and stick it. Hopscotch. "Stick it, freeze!" The landing hides inside the play all day.

4 · WHERE YOU ARE → WHAT'S NEXT

The climb.

One ladder for every age — a toddler hops and sticks, a 9-year-old rebounds and cuts. Mastery moves you, never age. The tell that it's time to level up: they land it soft, silent, knees over toes, frozen. Then add one demand.

baseTwo-foot hop + soft land
challengeStick it — freeze, quiet feet → single-leg land & stick
layerOff a low step + stick
layerContinuous pogos (the SSC bounce)
layerDepth jump / reactive rebound · single-leg reactive cut (the brake at speed)
TOO EASY? LEVEL UP

Add one at a time — own the quiet stick before you chase the bounce:

  • Single-leg stick — hop and land on ONE leg, knee over the toe, and freeze; no wobble.
  • Higher step — jump down from a slightly taller step and still stick it silently.
  • Stick, hold, bounce out — land, freeze 3 counts, then spring straight into the next jump (add the elastic).
  • Single-leg hop → stick — small hops forward on one leg, sticking each landing quiet and balanced.
  • Land, then react — cut — land, and on a called side, cut and sprint that way — the reactive brake.

Own the stick before you chase the bounce.

What it unlocks — the spring and the brake.

Own the landing, and every jumping, cutting, exploding thing opens up.

The spring & the brake master them and these come fast
Basketball · volleyball · netballSpeed — the elastic bounceAgility & cutting — the brakeExplosive first stepTrack & field
The injury-protective half the reason to train the landing
Safe landingsKnee (ACL) resilienceAnkle resilienceBone density
For life a springy, durable body
Landing without getting hurtReactive & quickConfident jumping
THE WHOLE TRUTH · SO YOU DON'T OVERPROMISE

None of these is "just jump." And be honest: coached landing plus a structured neuromuscular program reduce ACL injuries — but incidental hopscotch alone does not "prevent ACL tears." That's why every foundation opens these same doors from a different side, and why the play is where they all combine — the test.

5 · THE COACH'S CRAFT

Six rules that make you the coach.

1

Set a game, not a joint cue

"Stick it, freeze." The game pulls the soft landing out — you never coach the knee angle.

2

Do it with them

Land next to them. A warm, together rep beats three done as a chore — and they'll copy you.

3

Watch one thing

Spot the loudest tell — usually the knee-cave or the noise. Not everything at once — that's overwhelming, not coaching.

4

Fix with a picture

"Land like a ninja," "quiet feet," "freeze like a statue" — an image or a game, never "control your valgus."

5

Progress, not perfection

A quiet stick beats a big messy jump. Own the landing today; the height takes care of itself.

6

Chase the stick, not the height

You read the landing, not the number. A silent, frozen stick is the whole score.

Five of six now live. Balance · Hang · Crawl · Carry · Run the stations. Throw next.