Rolling

[Brady]

How many people regularly roll around as part of your training? I've been getting back into this part of training lately (mainly on hard wood) and learning more and more about my throws and groundwork by just rolling around like an idiot. I know Systema has some great rolling work outs I've seen on videos and Moshe Feldenkrais loved it to '"iron out the back". Anyone have any inventive rolling drills they know of/practice?

[I-mon]

roll forwards over one shoulder come up onto your feet facing forwards
roll forwards come up facing back
roll back come up facing forward
roll back come up facing back
roll to the left come up facing forward
roll left come up facing back
roll left come up facing left
roll left come up facing right
etc
add the japanese kneeling-walking
rolling from and into low crouching positons and upright standing, dive rolls, rolls without hands...

things i used to do about 5 years ago, and want to do again. rolling is awesome fun.

[Brady]

Imon you did capoeira right? Did you do alot of rolling there?

[jasonf]

Really enjoy the rolling around, especially when I play around with that big yoga ball. Things like holding on to the ball in left arm and trying to shift into different positions, moving over and around the ball...jiu jitsu guys do a lot of shoulder, and other rolling.

[Darthwing Teorist]

In Systema, I learned front and back rolls. In general you roll over the soft parts, protecting joints, bones and spine (roll over the shoulders instead of the back).

We do a forward roll that is similar to Jujitsu/Judo except that it is done in place, like in Sambo (for attacking legs). There is also a side roll over the shoulders.

Forward rolls can be done with the arm thrusting forward, as if you had a blade, or sideways, as if shooting.

To protect the knees, for back rolls, you can land on the instep or on the toes, pushing the body forward (as if you had a utility belt). You can also land on one foot and stand up right away.

You can roll from a headstand, jump over obstacles, grab an object.

You can also simply roll from side to side, using screwing motions with the arms.

You can roll on a wall, as if someone pushed you against a wall, either in front (arms up ideally, or over the chest), or the back (protecting the spine with the shoulder blades).

You can link kinetic chains and rolling.

More difficult rolls include dropping from the knees and rolling diagonally across the chest (face sideways!). Or roll back, and land on a diagonal across the chest from hip to opposite shoulder.

You can roll slowly, fast or have someone push you. Eyes open or closed. Breathing in, breathing out or no breath.

You can roll while people try to kick/stomp you.

There are many variations, I don't remember them all.

[I-mon]

Imon you did capoeira right? Did you do alot of rolling there?

yeah i've done a bit of capoeira, but in capoeira the rules are that only your feet, hands and head are allowed to touch the ground (it's a game, remember), so although we do a lot of rolling of the body it's more like rolling from one hand and one foot onto another hand or head or foot....

part of my mission is to combine the movement forms of the capoeira angola with the from-any-position-roll-in-any-direction-come-up-facing-any-direction freedom of the japanese jujutsu, along with all and any rolling-crawling-jumping type stuff that i've seen in the systema and chinese fuhugongfa type stuff. all of this sort of training is gold, IMO. one of the things i love the most about it is that after training these kinds of things (bagua also helps, obviously) every time i go out into deep wilderness and camp or hike or climb rock walls or trees, i'm better at it, more capable of moving around freely in an unknown natural environment into and through difficult uncomfortable terrain...just for fun, you know?

[Darthwing Teorist]

Nice!

[I-mon]

also the parkour guys look like they've got some damn fine basic training methods.