Stop teaching your shooters to jump split!

ACL rupture

If you’ve been coaching netball for a while, chances are you’ve taught or seen the jump split landing.  The move was a popular feature in Gretel Bueta’s game and if you spend any time at a netball court on a Saturday or at representative carnivals, no doubt you have seen young girls doing the same.  If you don’t know what we are talking about – it’s a dramatic movement where a shooter leaps into the air and lands in a wide, staggered stance near the post. It looks impressive. It gets players closer to the goal circle. We have even seen it on coaching reels recently.

But here's the problem with coaches teaching players to do this move - It’s placing huge, unsafe forces through the joints of young, and in most cases undeveloped or still developing athletes.

And its absolutely time we stop.

The Biomechanical Reality of a Jump Split Landing

When an athlete performs a jump split under pressure (especially while catching a high ball, absorbing contact, or twisting mid-air) they are subjecting their knees, ankles, hips and spine to high-impact, asymmetrical, and twisting forces.

So, what does that mean?

High-Impact Loads =  the amount of force the body absorbs on landing. When an athlete lands from a jump, their body must decelerate their mass against gravity and momentum.

Research shows that during a typical landing, the knees, hips, and ankles may absorb forces equal to 4–6 times the athlete’s body weight. So, if a 50kg player lands hard, their joints might be absorbing over 200–300kg of force.

This level of force is completely normal in elite sport, but it requires a high degree of joint control, muscle strength, and landing technique. Most young athletes simply aren’t physically ready to cope with that. 

Asymmetrical Loads =  This happens when one side of the body takes more of the force than the other.  In a jump split, players often land with more weight on one leg. This creates an imbalance in force distribution, which stresses the impacted joints significantly.

Twisting Forces = rotation or twisting, particularly when one part of the body moves in a different direction to another.

In a jump split, the player is often rotating mid-air, twisting to face the post or pivot away from a defender, then landing with feet pointing one way and hips facing another. This puts enormous rotational stress on the knees — especially if the foot is planted and the body keeps moving

All of these things, combined with a lack of eccentric control (the ability to decelerate properly), glute and hamstring strength, trunk stability and core coordination in young

players result in creating the perfect storm for risking an ACL rupture. The knee can’t tolerate twisting under pressure when it is not supported by developed and conditioned muscles. 

What the Research Says: The Risk Is Real

The reality is that all research points to jump split movements placing the athlete at increased risk of:

ACL (Anterior Cruciate Ligament) Injury

• ACL injuries in adolescent females have risen 300% in the last two decades.

• Female athletes are 4–8x more likely than males to rupture their ACL in landing sports like netball and basketball (Hewett et al., 2005).  There are other studies which specifically identify landings as a key scenario for ACL risk in netball.

• Poor control of knee valgus (where the knees drop in on take-off and landing) and rotational forces (both potentially present when jump splitting) are major contributors.

Meniscal Tears

• Landing with the knee twisted or the foot planted unevenly increases compressive and shear forces on the meniscus.  Those of us who have suffered meniscal tears can attest to the life-long debilitation a meniscus tear (even when this happens in your youth) can cause. 

Growth Plate Vulnerability

• The growth plates of adolescents remain open until ages 16–19, and in some cases even later. During this phase, bones grow faster than muscles and tendons can adapt, creating tightness, poor movement patterns, and increased injury risk.

Why Coaches Teach It (With Good Intentions)

We know why coaches are teaching it.  The jump split gets players closer to the post and potentially into a better shooting position.  And it is a technique seen in some players at the elite level and has been used for 40+ years.

But the science behind appropriate strength and conditioning for elite sport, coupled with the science behind landing mechanics has moved forward in those 40+ years.  We now have elite players with structured strength and conditioning programs, regular physio support, and who have spent years developing landing mechanics, core control, and joint resilience.

Junior players don’t have this.  It doesn’t matter how much netball they are playing; the harsh reality is that their bodies are still developing. Teaching them to move like adult professionals is not just unrealistic — it’s irresponsible.

So, What Should Coaches Do Instead?

Here’s how to get young players closer to the post without risking their joints:

✅ Teach Smart Angles

• Work on using lateral drives or front cuts into the circle to gain depth without needing to jump-split.

• Focus on ball timing and pre-movement positioning to reduce the need for big landings.

✅ Teach your shooters to find the body

When an attacking player finds the body of their defender, and holds the space cleanly, they can drop their foot back before they receive a pass.  No jump is required.  It is a simple movement of dropping a foot back towards the post, standing up and turning on their heel. 

✅ Develop Controlled Double-Foot Landings

• Reinforce two-footed landings with even weight distribution.

• Teach soft landings, with knees tracking over toes and hips absorbing the force.

✅ Prioritise Strength Fundamentals

• Integrate strength and conditioning drills into training: bodyweight squats, glute bridges, and landing mechanics.

• Avoid pushing movements like jump splits until strength and development benchmarks are met.

Bottom Line for Coaches

If you coach players under the age of 18, the movement choices you reinforce matter. Not just for their development, but for their long-term health.

Every jump split you allow becomes a rehearsal of poor movement under load.

Every safer, functional movement you reinforce becomes a building block for a healthy, strong athlete.

So, coaches - You have the power to reduce injury risk by what you teach. Use that power wisely. Let’s encourage our coaching community to lead with long-term thinking that prioritises athlete longevity. 

References

• Hewett, T. E., et al. (2005). "Mechanisms, prediction, and prevention of ACL injuries." Current Concepts in Sports Medicine.

• Roos, H., et al. (2003). "Knee osteoarthritis after meniscal tear and meniscectomy." The American Journal of Sports Medicine.

• Montalvo, A. M., et al. (2019). “ACL injury risk factors and injury prevention.” Journal of Orthopaedic Research.