How not to hurt yourself when you fall?
Learning how to fall without hurting yourself is a skill, which in my opinion, should be of interest to the vast majority of people.
Fear of falling, because of a possible injury, can worsen your performance in martial arts, or any other sport for that matter. In the case of older people, it can mean living in constant distress. An unfortunate fall, if you hit your head or spine, can leave you disabled or cause you to lose your cognitive abilities, no matter how smart you are or how much money you have.
In Systema Colonel Maksimtsov there are 3 principles of low acrobatics, which are:
- Contact a hard surface only with soft parts of the body.
- The center of gravity enters at an angle of 45 degrees or less.
- On exhalation, the center of gravity moves down, on inhalation moves up.
Each of Systema Colonel Maksimtsov’s moves is designed in such a way as to improve your survivability, agility and health. By practicing these movements, you will not only learn to fall safely and get rid of all the anxiety of falling, but you will also strengthen your joints and learn to get up in a way that does not use extra energy.
As you can see, I am practicing in concrete, and I suggest you do the same. It is common to practice acrobatics on mats, but the fact that the mat is soft means that you don’t know when you make a wrong move. Also, the day you fall, whether in a dangerous situation, by distraction or whatever, chances are there won’t be any mats around. Start your practice at a slow speed and increase the speed as you get the hang of it.
