please help me on this, when you fall?

Question

what do u do, i mean some people slap thier hand on the floor but i dont see why in hell u do that, please can someone explain this to me. i mean i threw u and u slapped the concrete that isnt very safe.

i havent been training for 3 weeks and cant ocntinue until january, as i have had problems with my back. how can i still pracitce without doing anything physical

Answer 1

What are you trying to do? Get free lessons through Yahoo Answers???

No amount of explaining is going to give you the proficiency you seek.

During Ukemi practice you do not slap the ground. If that is what you or anyone else here was taught, you were taught wrong.

It is not a "slap".

It is something else that you won't learn from me.

Go pay someone to teach you.

Answer 2

Ukemi is not all that complicated. There are good reasons for most of the actions you see. They have been around for a hundred years because they work, not because they don't work. Ukemi is physics.

First, understand there are different techniques for falling on mats and fairly soft surfaces and on hard things like wood and concrete. Your instructor can explain this in more detail.

On a mat surface we slap to disapate energy. Remember Newton? Energy can neither be created nor destroyed. If you do not dispurse the energy of a fall it has to go somewhere, usually through your body structure - ow! Body position and slapping are ways we distribute energy and use it up to avoid pain. (Note: key to this is learning to relax when falling.)

As your ukemi improves, you learn other way to get rid of the energy and the slap fades. Judoka who slap in tournaments usually lose, the noise says, "I was thrown with power!"

I average hundreds of falls a night. After 25 years, I have no ill effects nor injuries because I learned to do it properly. I also have used my ukemi skills on wood, concrete, and dirt more than I wish without injury.

Most people never learn to fall on any other surface and do not know any way but slapping. Talk to your teacher if you want to learn this skill.

Answer 3

Because it disperses the power of the fall through your hand when it hits before your body. The soft tissue of the palm can absorb much more force without damage than say the head (in falling backward) or the ankle/heel (in rolling/break-falling forward).

I was thrown fairly lightly by my sensei once when I was just starting aikido and didn't slap the mat properly when I rolled, and my heel was so bruised that it was painful to finish the class and I couldn't walk for three days afterward.

It's kind of important.

Answer 4

The idea behind falling is to be able to get up and escape or defend yourself afterwords and not get the wind knocked out of you. So you literally try to minimize the damage while spreading out the force over body areas and surfaces that take and absorb the shock better. The skin is thicker on your palm if you put your elbow down you will break it probably. If you put you hand down, wrist bent, then you run the risk of breaking your wrist or collar bone-both of which I have seen. So you hit the mat with your hand and forearm and dense muscle part of your body (your back) at the same time as breathing out to keep the wind from getting knocked out of you and the shock is dispersed out across your body more equally rather than just concentrated at one point. You also tuck your chin and avoid falling on your head and neck so you don't break your neck.

I agree falling on concrete hurts but you can survive that if you fall correctly. Fall incorrectly and you can't defend yourself with broken bones, especially a broken neck or until you catch your breath after getting the wind knocked out of you. Any of this can and does happen on mats or almost any service if falling incorrectly. I have done a full head-over heels break fall on concrete without anything touching until I hit and got back up with no injuries-but you are right it hurts!

Answer 5

Yeah ash s, you're right. The people who have been break-falling from hard throws for hundreds of years are doing it wrong by slapping their hand against the ground. It isn't very safe. Man, "Why does judo suck?"

You don't slap for the purpose of hitting the ground with your hand, it's to help disperse the force of the impact. And the slap isn't as important as your body positioning.

Answer 6

Oh man I've had this problem for years, you have to curl you back slightly and when you slap your hands out that is a way of also sending shock waves out from behind. Try starting in a crouching position and roll backwards with your back slightly curved, then roll back and slap.

Also, you might want to consult your sensai if you are having any real trouble. Especially if you're having back problems! I don't think he/she would want you to get hurt if you don't know what you're doing. Speaking as an instructor, I know I would want my students to come to me with a problem so I could help them better understand then not say anything and hurt themselves.

Answer 7

What you are witnessing is most likely a "break fall". The slap, as you call it, is spreading out the surface area of impact and it also prevents the head from hitting the ground when done correctly.
You should speak to your instructors about this, ask them to explain the physics of what you are observing.

Answer 8

There are two basic ways I know how to fall. (There are also forward rolls, but let's just stick to back falls for now). The first one (which you describe) is a break fall. The other one is a roll. In the first case, you apply a counter-force to the impact in order to stop it. You keep your neck up and try to hit the floor with your bottom first.
The second one is a roll fall, in which you try to spread the impact over a longer distance. You would then arch your back, spread your arm out and prepare to roll over your shoulder, while protecting your head with the other arm. If you do it well, you should be able to land on your knees and get straight back up.
The break fall is easier to learn and is useful in limited space conditions. If you hang on to your opponent, you can also try to bring him down with you.
The roll fall has the advantage of putting you in position to get on your feet faster and to get you away from your opponent. It does take longer to learn properly.

In any case, you should get a qualified instructor to show you how it's done, and practice, practice, practice.

Answer 9

The only exercises I can recommend are leg based. Wall sit (or invisible chair) and horse stance for as long as you can hold it. Increase your time for about twenty seconds every day until you can't do any more.

Thumbs up to Sensei, Chuck and Dinobot.

Answer 10

the "slap" is basically for a circular motion... so no single part of your body absorbs the impact of the fall, you spread it out as much as you can (even to your finger tips) and you dont ummm GET HURT... damn man I learned that in TKD... and it isnt focused much on throwing and falls at all.. good luck