Break falls?

Yes we train break falls at my school. We do them as a warm up. We do forward rolls, backwards rolls, dive rolls over tall objects, and all sorts of tumbling exercises. We do something in Wu Shu called a butt buster where you do a flip and land on your back and your feet on the floor(waist is up), then do a kip up. We also do a jump inside crescent kick where you don't land on your feet but you land on the floor on your side. These deffinitely teach you how to land on the ground without hurting yourself. After a few times of doing these you find how to land without injury. Ditong teaches a lot of break falling as well as drunken style kung fu.

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Mark
Liberalism is a mental disorder. -M. Savage

Breakfalls were the first thing I learnt from my sifu. I definitely believe that they are a crucial part of your training, and should be learnt as early as possible. It is too easy to seriously hurt yourself by falling incorrectly, and things like shattered tailbones are not fun at all.

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In my first Kung Fu school we did a lot of rolling around and stuff that could be termed as breakfalls, though I don't remember them saying breakfall at any point. We did one where you go into a handstand then roll as you drop and stand and repeat. We did snake rolling, where you lie on your stomach with your hands stretched out along the ground ( you make a snake shape ), then you roll back and forth across the floor. That one made you pretty sore because our training floor was varnished concrete. We also did a LOT of Tiger Rolls ( don't know the traditional name, but most other Kung Fu people I spoke to seem to know what I'm talking about ). Sometimes the Sifu would force us into a corner and punch as about and we had to create the angle, then escape using the roll. Most times they would stack up Heavy Bags on their sides ( I did max of 4 bags stacked ). Then a fellow student would lie on the other side of the bags. You had to clear it all and not land hard on your shoulder. Thankfully, they used some mats on the ground for this one.

I don't really use Tiger Rolls as such anymore ( though it's something I might just do if I "feel it" ).

Taijiquan, I don't think we did any specific breakfall training.

My second Kung Fu school I did a bit, and it was considered "must know" stuff, but not a lot of time was spent on it.

My one friend ( who was my main Shaolinquan training partner for a few years ) showed me a few breakfalls he learned in another MA ( it was some sort of hybrid of kickboxing, ninjitsu, and police based cqc. Very weird I know ). Anyway, the fall consists of you throwing your leg out from under yourself, and you end up on your side across your hip. The main point of that breakfall, is not really the technique itself, but that it forces you to "let go" of control. It's actually very hard to do, to make yourself truly fall, when your mind spends all it's time trying to keep you balanced so you don't fall over. So the first several times I did it, I was resisting without trying to ( my mind was still afraid of injury ), and I hurt myself by landing stiff. So, we did some other training and I tried it again when I was good and warm, and I managed to do a lot better and did maybe 30 of them after that without more than a few bruises.

Now, I don't train any breakfall stuff by itself really. Almost every sparring round we have ( weapons or not ), starts with some ranged kicking and striking, someone sets up and closes for either straight to a takedown, or to the clinch, there will be a takedown, we fight it out on the floor, then either someone manages to stand up, or there is a tapout.

The point is that I get dropped on the floor ( thin grass with compact sand ) all the time now, so my normal training is great breakfall practice anyways.

These days I prefer doing neck strengthening exercises, like bridging the neck, to focus on.

If you can listen to your body and stay soft, you can at least lesses the impact of most takedowns and throws. Even if someone has picked you right up to slam you there is still hope to escape. But, if you can't, you better know how to break a fall. Because if you land with your head against a hard floor (eg: from a good Double Leg Takedown), you can get seriously hurt.

I think, though, one of the best ways to practice your breakfalls, would be to ask your training partner to practice some throws and takedowns on you. You will get plenty sore, and plenty experience being dropped.

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“	Originally Posted By: Doughboy I think, though, one of the best ways to practice your breakfalls, would be to ask your training partner to practice some throws and takedowns on you. You will get plenty sore, and plenty experience being dropped.	”

I agree and disagree. I disagree because I believe you need to teach the basics of falling first and try to make people comfortable with falling. I teach breakfalls in a manner (I hope) to try and remove the fear of falling. So instead of someone goings, "OH ****! I'M FALLING!" they will go, "Oh, I'm falling now".

But after that initial fear is removed, I definitely agree that throwing is the best way to learn breakfalls. It forces everything into the right position. Some people have a hard time imagining it, and someone tripping or throwing them helps a lot.

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"You must eat bitter before you can taste sweet"- Iron & Silk
"I see no virtue where I smell no sweat"
"Arm yourself because no one else here will save you" - Chris Cornell

i'm at the stage where i'm getting more from having to break fall as the result of a throw

still suck at it though

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“	i'm at the stage where i'm getting more from having to break fall as the result of a throw	”

Me too.

Wingy,

I think some good things to remember are:

Don't stop moving ( I'm sure you heard that a few times in FMA classes ), even in a takedown . If you have to get thrown, then try to make little adjustments on the fly to allow your body to work with the motion rather than against it ( this is of course, assuming you have reached the point of no return and you are 100% going down ). Stay relaxed and soft, and don't "blank out" as you fall as people tend to do when the world starts spinning. Make use of every micro second you have.

Try to look for somewhere on your opponent you can grab onto to relieve the pressure. Against experienced grapplers it can be quite hard, but the average fighter will often leave something exposed. For example, my friend had me mounted from the back and we were both sitting, then he tried some insane thing ( don't know if it even has a name ) where he tried to squeeze my knee up into my brain. It was a lot of pressure on my internal organs and my neck, and it seemed like every direction i tried to get away added more pressure. So I relaxed, as much as was possible, and decided there must be a way out, and when I leaned back and grabbed his head and pulled it towards my head, the pressure completely went away and I got out with ease. I've had moments like that during takedowns too, where you have extreme force or pressure applied, and a simple hook or movement takes it all away from him. Subtle movements like that can be hard to pull off and hard to train, but worth it ( knowing joint limitations helps a lot with this ).

If you have to hit the ground, stay soft as possible and try to roll out as much as possible. The main key is that the smaller the contact area with the ground, the more pain you will most likely be in. If you can spread out the contact along as much muscle surface as possible, and avoid landing on your head and elbows and such, you can lessen the impact a lot. As for how to stay soft. Think how you are when you are really drunk and that's about right.

Don't know if that will help but there we go

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"To alcohol ! The cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems" - Homer Simpson

I'm with WraithAlcon & Doughboy here. Practicing falling by yourself isn't at all the same thing as falling because someone is making you. Some people can start from being thrown, while others need to practice rolling first. Traditionally, in my style, we start with being thrown, tripped, etc without any lead-up, but traditionally, you started as a kid.

My general guidelines: tuck your head, keep your elbows in, and never put your arms out. Everything else comes from experience. Relax & try not to get hurt.

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The one reason I don't start with throws and teach breakfalling from them is that too many people have bad habits I don't want to reinforce. Even if people are solo falling a little bit rougher, but they are protecting the head, neck, spine, and wrist, then I am happy. In my curriculum, the breakfalling comes 1 rank ahead of the throwing. This provides ample time to gain some falling confidence and break some old habits. Then we start throwing, and from there everything..."falls into place". Pun intended!

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"You must eat bitter before you can taste sweet"- Iron & Silk
"I see no virtue where I smell no sweat"
"Arm yourself because no one else here will save you" - Chris Cornell

Look at your "piko"(navel)!

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WraithAlcon,

You do have a point.

Though, I'm sure there are also people who will not "click" on the information, until they get thrown by someone for real.

Maybe, it would help if people had like one session being thrown and taken down, then the next session, you start with solo breakfalling, then go back to being thrown and throwing after the bad habits are gone.

“	tuck your head, keep your elbows in, and never put your arms out. Everything else comes from experience. Relax & try not to get hurt.	”

If somone is not aware of these points, they do not know how to breakfall safely.

Getting people to let go of the natural reflex of reaching out to the ground with their hands to stop impact, is quite hard. Our brain says "sacrifice the hands for the brain !". We have to teach our brain that it can survive in better ways.

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"To alcohol ! The cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems" - Homer Simpson

true i took a fall a few years ago and landed with my arms out straight onto my hands

my right wrtist was out of action for a whole year

had to learn to write lefthanded

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"...any theory that satisfies the facts demands assumptions which are completely absurd."

Aleister Crowley

Fortunately you were already proficient with other mundane tasks using your left hand.

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"You must eat bitter before you can taste sweet"- Iron & Silk
"I see no virtue where I smell no sweat"
"Arm yourself because no one else here will save you" - Chris Cornell

i give ambidexterous a bad name

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"...any theory that satisfies the facts demands assumptions which are completely absurd."

Aleister Crowley

lol

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"To alcohol ! The cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems" - Homer Simpson

don't you need both hands?

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