Breakfalls

[ejaazi]

I am an Aikido practitioner. For any Judo practitioner who has seen Aikido, I wanted to know what you think is the diffrence in the way we breakfall and the way you breakfall. Is there an advantage to having the leg that hits the mat first straight or is it better to have it slighty bent. I have seen both ways and I think that it has something to do with the spine. I would appreciate your thoughts on this.

 

[zDom]

We keep both legs bent with a 90-degree angle at the knee in MSK Hapkido.

I think it reduces the stress on/chance of injury to have the leg on the mat bent.

 

[JudoJunkie]

I do Judo, Jujitsu, and Aikido. In the Judo Kata, Nage No Kata, we extend the bottom leg to help stop the bounce and make a clean solid landing. In the Aikido and Jujitsu we bend the bottom leg when we are rolling up and keep it straight when the throw is not something that can be rolled out of.

I think that the most important aspect of falling is not the position of the legs but how relaxed you are. If you are very tense, the fall will hurt and you risk injury.

 

[Keikai]

I don't think that keeping the leg straight or bent has much effect on the spine.

It is the rotation of the spine that causes the damage. I met a ju jutsuka in South Africa, who was an engineer, and was reseaching whether having the top leg in a sideways flat fall touch the ground in front of the lower leg or behind it caused damage. He felt that in front was better as it did not twist the spine. I tend to agree. We keep the leg in the air so no problem.

 

[Kempojujutsu]

I would agree with all that has been said. Another thing is I try to keep my ankles off the ground and from each other. When you fall you don't want your ankle slamming into the ground or your other ankle. Makes it very painful, when this happens.

 

[Jai]

Bending the leg or keeping it straight I have never noticed a difference. It mainly depends on the situation and how you have been trained IMO.

 

[Darth F.Takeda]

We teach a strait leg at the bottom, but it's never locked.
Many of us bend our knees and ball up more for actualk fighting, as a leg left of can get stomped on the extended joint, more damgage.

I also feel that bent leg allows me to get up faster or transiotion into ground defense quicker, time is more important on the ground in a streetfight than rolling, every second counts because all the illegal stuff is right there now, like face stomping, north/south position knee to the head ( think Wandila Silva in Pride days) and other stuff so the second I hit the ground I am going into something before he can stomp me or establish a good position.

 

[kill bill]

In my jujutsu style (Miyama Ryu) we use the extended leg to quickly get back on a standing position, i.e. if you are projected when falling you keep your leg extended you can use it as a pivot point to stand up without using you hands.

 

[kempo-vjj]

I have found how well my breakfalls actually are by doing them on a wood floor or concrete. Especially of not letting those ankles hit, or not letting those knees touch the floor on the back roll. We only do this occasionally. Kinda scared me my first time. But after a few years I guess I've gotten kinda good at it. My side fall is leg straight out, slightly bent

 

[kill bill]

That's a good point in my dojo we do practice the rolls and falls in cocrete too to improve the way you protect the limbs.