This study aims at elucidating the functions required of rockfall protection structures (i.e., nets and fences) with high-energy-absorption capacities, which have been increasingly adopted in recent years, and also at establishing a technique to verify the performance of such structures. Static loading tests and fallingweight impact tests were performed for analyzing the behavior of conventional pockettype rockfall protection nets with the aim of calculating the amount of energy absorbed by diamond-shaped wire net as well as of identifying a constitutive law for materials that was applicable to numerical analysis of energy absorption.