Force plate testing: power, jump performance and hidden asymmetry

Force plates measure the exact force your body produces during movements like jumps, hundreds of times a second, which lets us quantify your power, how well you produce and absorb force, and, crucially, any hidden differences between your left and right sides. Those left-right asymmetries are the headline: you can feel perfectly balanced and still be producing noticeably more power on one side, an imbalance associated with increased injury risk that no amount of training by feel will reveal. For performance, force plates turn power and balance from things you sense into things you can measure, track and improve.

What a force plate measures

A force plate is a precise platform that records the force passing through it many hundreds of times a second. From a simple movement like a countermovement jump, it captures how much force you produce, how quickly you produce it, how high you jump, and how you absorb the landing. Using two plates, one under each foot, it measures your left and right sides separately. That combination, force, speed of force, and left-versus-right, is a rich picture of your lower-body power and control that a tape measure or a coach's eye simply cannot provide.

Why asymmetry is the number that matters

The most valuable thing force plates reveal is often the one you would never notice: a difference in power or control between your two legs. After an old injury, or simply through dominance, many people quietly favour one side, and the eye cannot reliably see it. That matters because meaningful left-right asymmetry is associated with a significantly increased risk of injuries such as hamstring and ACL problems, as well as leaving performance on the table. Measuring it means you can address it deliberately, rather than discovering it when something tears. If you have had an ACL reconstruction, force plate testing for return to sport goes into more detail on that use case.

How the data improves training

Beyond spotting imbalances, force plate data guides and tracks training. It can show whether your power is improving, whether an imbalance is closing, and, over time, whether you are fresh or fatigued, since power output and how you produce force change when you are tired. That makes force plates useful not just for a one-off assessment but for monitoring, so training load and readiness can be managed with objective data rather than guesswork. For anyone serious about power-based performance, that feedback loop is genuinely valuable, and pairs well with objective strength and movement testing.

An honest note on injury risk

We describe the injury-risk link carefully and honestly. Asymmetry and certain force-plate findings are associated with increased injury risk, and reducing them is sensible, but we do not attach a single, precise "your risk is X times higher" figure to one measurement, because that overstates what any one number can tell you. The right use of the data is to identify and address meaningful imbalances and monitor readiness, as part of a broader plan, not to make dramatic individual predictions.

Why Hanbury Health is different

At Hanbury, force plate testing uses dual VALD ForceDecks within the Elite tier of the Performance Blueprint, and the results are interpreted by experts and set into a plan, including addressing any asymmetry and monitoring your progress, rather than handed over as raw numbers. Because it sits alongside strength, movement, aerobic and body composition testing, your power is understood in the context of your whole profile, and it connects straight into Hanbury's physiotherapy and training pathways if a finding needs acting on. It is part of Level 3 (£895).