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Falling safety

Intro

Safety is especially important when throwing an opponent and when being thrown by an opponent.

When throwing

• When throwing an attacker, you may want to force the head of an attacker into the ground.
• When throwing an opponent in training or in competition, it is your responsibility to protect the opponent’s head from hitting the ground. 

When thrown

• When thrown under any conditions, you must act to ensure your head does not hit the ground. Hold your head up, grab your opponent, and use your arms to pull yourself in close to the opponent. This will help keep your head from hitting the ground even if the rest of your body does hit the ground. Even if your head does hit the ground, this action will lessen the force of the impact.
• Do not reach out with your arms, if you do, you will probably break one or more of them. 
• Keep unprotected bones, such as the elbows and knees, from hitting the ground.
• Twist your body to keep vital body areas from hitting the ground since you could fall on a object that could cause a penetrating injury.
• Spread the force of the fall evenly across as much of your body as possible.Slap the ground with the arms and hands to enlarge the impact area and to help absorb the force of the fall. It may sting but the pain is temporary.
• Keep the entire body relaxed to prevent injury.
• Roll whenever possible. Even a delicate, hollow, glass ball may survive a fall if it hits the ground at an angle that allows it to roll instead of making a direct impact. Nothing protrudes from a sphere, so it rolls while absorbing the impact forces over a large area. When you fall, you should make yourself into a compact sphere as much as possible. Be like a Michelangelo sculpture. Michelangelo kept his statues compact so if one fell or rolled, no protruding body parts would break off. When rolling, instead of a fall ending in an abrupt stop, the falling forces are gradually dissipated by the rolling action and you may roll back onto your feet, either away from danger or in a position of self-defense.

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