Practice falling
rrsodl
Posts: 486
I just found this information that some people might not know already.
"Practice falling
If you’ve ever listened to Tour de France commentary, they emphasize how riders “go limp” if they are going to wreck. That’s exactly what you want to do. Proper form when crashing is almost an instinct amongst the pros because they have practiced (or learned from experience.) In your case, I suggest a good practice session. Start by going out in a grassy field, with helmet and pads, of course. All you have to do is roll along, stop, and fall over while keeping your hands on the bars. Don’t stick your arm out, that’s how you’ll break a collar bone! You can start out falling into a hill so you don’t have to fall so far, but work your way to flat ground. The key is to go limp (relax all your muscles) and absorb the shock, letting your entire body hit the ground. (You know how boxers “ride” a punch? It’s physics. The longer the time period of the hit, the less damage it causes.) So when you go down, your legs will hit first, then your side, and then your shoulder. You won’t really roll in this slow-speed drill, but you will in the next one."
More on this topichere
Rick
"Practice falling
If you’ve ever listened to Tour de France commentary, they emphasize how riders “go limp” if they are going to wreck. That’s exactly what you want to do. Proper form when crashing is almost an instinct amongst the pros because they have practiced (or learned from experience.) In your case, I suggest a good practice session. Start by going out in a grassy field, with helmet and pads, of course. All you have to do is roll along, stop, and fall over while keeping your hands on the bars. Don’t stick your arm out, that’s how you’ll break a collar bone! You can start out falling into a hill so you don’t have to fall so far, but work your way to flat ground. The key is to go limp (relax all your muscles) and absorb the shock, letting your entire body hit the ground. (You know how boxers “ride” a punch? It’s physics. The longer the time period of the hit, the less damage it causes.) So when you go down, your legs will hit first, then your side, and then your shoulder. You won’t really roll in this slow-speed drill, but you will in the next one."
More on this topichere
Rick
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Comments
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For tour riders it is there living.
I think i will stick with my absolute fear of falling/crashing and take the subsequent use of brakes that it brings on hills/corners and reduction in speed. I don't really want to be so "confident" that i am prepared to do 35mph+ on hills because i "know" how to fall off.We are born with the dead:
See, they return, and bring us with them.0 -
Practice? lol, wow that's new, but sensible really.
I've come off a few times, pretty unscathed even at about 20mph all i had was grazes, and it was a hard fall and managed to remember to roll myself and the bike to the side of the road, JUST in case.
At beginner level, a lot of it would be to try not to fall. So I'd recommend a couple of days out mountain biking, the skills from that transfer over to road biking quite easily with confidence, balance etc.0 -
feel wrote:For tour riders it is there living.
I think i will stick with my absolute fear of falling/crashing and take the subsequent use of brakes that it brings on hills/corners and reduction in speed. I don't really want to be so "confident" that i am prepared to do 35mph+ on hills because i "know" how to fall off.
Agreed, knowing my luck if I went all floppy I'd damage something else :oops:0 -
Sounds like absolute bllx to me. I'd rather break my collarbone by sticking an arm out than have my head smack on the tarmac with or without a helmet.
it's a hard life if you don't weaken.0 -
Judo is excellent falling practise. For the first few sessions, all you'll do is learn how to fall properly, without getting hurt. There's a series of "break falls" to learn, which generally emphasise protecting your back/neck. For example, if you're falling backwards, you smack the mat hard with your forearms, reducing the energy of your fall before your back hits the mat. It's probably going to give you a broken bone or dislocated something if you do it when coming off a back, but it's better than a spinal injury. Other martial arts probably have something similar, but I only have experience with judo.0
