# Why do you need to train "forward roll"?



## Kung Fu Wang (Dec 1, 2012)

In the following clip from 4:32 - 4:44, you can see how people train "forward roll" in solo. When you take your opponent down, your body may smash on top of your opponent. Sometime this may cause injury. In order to prevent this from happening, you should try to roll your body over your opponent. At 6:03 - 7:07, the teacher taught his students how to do "forward roll" in wrestling.

What's your opinion on this?

http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMjQ3MjgyNzg0.html


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## Aiki Lee (Dec 1, 2012)

If you are tripping and falling when performing a technique, then clearly you would need to practice your fundamentals. One shouldn't fall onto the ground unless you do it on purpose.

Now if you are being countered and being taken to the ground then proper recieving techniques like rolling are essential to prevent you from harming yourself. You can even attack by rolling over a person and crushing them underneath you.

What is the art in the video? Sanda? I'm not familar with what I'm looking at here.


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## Kung Fu Wang (Dec 1, 2012)

It's Chinese wrestling (Shuai Chiao).

In 

- ground game, you want to be on top of your opponent (crushing him). 
- throw training, you want to roll over your opponent (not crushing him). 

If you train one, you can't train the other. How do you train both at the same time?


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## Aiki Lee (Dec 2, 2012)

Are you talking about safely recieving the throw or takedown, or countering it? If you are simply recieving it then it would be important to roll away safely without hurting yourself or your partner. If you are countering it, then you can use your rolling to attack as well as escape.


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## Kung Fu Wang (Dec 2, 2012)

Since only the person who executes the throw can do the "forward roll", the person been thrown will be on the bottom and won't be able to roll. I'm talking about to use the "forward roll" to protect your opponent so your body won't drop on top of his body.

Too many sacrifice throws have been used on the mat in the past 10 years. People no long concern their own balance after throw. Everybody try to use their opponent's body as their soft pillow for safe landing. To me, that's a serious problem not only for the future development of the throwing art but also for the safety issue.

In the following clip, you can see too many body crash on top another body. After all, it's just a "sport" and you are not trying to kill your opponent. Why didn't they just "roll over their opponent's body"?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5440TDSn1E

The following article concern me big time.

http://judojiko.net/eng/

Over the 27-year period 1983 to 2009, 108 students died as a result of judo accidents in Japanese junior and senior high schools (age range ca 12 to 18years)1 , 60% of them from brain injury. The mean of four deaths per year is significantly higher than in any other school sport.&#12288;The incidence of death in judo among&#12288;junior high school students (age range ca 12 to 15years) is 5.3 times higher than in basket ball, which has the second highest death rate.


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## Xue Sheng (Dec 3, 2012)

I trained the forward (Shoulder Roll) about 30 years ago in Japanese Jujitsu and it has over the years saved me on multiple occasions and they were not all because of a fight or at all related to martial arts
Falling off a ladder, falling down stairs, falling in an apple orchard, slipping on ice (OK that one was a back fall).... there is more to all of this than just fighting

And if you are thrown in certain ways, and we were 30 years ago in Jujitsu, it saved my skull more than once... it is just another tool in the tool box... and everything is NOT a ground game


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## chinaboxer (Dec 6, 2012)

outside of the obvious, learning how to break a fall...

it teaches you many fundamental concepts that are vital to grappling, such as...

1. learning to change levels and keep your knees bent
2. learning to always tuck your head to one side
3. learning to round the body
4. learning to not extend your arms outwards and to keep your elbows close to your body
5. learning to flow and not fight a movement
6. learning how to stand back up

just to name a few


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