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Are you falling down more and enjoying it less?
Have you been falling down on the job – literally?
Would you like to learn a safe, easy way to fall down and not get hurt?
We have a saying in martial arts "Always face danger." Always turn towards danger so you can see it to help think of a way to deal with it.
Learning to fall lightly involves learning to land. Landing greatly improves bone strength, and getting up off the ground several times is excellent muscle conditioning! It also helps overcome fears and anxieties in many areas. It can even remove emotional obstacles from learning.
Actually falling down is easy - and fun. We pay to go on rides that simulate falling through the air. Falling itself has never injured a human being in recorded history. The hard part is landing! We like to land safely ;-)
Injuries caused by landing badly come from a couple of basic instinctive reactions that as a species, we have outgrown but not out-evolved. When most of us fall we “stiffen” our entire body and “stick our hands out”. Then what usually happens we land on one or both of our hands, wrists, or our elbow with disastrous results. The part you landed on takes all of our body weight often to the breaking point. Joints like the wrist or elbow were never designed for that kind of weight or impact. If the fall is slow enough or short enough our hands, elbows, shoulders and muscles can cope by all working together as a spring. But it is a weak spring and if all the parts of the upper body cannot act all together at the same time - like a floor exercise Olympian athlete - the weakest link fails immediately. All of the upper body muscles involved, have to flex, tighten and have the necessary strength at the right time to slow us down safely. But what usually happens is people will land “stiff-armed” or just on one limb - from fear of falling - and hurt themselves. Notice we didn’t say fear of landing. This is a “genetic” thing, I’ll explain.
Most injuries from falling are self inflicted from landing badly, not falling badly. In fact you are quite safe while you are falling through the air. Look at skydivers. Most falls are from a ridiculously short distance and normally would not hurt you, unless you did something such as sticking your hands out.
Why do we do that? Why do we stick our hands out instinctively? There are two basic concepts that result in this.
First - when we evolved on this planet we weren’t the fastest running species, but we were good climbers, light long gripping arm appendages, propelled by very strong pushing appendages, our legs. The large predators of the time have eyes and brain designed to see movement, particularly in the upper half of their vision. All major predators can see movement before color or shape. And they react more quickly to motion from above. This is because we as potential prey climb up to heights to get out of danger. To counter the motion reflexes of the predators once we are up high out of immediate danger, we “freeze” and “hold still”. In fact we will do this any time there was imminent danger. This fear of movement also precludes the fear of falling and winding up at “lunch” level.
Freezing, temporary paralysis when surprised or frightened is actually what most people worry about most in falls. Get used to it. It is part of your nervous system, it is going to happen. No need to worry, you don’t have a choice. You can overcome how long it lasts with a little bit of training. If you don’t know what to do you will stay “stuck” longer. When you do know what to do, you will react more quickly. Once you “unlock” the first reaction is to reach out. To fend off danger and to reach for safety, find something to climb or pull yourself up on.
Second - if you watch people’s bodies closely when they fall, especially newborn babies, they will try to ‘arch’ their back to resist tipping over positioning themselves so they can reach out farther to grab hold of something. Something to keep them from falling, something to help “hold them” still, something to pull themselves up or out of the way. We have developed a “genetic code” in ourselves to climb or go upward away from danger, and then we have a basic instinctive “stiffening” fear movement which will help us from falling out of our high perch. So, when we start to fall, we stick our hands out!
How deep is this programming? Gestating and newborn infants will snap their whole arms out to their sides when they feel like they are falling. This is classified as the “startle reflex”. It starts at 30 weeks of gestation (in the womb!) and babies don’t get over it until about 4 months old. It is so rooted into our being, that it is actually used as test by doctors to make sure a babies nervous system is working correctly.
It’s speculated they get over it when they have learned to trust the people holding them. Ever notice how much an older baby loves it when you pretend to drop them and smile? Both parents and most babies enjoy it immensely. Bizarre behavior on the part of both parties. The baby likes being able to trust someone and the parent likes being trusted. The baby now knows it probably won’t be abandoned if some one loves it enough to demonstrate trust with a dangerous move. Strange but true.
Psychiatrists even go so far as to pin many of our adult anxieties and fears that develop over our lifetimes back to these two primal fears – fear of falling, fear of lack of support (abandonment). This can include falling from grace in other peoples eyes, a fear of not pleasing, or not doing something right. Even the fear of “falling in love!” These “falling” fears are subjects for an entire book on their own.
These fears are also why many people have difficulty starting to practice falling and landing at first. It is difficult for them to even practice rolling around (a better alternative to falling down). Often beginners get motion sick. It is inner fear most of the time, not inner ear. It is an inborn instinct they do not naturally overcome. Others do! Just think of what could happen if you could eliminate the fear of falling and the fear of abandonment out of your life? Even if it were in your later life, you might be able to shed some lifetime emotional baggage that interferes with learning.
So, let’s say you are willing to tip over on some thick mats and have some fun. What is the secret to landing safely? Simple. Cross your arms across your chest and hug yourself. You’ll probably need one afterwards anyway. 1. Learn to accept the inevitable. Gravity works. Once you start tipping over you are going to fall down. 2. Learn to enjoy that thrill of weightlessness like the child you are inside and relax. Remember when it was fun to play “All fall down”? 3. Crumple down, by kneeling and tipping over the last few inches. It is much easier to land on the ground like a washcloth than a stiff, arched china plate.
Will you get hurt worse hugging yourself and laughing as you kneel down and just plop over? Look at the situations where a drunk survived a car wreck with no particular injuries. Watch a child on a playground laughing with delight as they push each other over. The answer is 99.9% No - you won’t get hurt any worse. With a minimal amount of training you often won’t get hurt at all.
Only your fear hurts you. Only your fear sticks out your arms and sacrifices them – your weakest links (compared to your legs). We have work shops on big thick safety mats regularly. We assuage those fears with knowledge and practice. Often we do it backwards. We start on the ground and teach you how to get up the same way you would fall down. It works perfectly and each time you get up or down you practice the move. I cannot tell you how many broken hips, elbows and wrists we have saved especially in the geriatric ages. All we teach is how to hug your self and crumple down. A ½ hour of practice and you are changed for life.
To crumple successfully; take a small step and kneel down in the direction you are falling. You will usually do it anyway! Scientifically if you look at how the human body walks - it starts simply as a slight lean in the direction you want to go, and before you fall down, placing your foot out in front of you as a brace. Notice how babies walk so stiff legged at first. You more or less have to fall down to even walk.
So… take that small step to future falling safety. First rule: Remember what they say at the carnival rides. “Keep your hands and feet inside the vehicle at all times”. Cross your arms over your chest, take a small step and then kneel down on that same knee in the direction you are falling (when possible). Now you are half way down! And you haven’t actually fallen yet! Then let gravity plop you over on your side, your arms still protecting your chest and face. The real secret – learn to bend your knees when you lose your balance. Lower yourself to get better balance, to shorten and slow down the fall. It’s ok to start laughing before you land. Sometimes it really is funny falling down. We are a strange species aren’t we!
Occasionally someone will bring up landing on your knee could hurt. Yes it can, but it is rare the short stumble down to kneeling position can damage the knee. Hurt and pain compared to damage and injury are two different things. If you look at that great big bone in your knee (head of the tibia) it is pretty massive and can easily take your weight and momentum without getting “injured”. Plus you will be using the muscles of both of your legs to slow down the crumpling fall. Your leg muscles are 4 times stronger than your arms and upper body. Look at your knee and look at your elbow. Which one would you want to fall on in an emergency?
So far we have discussed falling forward. How about falling backwards? Not a problem. In fact most of us have some built in padding back there to help soften the impact! People most often get hurt when falling backwards by sticking out their hands and still landing on their tailbone. If you have ever landed on, or even had your tailbone (coccyx) bumped hard, you know the agony it causes. It can be debilitating enough to keep you from walking or sitting for months. For some it would be worth a broken wrist if not for the fact it can happen anyway sticking your hands out.
What to do? Take a small step back, hug yourself and kneel down to the rear, and plop over to the side. Do it in stages. Don’t squat and stick out your arms. Sounds like the landing procedure to the front doesn’t it? We want to see what is happening and where we are going when falling forward. That helps stay oriented to move correctly. When falling backward, we will still try to grasp something in front of us, even bending at the waist backwards to keep reaching. Almost guaranteeing a tailbone landing.
We have a saying in martial arts, “always face danger”. Always turn towards danger so you can see it to help think of a way deal with it. Closing your eyes or turning away is more dangerous than you can imagine. In a back fall, as you are hugging yourself, turn and try to look behind you. As you are stepping and kneeling down, this turns you slightly and you land more on your side, rather than your tailbone.
This area is close to the hip. In older people with fragile bones, a long, hard fall can result in a fractured hip. But by kneeling down and crumpling, this takes most of the energy out of a fall and results in a much softer landing. Not soft enough for a tailbone landing, nothing is soft enough for that, but by turn a little to look where you are falling, often is enough to keep from damaging the hip.
That’s it. Now you know the secrets of Falling AND Landing Safely. This small safe practice of kneeling down and tipping over, with your arms across your chest, leads to stronger bones and muscles, regardless of age. Landing greatly improves bone strength, and getting up off the ground several times is excellent muscle conditioning! It also helps over come fears and anxieties in many areas, can remove emotional obstacles from learning - and, for some people with vertigo caused calcium carbonate crystals in the inner ear, falling over and landing with a soft jarring motion on a soft bed, can move the crystals and cure the vertigo, or even keep it from occurring.
Now when people say “have a nice TRIP” you’ll be able to enjoy – both kinds!
Martial Arts Instructor Prof Steve McLaughlin, 8th Dan will be a featured presenter on Kauai Saturday Aug 22 and Sunday Aug 23.
He is offering Kauai residents and visitors three unique workshops and classes of interest sponsored by DanZan Ryu JuJitsu and Hawaii Health Guide as part of the Kauai Healing Garden Festival
Taking Fall Lightly: a short demonstration on how to prevent injury in falls is especially useful for sentiors. Will be on the main stage at Kilohana at 11:00 am. The class is free with $5.00 event admission
UnderWater Safety & Self Defense Course: will interest dive enthousiasts wishing to insert a little james Bond experience to their SCUBA skills, held at the YMCA swimming pool 10:00-12:00 $65
Woman & Children’s Domestic Safety & Assualt Prevention Course: TheThe Hawaii Zenyo JuJitsu Kai (HZJK) Women's Assault Prevention Course is instructed by Prof. Steve McLaughlin, with 35 years Women's Assault Prevention and Self-Defense teaching experience. $50
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drawing by Gary Ono
