Learning to roll.....

[ETinCYQX]

To cut to the chase, I really stink at this. This is my third class, and I went to my lesson this afternoon (damn hot too, BTW. It's in the 90's and the "air conditioning" can barely be felt).

Anyway, I show up and naturally he wants me to roll backward and try to roll forward. I got into position but when it came to the kick off, I hesitated. I stink forward and backwards. He tells me I have to relax and just let it happen. Go with it. But frankly it's scary and intimidating. How does one get past this fear and roll with ease?

He asked at the end of class if I really wanted to do Judo and reminded me that it involves break falls and rolling and that I would have to learn to get beyond the fear. I assured him that I do but in the back of my mind, I'm thinking "how am I going to do this?" I study the arts that have been a life time obsession for me and don't want my fear to keep me from progressing in Judo. Any advice?


Laura

This may be a very hard thing to explain from text.

My sensei (who is ikkyu) tells new students (myself included) to start on all fours, and "sweep" the arm you're rolling on in towards your knees so that you're rolling from a lower height. It does take a while to get used to and a few weeks in, I can roll with confidence now. Rolling backward is harder to learn IMO.

I hope that trick helps, if you don't get what I'm saying (I'm a noob too and this trick helped me) let me know, I'll gladly break out the camcorder and record a quick clip for you.

Ethan.

 

[SensibleManiac]

Definitely, when beginning start from your knees and go very slowly, this will make a huge difference then when comfortable move a little higher until you can do it standing.
Good luck, don't doubt yourself, it takes time.

 

[ScottJJ]

I'm going to assume that falls/rolls are the same in both Judo and Aikido. I had a horrible mental block with front rolls that has taken some time *cough*years*cough* to overcome. I'm only now starting to do them with some ease. There were times when I doubted I could continue MA because of my issue with front rolls. I'm grateful to have had a patient Sensei and encouraging training partners. Interestingly, I've been able to teach people how to front roll in spite of having difficulty with it myself. I believe that's because every single person in our dojo has shown me "their" way. I've learned there are a bunch of "ways" with the end result always the same.

In my experience, guys seem to pick up much faster on this than the ladies do.

Please don't get discouraged. Sometimes, it just takes time. Stressing over it will make things worse. What helped me with back rolls was to sit down and simply roll backwards (without doing a back roll). There was something about the repetitive feel of the roll on my back that made this much easier to accomplish.

Big soft mats were my salvation on practicing front rolls. It helped me get past a lot of my fear of being hurt.

Good luck.

I too had a huge mental block on doing rolls and your experiences sound similar to mine. Also, I had the same experience with everyone showing me a different way of how to do it. This actually helped because eventually someone told me something that made it all click for me. When I was hurt for several classes I got to watch how others were doing these and I followed a style that I liked for my size. I'm having a much easier time with it now. its about freakin time.

 

[Aikicomp]

Along with the other input, I usually have the student start from a low position and tell them that they should feel the mat on their body on every part of the roll.

If doing a left side forward roll; tuck your chin in, start roll and feel the mat from your wrist to your forearm, to your elbow, to your shoulder (wrist, forearm, elbow and shoulder should be like a hoop), across your back(from left shoulder to right hip, to right thigh, to right knee and shin and finally rise up on the right foot.

Another thing is to think of rolling in a small space (as opposed to a large space), keep tight and compact and to "be like a ball"

Mike

 

[Chat Noir]

I appreciate all the replies on this post - it's been very helpful. I took time off from Judo when I had oral surgery on the 22nd of April (my mouth is still frozen believe it or not). I was horrified when I came back to realize that I was nervous all over again about rolling, but I tried it on the knees with the ball - helped a lot. I guess learning to roll is something you have to do often regardless of your rank to do it well and correctly. Thanks again, people.

Laura

 

[Champ-Pain]

In order to become good at doing rolls, first you must lose your fear of rolling.

NOTE: RHS - Right foot forward, left hand down (to support body weight / balance) propel forward, roll over right shoulder and break fall by hitting the tatami with the palm of the hand that was originally down (left hand).

NOTE: LHS - Left foot forward, right hand down (same reason as above) propel forward, roll over left shoulder and break fall by hitting tatami with the palm of the hand that was originally down (right hand).

Good Luck!

 

[Thesemindz]

When I have a student who's uncomfortable with rolling I start them out on their back with their knees tucked into their chest and have them roll forward and backward and side to side. Think of an egg wobbling on a table. After a while, we start rolling up to a squat, or onto our side, or all the way over our side to hands and knees. Slowly, over time, as they become more comfortable being on the floor, we start with simple forward somersaults from a squatting position with both hands on the mat. Eventually we progress to shoulder rolls, and backwards rolls and standing rolls and diving rolls. But I always start a student as close to the ground as possible, going as slowly as possible, and I never push them when they aren't ready.

There's plenty of karate to learn, they don't have to master rolls today. If I scare them, I might drive them out of the school altogether. If I support them, and take the fear out of what we are doing by going slowly and safely, they'll stick around long past the point where rolls quit being scary.

Rolling is easy, but for many people it is intimidating. Something about going head over heels affects a primal instinct in some humans. And for some people, it's painful or even dangerous. I have a student who can't do some rolls because of arthritis and pre-existing back and neck injuries. As her instructor, I tailor her training to her individual challenges.

Judo is an art where you start rolling from the beginning. I had a friend who took a kung fu style where they had him doing in place dive rolls in his very first class. At our school you don't even do side barrel rolls from your hands and knees for almost a year. You don't do forward shoulder rolls from a standing position for almost two years. But that just depends on the art you study.

If you tell your instructor that you're scared, and his answer is for you to consider whether or not you really want to do this, he's sending you an important message. Maybe it's serious advice about committing to your training. Maybe it's easier than saying he's not a very good instructor and doesn't know an effective way to help you overcome your fear. I'm not there, you have to decide for yourself what he means. Maybe he was just having a bad day. Instructors are human too. But if you continue training, and your fears and challenges are repeatedly met with derision and framed as weakness on your part, I would reconsider training under that instructor. But that's just me. I'm not there.

Rolling can be scary, but once you learn how to do it properly, it'll be a lot less so. The ground looks so far away, but if you practice on your own slowly and close to the ground, you will gradually move further and further away until you're comfortable doing rolls from a standing position. It's the same with breakfalls. There's nothing really all that dangerous about a properly executed roll or breakfall, and as you learn to do it properly and feel more and more confident in your technique, you'll be more comfortable going to the ground because you'll be coming up unharmed.

If you're at the right place, and you like your training, stick with it. If you don't, find a place you do like and stick with that. Either way, you won't be afraid of rolls forever. I promise. Ten years from now, you'll be telling your students about "that time I used to be afraid of rolling too."


-Rob

 

[Chat Noir]

Well, last weekend I was promoted to yellow belt - although I would have been fine to stay a white belt forever, my sensei insisted it's the journey, not the destination, so we had the test. I was thrown for an hour and had to throw as well so I was sore for the week (mostly my tush); I wasn't happy with my ukemi but with time I hope to improve as I continue to work on it.

 

[Thesemindz]

Congratulations!

Don't worry about what you didn't excel at. You aren't done learning. You'll get there.

Way to go on the promotion!


-Rob

 

[Grasshopper22]

Your instructor is right, just relax and go with the flow. For the falling breakfalls, start off in a squat position and practice from there, then get higher and higher until you can do it from a standing position. For the rolling ones, you can't do yousrself any serious injury from these so just trust yourself to roll. Have you ever done that exercise where you lie on your back put your hands on your hips and put your feet over your head until they touch the mat? Just think of that, go slowly and take it one step at a time, it will become so easy and natural to you eventually that you'll do it without even thinking, I promise.

 

[Grasshopper22]

Or you could statr off by rolling sideways and then gradually decreasing the angle of your roll until eventually you just end up going straight over backwards

 

[K-man]

Your instructor is right, just relax and go with the flow. For the falling breakfalls, start off in a squat position and practice from there, then get higher and higher until you can do it from a standing position. For the rolling ones, you can't do yousrself any serious injury from these so just trust yourself to roll. Have you ever done that exercise where you lie on your back put your hands on your hips and put your feet over your head until they touch the mat? Just think of that, go slowly and take it one step at a time, it will become so easy and natural to you eventually that you'll do it without even thinking, I promise.

Grasshopper you're about 9 months late! If you took the time to read the thread you would have read that Chat Noir had got back to rolling and had in fact graded. See post #28 above.

Or you could statr off by rolling sideways and then gradually decreasing the angle of your roll until eventually you just end up going straight over backwards

And this is just plain nonsense. If you are rolling sideways you cannot decrease the angle of your roll. You would need to increase it and that is not physically possible. Even if you could, you say that eventually you end up going straight over backwards, which you don't. That is a gymnast's roll. Our rolls go over the shoulder with the head out of the way. If you had read the thread you would have seen all that advice.


[h=3][/h]

 

[lklawson]

And this is just plain nonsense. If you are rolling sideways you cannot decrease the angle of your roll. You would need to increase it and that is not physically possible. Even if you could, you say that eventually you end up going straight over backwards, which you don't. That is a gymnast's roll. Our rolls go over the shoulder with the head out of the way. If you had read the thread you would have seen all that advice.

Grasshopper has < 3 months training in martial arts. He's trying to be helpful, he's just inexperienced.

Grasshopper,
I know you're trying to be helpful but, honestly, I'm not sure your experience level is where it needs be just yet to be offering advice on this sort of technique.

Peace favor your sword,
Kirk