Change-of-Direction & Cutting Load

In CC4-127 we treated acceleration as the art of applying horizontal force to the ground. Now we turn the problem inside out. A cut — a side-step, a plant-and-go, a 90° turn under pressure — is not primarily about producing force. It is about absorbing it. Before an athlete can travel in a new direction, they must first arrest the momentum carrying them in the old one, and they must do it in a fraction of a second, through one or two ground contacts, while their knee is exposed to some of the highest joint loads in all of sport.