The Importance of Falling Skills
- Thread starter bushidomartialarts
- Start date
Karjitsu
Yellow Belt
I spent years training on hard wood or concrete floors, every two or three months one of my Instructors would pull out this old lumpy gray mat and we would practice some floor work on it. Many years later I rented space at a Ju-Jitsu School and joined in before I taught my classes. One day I purchased a set of rollerblades and took a flying leap and only scrapped my palms. All Martial artists should learn mat work; you never know when you might wind up looking up at your feet.
kidswarrior
Senior Master
That's good. Mine is similar: The ground is the hardest opponent you'll ever meet.
Now for my story. I'll be the dunce for this thread (so what's new, eh?)
Before I started MA (this was mid-80s), in a street situation attempting to bail out a girl who was being beaten to death (probably literally), I stepped out of the car and found there was minute gravel on the isolated street that made it like trying to stand on ice. The guy's first swing caught me on the bridge of the nose, splintering it, partly because I couldn't really move my feet. When he followed that jewel up with a straight right, I naturally tried to back up only to have my feet go straight out. Not knowing how to break fall (there's a limit to a street fighters' knowledge), landed on my hands and broke both wrists. So, now had a broken nose and two broken wrists in under four seconds. It didn't get prettier from there. :lol: Oh, and the whole experience didn't make me any prettier either.
So yeah, practice those falls.
Ouch! Must have taken you a while to recover. Was this experience what led you to take up training?
- Ceicei
Now for my story. I'll be the dunce for this thread (so what's new, eh?)
You call that being a dunce? Amateur!!
. I was in my 30's when I started aikido and learned how to fall, and I should have known better, but :idunno:.
I was at work and doing a tour of the buildings when the maintenance guys drove up in the station wagon asking if I wanted a ride, so I jumped on the back bumper, grabbed the roof rack and off we went. We approached the top of the hill and I thought I should probably get off before somebody saw me and we got into trouble. so I stepped off and physics took over. When you step off of a moving vehicle you are still moving at the speed the vehicle was moving, so I stepped off and proceeded to fall forward, so I did a front roll, and then another, stood up and walked as if nothing had happened. My biggest fear during the whole thing was that the guys were going to stop and I was going to slam into the back of the wagon.
kidswarrior
Senior Master
Well, it was the last in a long line of street fights--none of which I started, however :angel: And I did take up training 6 or 7 years later--which is a relatively short period for someone morph4me's age...er, my age. :uhyeah: But unfortunately I can't say I was smart enough to put 2+2 together and say one led to the other. Not many people have accused me of being smart. My wife sure didn't when I finally got home from that world class beating :lfao:
You're right tho about there being a connection, Ceicei: The one really good bridge between that mess and my teaching MA is the kids really get it when I say, falling is the most important thing I can teach you, then show them the scars on my hands that I got before they were born just from not knowing how to fall.
Naw, doesn't count. See, you were cool enough to do something smart to get out of it. Disqualified.morph4me said:You call that being a dunce? Amateur!!
Next challenger!About 15 years ago a buddy of mine and I were on a motorcycle heading into town (he was driving I was on the back) when some punk kid in his daddies car decided to pass another car - going up a hill and around a corner, oh yeah, he was headed in the opposite direction as us....
My friend did his best to avoid a head on collision but we still got clipped at 60kmh or so - while mid air flying over the handlebars everything slowed down (perceptual narrowing I was later to learn) and all I thought about was doing a forward roll, hit the ground, rolled out of it, got up checked my friend and then ran to a nearby house to call 911.
It wasn't until I got back to the road that I puked all over the place. I was unscathed other than my leather jacket being scuffed up. My friend was bumped and bruised pretty bad and both the bike and car were pretty messed up.
I will sound off a big "practice your ukemi" as well.
My friend did his best to avoid a head on collision but we still got clipped at 60kmh or so - while mid air flying over the handlebars everything slowed down (perceptual narrowing I was later to learn) and all I thought about was doing a forward roll, hit the ground, rolled out of it, got up checked my friend and then ran to a nearby house to call 911.
It wasn't until I got back to the road that I puked all over the place. I was unscathed other than my leather jacket being scuffed up. My friend was bumped and bruised pretty bad and both the bike and car were pretty messed up.
I will sound off a big "practice your ukemi" as well.
Naw, doesn't count. See, you were cool enough to do something smart to get out of it. Disqualified.
I'm appealing the disqualification, I wouldn't have had to do something smart if I wasn't so dumb to begin with, and I wasn't trying to help anyone, which is much cooler than being too lazy to walk:shrug:.
