ELI5, When you see skateboarders ollie off of tall places(such as a small building), and successfully land on their board, they walk away without any injuries whatsoever, but if I were to jump off these places without a board, I would almost certainly break my legs. How is this possible.?

Question

Heres a clip of the tricks I’m talking about: [https://youtu.be/YZ1WtHigD54](https://youtu.be/YZ1WtHigD54)

In: Physics

Answer 1

There’s no doubt that the board absorbs some of the shock. But the major factor is the way they land : notice how the knees bend completely on the impact and how the upper body moves down to absorb most of the kinetic energy.

They have a near perfect landing technique similar to what you’ll see in parkour.