• Thursday, November 19th, 2009
We had a question in class about rolling over hard surfaces. When teaching rolling we usually separate it into two parts.
The first part is the roll and the second is getting to ground to roll. They should be learned in this order even though they are done in the reverse order.
For a forward shoulder roll start with one knee on the ground and think about bringing a hand, your head and shoulders back and under the opposite hip to facilitate the roll instead of pushing your hips over your shoulders with your legs.
When I first started we used to practice on ice to make sure we were doing it correctly. If you push your feet will slip out and you can hit your head (speaking from experience unfortunately). If you slide your hand (palm down) back along the surface behind you it will eventually bring your shoulder blade gently down and then your hips will naturally fall over your shoulders to complete the roll. If you understand this idea of bringing the shoulders back under the hips you can actually roll up hill.
For a back shoulder roll begin on the ground rocking back and forth holding your knees with your legs and feet apart from each other. This widens the surface area on the back that is in contact with the ground so as not to put pressure on the spine. The opposite would be to hold your legs together which pushes the vertebrae out and is very dangerous.
As you rock back and forth relax your back muscles. When you want to roll pull the knee on that side over your shoulder, breath out and allow your knee and hips to fall over your shoulders naturally.
In both directions you are not rolling like a ball as much as you are allowing one part of your body to touch the ground and allowing the rest of you to ease over that part.
Getting to the ground to do a roll, forward or backward, is where most people make the mistakes that get them hurt. On the forward roll people will start to duck their head into the roll much too early, causing them to lean forward and fall from too high of a position. Instead drop your hips keeping your chin up until your hands can touch the ground. You’ll end up in a squat looking like a frog with your hands touching the ground between your knees. From there it is much easier to slide a hand and go into the roll.
On backward rolls, whether you are stepping back with a foot or sliding a foot forward, you want to lean forward with your chest as if you were doing a hamstring stretch. As you drop your hips move behind the supporting leg. If you lean forward it counter balances your weight to relieve pressure on that leg and give you more control over the drop.
When you can do these well there is little to no impact as you reach the ground, which allows you to be able to roll over many more surfaces. Remember to take it slow and safe.
