Does your school teach them? How? Do you use them?
Breakfalls
- Thread starter Nightingale
- Start date
We teach them at early levels, so we can also teach throws and joint locks to or students.
The Back fall is usally taught first, to then tech the backwards hand throw or the reverse hand throw.
I'm just assuming that we mean the same thing when saying break falls, but we train on how to protect your body and fall correctly in order to not be hurt, and also to get back up quickly in a defensive position. In my system we do alot of throws and sometime if your being thrown, you feel or realize it too late and must go with the throw and know how to fall and not get hurt.
We do alot of drills with rolling. We also do lots of drills where your partner will execute a throw on you and you have to go with it and fall, but "roll" back up and execute the throw on them. Back and forth, ect. We also train on how to use your fall to attack. How to land properly and execute an attack, or how to execute an attack while falling.
We use these techniques when fighting or playing chi saou alot, as in some situations resisting a throw could end up hurting your knee or joint worse than going with the technique.
7sm
We do alot of drills with rolling. We also do lots of drills where your partner will execute a throw on you and you have to go with it and fall, but "roll" back up and execute the throw on them. Back and forth, ect. We also train on how to use your fall to attack. How to land properly and execute an attack, or how to execute an attack while falling.
We use these techniques when fighting or playing chi saou alot, as in some situations resisting a throw could end up hurting your knee or joint worse than going with the technique.
7sm
We do falls and rolls as part of the warm-up for every class. Break falls are considered to be a little more dynamic. The basic falls and rolls are fairly simple to handle but the break falls take a bit more momentum to carry through with and are generally done from a higher start point (like being thrown through the air).
Break falls are imperative to learn.
We teach Front, back, side falls early on. When we are at the college it's great as we have access to the gymnastic mats (10" thick) or we use the wrestling mats.
Orange belt's 'Dance of Death' has a back fall for your opponent, and not knowing how to fall can injure the spine, elbows, hips etc.
We start the falls from either a kneeling or sitting position and work the student up to standing. This is not only an excellent part of training it has great merit in daily life. How many times have you slipped on the ice or a wet floor and had your feet go out from under you? Knowing how to fall properly has saved me numerous times.
We teach Front, back, side falls early on. When we are at the college it's great as we have access to the gymnastic mats (10" thick) or we use the wrestling mats.
Orange belt's 'Dance of Death' has a back fall for your opponent, and not knowing how to fall can injure the spine, elbows, hips etc.
We start the falls from either a kneeling or sitting position and work the student up to standing. This is not only an excellent part of training it has great merit in daily life. How many times have you slipped on the ice or a wet floor and had your feet go out from under you? Knowing how to fall properly has saved me numerous times.
I think that its an important thing to cover, however, it is sometimes IMO, something that is overlooked. Usually I'd start by having the student lay on the ground in the position in which they should be falling into. Then, gradually, as they feel comfortable, have them increase their height in which they do the fall, eventually, being able to do it from a standing position.
I feel that its important because once they reach the techs. which involve takedowns or throws, they will feel more comfortable with it, and there will be less of a chance of an injury.
Mike
I feel that its important because once they reach the techs. which involve takedowns or throws, they will feel more comfortable with it, and there will be less of a chance of an injury.
Mike
We teach basic forward, backward, and side falls, as well as the forward roll. We usually introduce breakfalls at orange belt (the second belt). In our curriculum, the purple belt (third belt)contains several takedowns that require knowledge of how to fall.
Aside from the value of understanding how to fall, as simply a means of self protection, it is essential if you are going to be able to crash dummy for your training partners. If you can't fall, they can't practice their takedowns with any kind of authority, therefore you are hurting your classmates, not just yourself.
As a note, I attended a seminar last year taught by a jujitsu instructor, the seminar class I was in was made up of kenpo black belts. The instructor began with a review of falling technique, and I was surprised to see that over half of the kenpoists there had either not been exposed to falling technique before or just plain sucked at it. I was actually embarrassed, I consider falling a basic.
Lamont
Aside from the value of understanding how to fall, as simply a means of self protection, it is essential if you are going to be able to crash dummy for your training partners. If you can't fall, they can't practice their takedowns with any kind of authority, therefore you are hurting your classmates, not just yourself.
As a note, I attended a seminar last year taught by a jujitsu instructor, the seminar class I was in was made up of kenpo black belts. The instructor began with a review of falling technique, and I was surprised to see that over half of the kenpoists there had either not been exposed to falling technique before or just plain sucked at it. I was actually embarrassed, I consider falling a basic.
Lamont
Hollywood1340
2nd Black Belt
As a hapkidoian, falling is imperative. For more traditional stuff, as school uki, I work on my high falls, full flips into falls and the like. But for class, knowing your basic falls is all important. Many of the high falls were taken out of CHKD, but the small falls still exist. And I've learned the high falls still exist in my system 
Just gotta look for em
Just gotta look for em
karatekid1975
Master Black Belt
We learn how to fall from the start (white belt). Because we also learn take-downs, throws, ect starting at green belt. The lower ranks (white to orange), that's all they learn is how to fall. So if I need to work on throws, I know green belts and up are (should be) good at falling, so I ask anyone green or above to be thrown.
We usually do falling drills as a warm up if we are doing throws that night in class.
We usually do falling drills as a warm up if we are doing throws that night in class.
This is what would be considered a breakfall at my school. Front, back, side falls are all basics as well as front and back rolls. There are few techniques that don't require a fall for us.
karatekid1975
Master Black Belt
We also learn stuff like that. We call it a "whip." It's actually a flip into a side breakfall.
Gotta have 'em.
M
MountainSage
Guest
Break falls are a must. In the school I attend, breakfalls are taught briefly, too briefly. After watching my children go through the development stage, I see the incredible need to teach children how to fall, especially falling backwards.
Mountainsage
Mountainsage
An aspect of how we train is to "die properly" with ever tech. If students aren't dying properly then the technique doer is conditioned to cross out before the assailant is incapacitated. That could get you killed.
Sean
Sean
M
MartialArtsChic
Guest
We constantly do our breakfalls. One of the first things you learn when you walk in the door where I'm at is the front breakfall. We start at white and start on the knees for front and squatted down for back/right & left side and a slow roll for forward rolling. As you progress you go higher and higher til eventually your not thinking your just doing from a standing position.
We have numerous throws, takedown and such that require breakfalls. It's so much fun to fly off a throw and land.
And knowing the back breakfall kept me from cracking my head open on the bathroom radiator one time when I slipped when I got out of the tub. Because I tucked my chin, I stopped about an inch from the radiator. :erg:
Lorrie
We have numerous throws, takedown and such that require breakfalls. It's so much fun to fly off a throw and land.
And knowing the back breakfall kept me from cracking my head open on the bathroom radiator one time when I slipped when I got out of the tub. Because I tucked my chin, I stopped about an inch from the radiator. :erg:
Lorrie
P
pknox
Guest
I have to think that breakfalls are one of the most important things any martial artist can learn, regardless of style. If you are a grappler, or ever plan on at least encountering the possibility of being thrown or taken down by one, they are essential. Even if you are strictly a punch/kick artist, however, they can prove beneficial -- think about the number of times you've gone to execute a kick and slipped, or overextended on a punch and fell (or had someone bump into you while you were both punching and fell). If you did not have at least a rudimentary knowledge of how to take a fall, you could have ended up injured quite easily. Plus, knowing how to fall is a valuable skill, even without its martial applications; if you fall down the stairs, or off a bike, it could mean the difference between a minor injury and a major one (see Lorrie's example above). I have even taken it to this extreme -- my 2 oldest children (7 and 3) have been told that regardless of what activities they pick up, there will be two things I insist they learn for their own safety -- how to swim, and how to fall properly. The 7 year old has it down, the 3 year old is well on the way, and the two 2 year olds start next year. I figure it's the least I can do.
I'm surprised how often at a seminar an instructor will ask for a person to demo a technique on and ask that the person knows how to fall, and I'll be the only or one of the few who raise their hands. I think a lot of places don't do it or don't do it adequately.
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I think there may be a couple of reasons for it. I know I wasn't taught to fall properly until 1992. I had never seen a studio with mats or a padded floor unutil that time either. I just recenntly was able to acquire mats for my studio. That brings me to this point. I do not believe proper falling techniques really came to the forefront in most studios until the past 10 years or so. I also believe that due to the ever ncreasin litigious society we live in, that instructors without nice cushy mats for people to land on weren't teaching it even if they did know it. I believe that the importance of falling correclty is becomming more evident and common place.
I think you have a good point with the mats--I have seen that increase over the past several years too.
I learned to breakfall in my sensei's concrete-covered basement! So, I learned it well.
I learned to breakfall in my sensei's concrete-covered basement! So, I learned it well.
