Join Eric Leidersdorf, Director of Biomechanics at P3, as he delves into the world of jump testing and biomechanics. With over a decade of experience, Eric shares insights on critical metrics that link jump performance to athletic success. He highlights the challenges of data transparency in the private sector and compares marker-based with markerless motion capture technologies. The discussion also explores innovative training methods for athletes, revealing how basketball techniques can enhance performance across various sports.
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volunteer_activism ADVICE
Tailor Assessment to Athlete
Study the individual athletes rather than only relying on general research.
Understanding unique jump styles and mechanical profiles helps target the right performance factors for improvement.
insights INSIGHT
Key Drivers of Vertical Jump
Four main biomechanical factors affect vertical jump height across different jump styles: relative concentric force, knee extension velocity, knee extension acceleration, and shorter stature.
These shared factors help explain vertical jump performance despite differing movement strategies.
insights INSIGHT
Biomechanics Vary by Movement Plane
Vertical jumps rely more on knee joint variables, while lateral movements depend mainly on hip function like extension and abduction velocity.
This shows how movement plane differences change the biomechanics important for performance.
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This week’s guest on the Pacey Performance Podcast is Eric Leidersdorf, Director of Biomechanics at P3 in Santa Barbara, California. He’s been with P3 for nearly 11 years, and he and his team oversee biomechanical assessment processes from data collection acquisition through to analytics. Eric recently earned a Master of Science in Data Science at Columbia University and is leading P3’s data analytics efforts to develop new insight into athletic performance and injury mechanisms.
Eric is here to talk about his considerable experience in jump testing, including how he first got into the industry and how biomechanical roles are growing in US sport. On testing, Eric discusses why coaches and sports scientists assess jumps and the basis this provides. There’s also insight into metrics, including the ones Eric believes matter most, how they connect to performance on court or the field, and how to gather them from athletes performing in different roles and with different body types. Eric also talks about the reliability of assessment tools such as markerless motion capture, and the difficulty of sharing data as a private organisation.
Moving onto the training side, we also discuss what other sports can learn about jumping from basketball, and how training is affected by movement strategy. Further expertise comes from Eric’s views on countermovement jump strategies, whether testing strategies can be grouped into categories, and how training differs between vertical and lateral jumps. We round out the episode with Eric’s views on the future of sports science technology and the future of jump testing, including force plates. For all this and much, much more, hit the play button now.
This week’s topics:
Why we assess jumps and the basis they give us
The links between metrics collected and what happens on court or the field
The difficulty of sharing data as a private organisation
The reliability of assessment tools such as markerless motion capture
Eric’s view on the metrics that matter, and which ones to measure for different athletes
What we can learn about jumping from insights into basketball
How training is affected by movement strategy
Whether testing strategies can be grouped into certain categories
How training differs between vertical and lateral jumps
Eric’s views on the future of sports science technology
Pacey Performance Podcast