This short course aims to help you make sense of force plates, what they measure and how you can use them to inform and better your diagnostics and programming. Specifically, you are introduced to:

• Force plate technology
• The Countermovement jump
• Countermovement jump advanced

Your force plates can provide you a myriad of information that can take your diagnostics and exercise prescription to the next level, which in turn will optimise athlete or patient outcomes. However, the amount of information can also be overwhelming and overly complicated. These series of resources are designed as short courses that strip back the use of force plates to fundamentals, keeping it simple to understand and easy to implement. The journey begins with a refresher on muscle physiology and mechanics. You will then look inside a few variables that can guide assessment and exercise prescription for isometrics and concentrics. Thereafter some additional variables will be introduced that will guide your assessing and prescribing of eccentrics and stretch-shorten cycle movements. You will also be introduced to balance assessment and programming. Underlying all this will be how force plates can be used to restore or improve force capability from a muscle, tendon and/or connective tissue perspective.

This free resource starts off by introducing you to forces and force plates. Thereafter, each module will unpack different parts of the force plate signal, starting with the weighing phase. Each module will have a part A and B. Part A will; discuss the mechanics and/or physiology associated with that part of the signal and/or identify the part of the signal of interest and how to interpret what you are seeing. Part B usually takes the data interpretation piece into an exercise prescription resource, and in some resources into a case study. All resources are practically oriented, providing you with the opportunity to learn by doing. New modules will be released each month, so be sure to keep checking back for updates!