Kicker (ski jump)
The term kicker has established itself in the vocabulary of winter sports enthusiasts such as snowboarders and freeskiers . The kicker is called kicker because the skier or snowboarder is "kicked" far into the air. This is the name of a hill formed from snow (usually by snow groomers ), which enables athletes to jump. The kicker should ensure the longest possible, calm flight time (without aerodynamic influences like ski flying ) in order to perform tricks such as grabs , spins and / or flips in the air .
Unlike the Ski jumping from Freestyle - skiers or in ski jumping , there are no rules or standards for the construction of kickers. In view of the size of today's facilities (approach speeds of 70–90 km / h and flight distances of over 20 meters are not uncommon) and the resulting potential for injury, those responsible must be extremely careful when creating and maintaining them.
When creating it, the mathematically fixed form of the trajectory parabola = trajectory must be observed (red line in the drawing). The jump is directly related to the landing, ie a steep jump leads to a steep landing and vice versa. The transitions to the radii are to be designed to be fluid. The horizontal area after the jump is called the table. The length of the table usually indicates the unit of measurement for the kicker. A 6–10 meter table is common, for professionals 14–25 meters. However, tables of over 40 m are also possible. The area where the inclination of the trajectory parabola and the inclination of the landing are most similar is called the “sweet spot” . Here the landing is the softest and most harmless. From the K-point the landing becomes too hard and dangerous (red area). Likewise, landing on the table is hard and prone to injury (red area). If the net height is high, the landing speed is also high.
In order to construct a kicker that is as safe as possible, the following applies: the take-off and landing have a matching incline. The landing (blue area) should be as large as possible (with the 10-meter table, absolute minimum: 10-meter landing), as it is difficult for athletes, even for experienced professionals, to approach the sweet spot at the right speed to meet. For this purpose, the (blue) landing area can be extended both downwards and upwards ("roller"). In addition, the “net height” should be kept low in order to minimize the landing speed. The “net height” can even be negative, ie the athlete then jumps uphill (“step-up kicker”).