subject: How to Take a Fall in Martial Arts [print this page] How to Take a Fall in Martial Arts How to Take a Fall in Martial Arts
If you engage in sparring than no doubt you will have experienced the moment when somebody catches your leg and sweeps the other one out from under you. Or perhaps your opponent pulls you in close, suddenly pivoting to drive their hip under yours and then lifting and dropping their shoulder so that you go flying up and then down onto the mat. Or perhaps you are simply fighting, over reach, over extend, and then slip, and then down you go, hard onto the mat. How do you take that fall? What are the principles at play that allow you to go down hard and not get hurt? In today's article we will look at those principles and seek to explain them so that you may learn to do so yourself.
First, the most imperative thing is that as soon as you realize you are beginning to fall you must relax. This may seem counterintuitive, but going rigid or tensing up greatly increases your chances of injury. If you tense up and become all rigid you were bang down hard, snapping bones and rupturing internal organs. Instead, go limp and allow your body to flow into the fall, relaxed and serene so that you may then execute the second step that will allow you to avoid injury.
The most crucial part of any fall is to remember that you do not want your head or core to take the impact. Instead, you need to take as much of the force from falling on your limbs. That is why when you fall you should go limp, and then bring your arms down hard against the ground when you hit. This will divert the force of the blow into your arms and away from your body, leaving you ready to bounce up and keep going.
Remember, this is the key part: whenever you are falling, the goal is to not take the impact on your head or core. Slap your forearm down on the ground as you hit, and you will find the intensity of the blow greatly lessened.
Finally, be aware of the urge to stick out your hands to break your fall should you fall forward. This is the easiest way to break your wrists, so train on falling forward into a roll or onto you forearms, because this will save you from injury time and timea gain.
