Chinese wrestling break fall

[Kung Fu Wang]

Most of the time when your opponent throws you, he has controlled one of your arms and you only has one free arm. When you fall, you can use that free arm to slap on your mat. You can also use that free arm to form a soft pillow between your head and the ground. Here is an example of the Chinese wrestling break fall.

In order to avoid your both knees to hit on top of each other, you have to bend your both legs in different angles so your top knee won't hit on your bottom knee.

What's your opinion on this?

 

[mber]

I've seen versions of this in Aikido and elsewhere. It definitely makes falling a bit more manageable. The "sticky" nature of it also helps to reduce the effects of the impact on your body, as opposed to other ways of falling which have more post-contact movement and therefore absorb more impact.

One variant involves using the free arm as another contact area similar to how the extended leg is being used in the example you provide. This still allows some protection for the head via the shoulder support (though perhaps somewhat less), but spreads the impact a bit more for less pain and damage to the body. A tradeoff, I suppose.