Basic Physical Skills – Falling and Rolling

Falling down is something that happens to everyone. No matter how careful you are, you’re always going to take a few falls, and when you’re old you’ll be at a higher risk of injury from any fall. I speak of this from experience as I got a broken arm from a fall and have used the techniques in this post to protect myself from minor slip ups when out running.

Here are a few tips for becoming fall-proof:

First of all, when you fall backwards, don’t post an arm out under you. If the fall is hard, you could snap a wrist or the humerus bone and your arm could end up dangling like a limp noodle while you run to the hospital screaming in pain.

Get on a clear carpet or some grass and practice dropping straight down. Relax your muscles, sit your butt down and fall on it. Tuck your head in (so you don’t whip it against the ground) and tuck your elbows (concrete can crack the tip of the elbow). Keep the rest of your body soft and semi-relaxed.
By doing this, you fall almost straight to the ground under control instead of toppling over and taking a harder impact.

As you get better, you’ll be able to fall comfortably on harder surfaces and let go of muscular tension more suddenly. Try pushing yourself into a fall or having a partner shove you around until you hit the ground against your will.

Next thing to learn is the parkour-style tuck roll:

In the tuck roll, you fall forward or backward, curl into a ball and roll over. This is great when you’re running and you slip on wet grass.

Points to remember:

• Use forward momentum.
• Bring arms up and hands close together, using the arm as a guide to roll over the soft part of your shoulder, protecting the scapular bone. Following through comfortably takes a little experimentation.
• Roll diagonally, not straight across the spine. Shoulder to butt. With enough practice you should feel comfortable even rolling forwards or backwards on concrete.
• Initially practice from kneeling. Go forwards and backwards and side to side.
• When learning to roll straight to your feet, pay attention to how they’re pointed so you don’t strike your ankle bone to the ground.

Additionally, everybody should be doing push ups to strengthen the muscles for catching a forward fall.

For more on falling, see this Dan John article: Foam Rollers Are For Wimps