Those of you that can breakfall (which doesn't include me yet, mine is still abysmal), how effective do you think it would be in a street situation? Has anyone ever had to breakfall on the pavement? What happened?
Sharon

We do quite a lot of breakfalling in Judo...on the mat of course. I've never tried it on an extremely hard surface but I'm sure it would hurt...but it would not hurt as much as not knowing how to fall. Some Judoka in my school still can't fall without being stiff. It's all about relaxing and going with it. Once the fear of going down is gone, the falling is not bad. Just RELAX, go limp almost.

Hi Sharon

in the street or in a bar or where ever...some breakfall awareness is definitely going to help although no guarantees you wont come out of it with a few bruises.

I've been rolling and breakfalling for years..when I did my jujitsu dan grade we were rolling without mats and its definitely not something I'd chose to do.

I guess the point is you dont always have a choice.

Good luck with it...I'm sure it will improve!

Cheers

D

Hi Sharon
We've never used mats and never found it a problem. In fact at a festival 2 yrs ago we did a demo out in a local high street with some ju jitsu guys.... they couldn't break fall without the mats and my guys were rolling everywhere - you would have thought that we were the ju jitsu! Got a film of it somewhere, will show you next time I see you.

Learning to fall on all terrain is not as difficult as you'd think. It's one of the first skills we teach the kids as most children's injuries in life are caused by falling badly.

Sharon, Training over time has tought me how to fall on most any surface but that doesn't mean that it still doesn't hurt. [IMG]http://www.fightingarts.com/forums/ubb/eek.gif[/IMG]

Bonzai

I have used breakfalls off the mat.
One was on concrete, fell face down. Other than slight tingling, redness on forerams, unhurt.

Other time was inside. The edge of carpet attacked me, causing me to trip. Managed to do perfect forward roll, right back up on to feet. I stopped, totaly shocked.

I wouldn't advocate practicing breakfalls or throwing w/o a mat, but they will eliminate or minimize injury off of mat.

I have heard others say that when breakfalling off the mat one should not slap as one would for a normal judo breakfall.

This is interesting to me because I have a shoulder injury that is aggravated by slapping.

Bossman, do you mostly roll when taking falls on hard surfaces or do you have a way to fall safely? I have experimented with rolling and with taking most of the impact on my feet-- I am very interested in any pointers or information you guys can provide about falling on hard surfaces.

I have a long way to go in this area...

As a lifelong skateboarder, I can tell you that learning to roll and breakfall is absolutely necessary for falls on concrete. You will still probably hurt yourself, but road rash and tweaked wrists are better than broken elbows and cracked skulls. When breakfalling on concrete, keep your elbows from hitting, and tuck your head TIGHT. The impact is harder, and so you are more likely to untuck that head and crack it anyway. Take as much impact on your butt/thighs as you can.
I once did a flying leap from the top of a picnic table, flew about 20 feet, and tucked into a perfect roll on dirt and rocks, coming up on my feet, blind drunk. And then had to stop my untrained drunker buddy from trying it. Would I try that TODAY?....

[QUOTE]Originally posted by the504mikey:

Bossman, do you mostly roll when taking falls on hard surfaces or do you have a way to fall safely? I have experimented with rolling and with taking most of the impact on my feet-- I am very interested in any pointers or information you guys can provide about falling on hard surfaces.

I have a long way to go in this area...

[/QUOTE]

We roll (until we are standing) or "collapse downwards" to a defended position, to "slap" a hard surface would be madness.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Bossman:
We roll (until we are standing) or "collapse downwards" to a defended position, to "slap" a hard surface would be madness. [/QUOTE]


I'm with Bossman on this. We started off with the mats in order to get the movements correct - then on the Dojo floor (wood - no mats)... then in progression to higher belts we do them on gravel once in a blue moon.... with your arms and legs covered by the material of a Gi its no big deal.