Force Plate Basics: A Beginner's Guide

Force plates used to live in university biomechanics labs — expensive, bulky, and reserved for researchers with time to burn on data analysis. That has changed. Today, a portable dual force plate system sits comfortably in a physio clinic, a gym floor, or the boot of a car on the way to a training session. If you’ve been curious about what force plates actually do and whether they belong in your practice, this guide covers the fundamentals.

What is a force plate?

At its core, a force plate is a very precise, very fast weighing scale. It measures the force a person applies to the ground — known as ground reaction force (GRF) — and records how that force changes over time.

Each plate contains sensors, usually one in each corner, sitting beneath a rigid top surface. When someone stands, squats, or jumps on the plate, those sensors register the load and pass the readings to software many hundreds of times per second. Stand still and the plate simply reads your bodyweight. Bend, push, or leave the ground and the force rises and falls in a pattern that tells a detailed story about how you move.

The principle comes straight from Newton’s third law: every force you push into the ground is met with an equal and opposite force back. That returning force is what the plate captures.

Why measure ground reaction force?

A stopwatch or a tape measure tells you the outcome of a movement — how long someone balanced, how far they hopped. A force plate tells you how they achieved it. Two athletes can jump to the same height using completely different strategies, and only one of those strategies might be putting an injured limb at risk.

By reading the force-time curve, you can separate a movement into phases and see things the eye can’t:

• Is the athlete/patient producing force evenly through both legs, or favouring one side?
• Are they stronger going down (eccentric) than coming up (concentric)?
• How quickly can they generate force, not just how much?
• Is their balance drifting in a particular direction?

This shift — from time-based to criteria-based decisions — is a big part of why objective measurement has become standard practice in rehabilitation and performance.

The metrics that matter

Raw force data is hard to read on its own. Good force plate software does the heavy lifting, translating the curve into clear metrics — ForceMate calculates more than 300 of them across its test library. You’ll never need all of them at once, but a handful cover the vast majority of everyday testing. A few of the most useful, and what they represent physically:

Metric	What it tells you
Peak force	Maximum strength or loading
Asymmetry	The difference between the left and right limb
Peak power	Explosiveness
Rate of force development (RFD)	How quickly force is produced
Reactive Strength Index (RSI)	How efficiently force is absorbed and re-produced — springiness
Centre of pressure (CoP)	Balance and postural sway

If you’re just getting started, resist the urge to track everything at once. Begin with two or three reliable metrics — peak force, asymmetry, and peak power are a sensible trio — and add more as your confidence grows. Some advanced metrics are highly sensitive but can swing test-to-test without meaningful change, which makes them frustrating for a beginner. The stable measures give you a solid foundation to trust.

Common tests you can run

Force plates aren’t limited to elite jump testing — any movement dominated by vertical force can be assessed. Here’s what you can run in ForceMate:

Jumps — the PlateMate covers a full range of jump tests, each exposing a different quality:

• Countermovement Jump — a foundational jump test for lower-body explosive power and neuromuscular readiness.
• Countermovement Rebound Jump — a countermovement jump followed by an immediate maximal rebound, pairing jump performance with reactive strength off the landing.
• Squat Jump — isolates concentric force production by removing the stretch-shortening cycle.
• Drop Jump — quantifies reactive strength and the quality of the stretch-shortening cycle.
• Pogo Jumps — repeated stiff-legged hops that measure ankle stiffness and reactive endurance.

Every jump test can be performed as either dual-leg or single-leg, so you can profile overall performance or isolate each limb to expose asymmetries.

Balance — tracks centre of pressure (CoP) to quantify postural sway, stability, and proprioceptive control, dual-leg or single-leg.

Isometrics — maximal force production at fixed joint angles, ideal for tracking strength and rehab progress. It’s a safe, fast alternative to repetition-maximum testing, giving you peak force, asymmetry, and speed of force production without the fatigue or injury risk of loading up a bar. You define your own tests in the software, so only your imagination sets the limit.

Movement — live force-curve and left/right symmetry feedback for any movement on the plates, dual-leg or single-leg. Take a movement you already assess by eye and quantify the asymmetry while analysing the full force-time curve for data you were previously estimating.

A practical starting point: pick a test you already trust and use often, then run its force plate equivalent. If you assess single-leg balance, use the balance test on one leg. If you assess squats for symmetry, run them through Movement. You keep your reasoning intact and simply gain better data.

Getting reliable data

Force plates are only as good as the conditions you test in. A few habits make a large difference:

• Use a solid, flat surface. Carpet, grass, or sprung floors distort readings. Level the plates every time.
• Zero the plates with nothing on them. Taring with weight applied creates an offset that skews everything that follows.
• Keep your cues consistent. The same instruction, in the same tone, every time. If your coaching changes, the athlete/patient’s performance changes with it.
• Follow the live feedback bar to stand still before each rep. The software needs a quiet period to detect the true start of movement.

Consistency is what turns a single measurement into a trend you can actually act on.

Where the PlateMate fits in

At CC Athletics we built the PlateMate around a simple belief: force plate testing should be quick to set up, easy to understand, and genuinely yours once you buy it.

• Fast setup. Get testing in minutes, not through a lengthy calibration ritual. The PlateMate is portable and ready wherever you work — clinic, gym, or on the road.
• Intuitive software. ForceMate turns the force-time curve into clear, actionable metrics — easily track progression, compare legs for asymmetry, and much more. Easy to navigate and fast to understand.
• You own it. The PlateMate is a one-time purchase. No subscriptions, no recurring licence fees, no being locked out of your own data behind a paywall.
• Built with you in mind. We’re close to our users — responsive support and a product shaped by real practitioner feedback rather than a distant corporate roadmap.

Getting started

You don’t need to overhaul your setup to benefit from force plates. Start by adding one plate-based test to a movement you already coach or assess, track two or three reliable metrics, and show the numbers to your athletes — the visual feedback alone tends to sharpen intent and helps athletes understand exactly what they’re working towards.

For performance work, force plates let you profile an athlete’s strength, power, and explosiveness, then screen for left-right asymmetries before they turn into problems. Testing regularly across a training block lets you monitor readiness and fatigue, so you can push when an athlete is primed and back off when the data says recovery is needed. Over time you build a performance profile that turns training decisions from guesswork into evidence.

They’re just as valuable at the other end of the journey. When an athlete is coming back from injury, force plates give you objective limb-symmetry and force data to support return-to-play decisions — replacing a calendar date with real evidence that the injured side is ready to perform. And in a rehab setting, the same tests let you track progression and monitor both limbs through recovery.

That versatility is the point: the same plates that help a healthy athlete find the extra few percent also confirm when a recovering one is ready to compete again. Force plates are no longer the preserve of the research lab — they’re a practical, everyday way to test, track, and get the most out of every athlete you work with.

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Want to see how the PlateMate could fit into your practice? Get in touch with the CC Athletics team.