Falling safely - One of the most important skills in life

[@SchildwachePotsdam]

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[@SchildwachePotsdam]

P.S. The sound should be better now?

[@GallowglassAxe]

I agree with this absolutely! I learned this from Judo and it is without a doubt the most useful skill I've learned in all of my martial arts training. Last time used it was almost a year ago I was LARPing in a semi-wooded area. I was back peddling away from someone and I stepped a branch and it rolled out from under me. I went backward and but I tuck my chin to my chest and use my triceps to soften the fall ( I had a weapon in both hands). My head came very close from hitting a rock and had I not learned how to fall and if my neck wasn't conditioned to stop the whiplash I would have cracked the back of my skull on that rock.

[@SchildwachePotsdam]

Definitely! I learned this long time ago in my Judo practice as well and brushed it up regularly ever since. It even saved me recently when I did a dumb thing on the playground with my son, fell and needed a proper breakfall. Could have easily broken an arm or hit my head on the ground if I didn't had that skill in my body. 🙈

[@Davlavi]

Thx for doing this.

[@corrugatedcavalier5266]

Good stuff! Gear does bring in some other considerations. Like mask weight, helmet weight when fighting in harness is even a tougher thing to mitigate, but same concept and concerns.

[@romanista77]

I’ve spent many years in BJJ as well as a little Judo. By far the most important and practical thing I’ve learned is how to fall. Especially if you live in an area with icy winters!

[@SchildwachePotsdam]

Definitely! I learned this long time ago in my Judo practice as well and brushed it up regularly ever since. It even saved me recently when I did a dumb thing on the playground with my son, fell and needed a proper breakfall. Could have easily broken an arm if I didn't had that skill in my body. 🙈

[@Dyundu]

Instantly saved to my HEMA/Kenjutsu playlist. I am terrible at falling, and I need this badly. Thank you!

[@SchildwachePotsdam]

Awesome! Check out the first video as well where I go into much more detail on some exercises: kzbin.info/www/bejne/pHaVXqh9drR-nZIsi=XIX1h2Euo3Oa_d9F

[@freifechterbasel6115]

We are developing guidelines for wrestling in tournament setting in switzerland with input from a former national level wrestler from Austria. His point of view (and I agree), is that if you allow any kind of wrestling, you must train falling in every training session. You need thousands of repetitions to get it to a solid proficiency. What might be an issue, in particular with complex hilted swords is that they can be dangerous to fall upon, as they dont lie flat on the ground as an arming sword or ringless longsword would. I‘d love to hear what you think of that problem!

[@SchildwachePotsdam]

Before I did only HEMA, I trained mostly outdoors, doing unchoreographed fights with some mild acting (i.e. going to the ground for the show). It is surprising how easy the cross of a simple hilted sword can stick into the ground on one side, making it that the other side of the cross points toward the sky like a spike. Over the years, best practice (especially in group fights) was to keep your own weapon in hand and learn for fall that way in all directions to control for the hazards on the battlefield. On a hard surface that's not really a problem of course, else you have complex hilted weapons like you mention. So I'd definitely stand behind that practice to reduce the risk of falling on something unpleasant. And yes, proper falling should be practiced on a regular basis. :)

[@yowza234]

i did parkour before HEMA has definitely saved me many a grappling situation

[@SchildwachePotsdam]

Ah yes, another excellent education for falling. :)

[@Arcuzool]

Awesome, we just recently talked about it!

[@RealZeratul]

Many good advices! In our school we basically give the same talk to all beginners. :D Regarding throwing away the weapon: safety goes first, of course, so the idea is ok, but from a martial standpoint it makes little sense and puts you from a bad position into an unwinnable one.

[@SchildwachePotsdam]

Agreed, personally I am not a big fan of throwing it away for safety reasons either. Better keep it controlled in the hand and learn to fall that way than risk falling onto it.

[@krdietiker]

It's a shame this series didn't continue. It's like everyone stopped researching grappling in HEMA, or just stopped creating video content all together.