#how to fall

[nightthewing]

How to break a fall, as told by a clumsy theatre person:

The first thing you need to know is this: rigidity is the enemy. It feels natural to brace yourself for the fall, but doing so takes all of the momentum of your movement and applies it to your body directly. Have you ever heard of a drunk driver flying through a window and ending up totally fine even though they hit the asphalt hard? It was likely because they were so drunk, they did not tense when the accident happened, and their bodies were able to redirect some or all of the impact.

They tell you to roll to break your fall- this is because rolling shifts the momentum from a collision course (you meeting the ground) to something more parallel. You can also accomplish this by "bouncing"- you don't need to summersault from a leap, you can just let your body follow the momentum it naturally wants to take. If you've ever fallen on your back, you know that what your legs want to do in that moment is fly up- let them! This will help take the strain of the impact off your shoulders/back and make it less likely that you'll slam your head into the ground with the full force of your fall. If you've ever seen someone do a dead drop in a comedy, you've probably seen this type of fall. It's a basic principle of motion- every action has an equal opposite reaction. In this case, it means that for every unit of force you enact upon the thing you hit, the thing will enact that same force on you. So, if you're able to shift your momentum with a roll, you're lessening the force you're enacting on the ground, and subsequently lessening the force the ground is enacting on you. Science!

So, now we're at two things to remember when falling: don't tense, and roll/follow the movement through to lessen the impact. You're fortunate in that not tensing often lends itself to your body following the movement on its own- it then becomes your job to ensure you're doing so safely.

Which brings us to point three: protect your head and neck!! Rolling is all well and good, but the single most important thing to remember when trying to break a fall is that your neck is fragile and breaking it can kill you instantly. If you can, put your arms behind your head before you hit the ground to absorb the impact instead of your skull. If you can't, make sure to be conscious of how you're moving and where you're moving- if your legs want to go up, don't let them go up and over your head to the point that your neck is forced at an awkward angle. This is the point where tensing can actually help you, if you tense your shoulders at a strategic point in your impact you can gain a little bit of air and twist your body to avoid breaking your neck. You can also tuck your head to try and mitigate problems.

Now, these three things pretty much cover the basics of how to break a fall. But reflex is pretty hard to override, and you might find yourself struggling not to tense or brace for an impending fall. There's only one solution to this problem that I've discovered: practice.

Let me amend that statement. Practice *carefully*.

Get a mat or mattress and put it on the floor. Be aware if you have downstairs neighbors and try to do it somewhere that is less likely to call the cops on you for all the thudding. If you use a mat, make sure it's at least an inch thick- no yoga mats. The goal here is to use something with enough give that even a hard fall won't really hurt. Then, stand near your mat and practice falling onto it. The more times you fall, the better an understanding you'll gain of how to move your body to avoid a fall. But don't practice too much in a single session- you might give yourself a compound injury, especially if you land on a specific body part every time (your hip, for example).

And now you have it: how to fall without hurting yourself!

There are of course more advanced techniques- it looks a little silly to be flailing and bouncing all over the place when you fall, so there's another kind of dead drop that is much less dramatic, but it's also less suited to stopping yourself from being injured during an unplanned fall because it's largely about the *way* you fall, which can be hard to manipulate depending on what unbalanced you. If you're able, another way to reduce stress on your body is to fall in increments- let your knees hit the ground first, followed by your hips, then your side, then your shoulders, and you can usually get an arm under your head to prevent an impact there. Planned stage falls often apply this method, especially in dramas and tragedies, because nobody wants to see Juliet's legs fly up when she falls dead of poison- it breaks the immersion. It can be hard to slide into a fall like this naturally, but with practice it can become second nature. And don't focus so hard on staying down that you tense too much- it's okay if your legs bounce a little bit when you go down. That would happen to a dead body if you dropped it, so it's realistic.

And there you have it! You can now break a fall.

On my hands and knees begging adults to allow children to engage in risk play.

And by risk play I don't mean handing them a gun and playing Russian Roulette.

I mean like climbing trees, getting so sick spinning on the swing they throw up, balancing on the curb, sitting in the mud, walking on slippery surfaces, building half ass ramps to ride their bike over, standing on rocks, or anything that involves a smidgen of confidence and out of the box thinking that could result in injury.

Obviously like watch your kids and such, but when we talk about the fun of being an 80s or 90s kid, it's not just talking about CDs and Walkmans or not having iPads. It's about how kids today were robbed of critical learning and experience skills we were allowed to have.

Playgrounds disappearing, helicopter parents, and sue culture really destroyed a child's development in the United States, and I think it's about time we as adults recognize that, because the kids sure have.

[razzafrazzle]

Just Checking In! (aka Something About Red Triangles)

[rasairui]

Okay I know I posted the first one already but it's a collection now. Anyway don't you ever get so tired of this

[onewhoturns]

I was thinking through what else I’m looking forward to this holiday season and I realized I haven’t mentioned it on here, just on discord, but— MY MOMS BEEN MAKING ME A REALLY COOL ART THING??

I think I’ve talked about it before, but my mom has been a quilter for most of my life and in the last few years started doing these really cool fabric collages, and it was my turn to request one so I asked for a phoenix cause I’m obsessed with this one art piece I did in art therapy ages ago

Anyway, my mom has been working on it and THIS was the last update I got???

I’m so excited for it?? Can’t wait to see where it’s at by the time I get there this weekend

[l0verseyes]

HAPPY HALLOWEEN! 🎃👻

[doctorsiren]

More on that AU where Ford takes Stanley with him to Gravity Falls…I realized they’re kind of like the Winchesters if one of the Winchesters was autistic about cryptids

[wormspoodle]

compiled some things

[stemmmm]

bad youtube clickbait thumbnail that reads "I think I just had a therapy session with a DEMON???"

[jasontoddsguns]

“Boromir apologist” he doesn’t have anything to apologize for????? He fell victim to evil ringTM like once. and then immediately redeemed himself. Guys come on.

[rejoiceinsilverlight]

i think mabel somehow finds a picture of stan and ford's prom outfits and goes ham recreating the suits for her and dipper's prom

[fly-chicken]

A Pragmatic and surprisingly comforting perspective about the Trump 2nd Presidency from the ACLU

***Apologies if this is how you found out the 2024 election results***

Blacked out part is my name.

I’m not going to let this make me give up. It’s disheartening, and today I will wallow, probably tomorrow too

AND

I will continue to do my part in my community to spread the activism and promote change for the world I want to live in. I want to change the world AND help with the dishes.

And I won’t let an orange pit stain be what stops me from trying to be better.

A link to donate to the ACLU if able and inclined. I know I am

[unsung-idiot]

some quick drawings of little Soos I made a while ago

[skipppppy]

This has to be an AU already right? I’ve never seen it. I’m doing it. My city now

The angst potential alone haunts me. How long do you think he waited for Ford?? When did it start to sink in that nobody was coming to save him, that nobody would miss him? Would anybody even want him back? How long did it take for his anger, his heartbreak, his grief to turn into acceptance and a belief that this was divine retribution? How long did he work, how many jobs did he take, how much wealth did he accrue, how many brushes with death did he have until he believed he’d “earned” the right to go home and see his brother?? Many such questions. I need to go deeper

[phantom-shell]

Fiddleford found one of his old shirts

[httyd-art-requests]

He's doing very important research

( @caps-clever-girl thank you for the hilarious tags, I giggled out loud when I saw them)

[ID in alt text]

(Part 1) (Part 2)

[pppuri]

you and me and the devil makes three