31 March 2011

falling right

One of the things at which I am supposed to be good but am not is falling. We practice falling all the time in fighting class, particularly in advanced fighting class, but I still suck at it.

When we do the scenarios, we are supposed to pretend to hurt the person by elbowing and kneeing them in specified places, and then take them down. Most of the time, though, we don't take the person down. It's the last stage and probably not the most important, because if the person is already incapacitated, you have the time to run.

Last night, I was working with a brand new student, and one of the longest-standing students was quasi-instructing. He came by to show the newbie and me what to do, with me as the demonstratee, and as he finished the scenario, he said, "I'm going to do the take-down," and he dropped me to the ground.

I do know how to fall. You keep your head tucked and you slap the ground with your hands at a 45 degree angle. I practice falling on an almost weekly basis.

I still fell directly on my ass. Tailbones, may I say, hurt a lot when you land on them.

Then today, one of the newer - and possibly overly-exuberant - students in advanced fighting class was flipping me in a grappling drill and tried to do it at a speed beyond his skill and got it wrong. He wrenched my back as he tried to scissor his legs, and I felt my back go pop-pop-pop along the left side.

"Are you okay?" the instructor asked, and when I said, "yes," from the floor, he calmly continued showing the guy how to do it right, while I, squashed underneath, wondered if I actually was okay, since I hadn't yet tried to move.

I was okay.

But I again feel like I've been beaten up. This is possibly because I have been, practically.

I crowed a bit when I got a knife away from an experienced student, and seconds later I was on my face on the mat, startled but unhurt. I have a lot to learn.

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