Anyone Know How To Do The Forward Roll?

Gerry Seymour

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I remember doing a professional wrestling course once with a guy who had never done rolling before. It is a variation of what I did but was pretty easy to master.

He never got it and eventually quit.
Some folks seem to really struggle with the rolls. I'm fairly certain the falls and rolls cost NGA more students than anything else does. It's a slow process for most folks.
 

JowGaWolf

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Actually, it did make it hard for her to learn it. It took her longer than the new students to get the new version. And no, she's not 100% correct. She still has a hesitation part of the time. The difference between the two isn't as big (nor as important) as the difference Brian's student was dealing with. If her old roll wasn't functional, I wouldn't be able to let her take techniques that require a back roll.
Are you saying her roll wasn't functional? You are saying that the difference between the two isn't as big (nor as important)? For me and my bad habits, the difference is usually really big and really important. If the importance between the 2 rolls are very little then there really isn't any incentive to get rid of something that has little change.

It's not like the habit that some people have by punching with their thumbs inside their fist. For them all it takes is to have a bad experience with that to understand (not know), that punching with the thumb inside is a bad idea.
 

drop bear

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Some folks seem to really struggle with the rolls. I'm fairly certain the falls and rolls cost NGA more students than anything else does. It's a slow process for most folks.

The issue is there is no real progression. You have to be able to roll to learn how to roll.
 

Gerry Seymour

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Are you saying her roll wasn't functional? You are saying that the difference between the two isn't as big (nor as important)? For me and my bad habits, the difference is usually really big and really important. If the importance between the 2 rolls are very little then there really isn't any incentive to get rid of something that has little change.

It's not like the habit that some people have by punching with their thumbs inside their fist. For them all it takes is to have a bad experience with that to understand (not know), that punching with the thumb inside is a bad idea.
I didn't say it wasn't functional. I said it did make it hard for her to learn the new one, which was the point of the earlier comments about not learning a generic roll. The bujinkan rolls in those videos are also functional, but wouldn't work well with our throws. Someone who knows those would struggle to get the angle on our rolls. Incentive doesn't change the fact that the neural pathways are heavily myelinated, so they fire very quickly, and the muscular reactions become automatic. It takes time for them to lose that sheathing, then construct new networks to represent the new movements, then myelinate those. Someone of equal natural ability doesn't have to build as strong a network for the new actions, because it's not competing with the old, well-ingrained one.
 

dunc

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I'd add that, in my view, there are several important differences between rolling on mats and rolling on hard floors

Once you have the basic techniques down, I think it's a good idea to periodically roll on hard surfaces - you'll quickly learn the differences :)

Oh and crossing the legs at the end is not great from a martial perspective
 

Gerry Seymour

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I'd add that, in my view, there are several important differences between rolling on mats and rolling on hard floors

Once you have the basic techniques down, I think it's a good idea to periodically roll on hard surfaces - you'll quickly learn the differences :)

Oh and crossing the legs at the end is not great from a martial perspective
I worked on my rolls quite a bit on grass (on top of Southern clay soil), in hotel rooms (carpet with no discernible padding), and other less-yielding surfaces. I need to get back to some of that.
 

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