Falling well and melting into the ground

A senior resolves not to fall in 2019.

Lots of friends shared this Globe and Mail first person account of falling. It’s a moving piece and it got me thinking about falling, again. I’ve blogged lots about it. I’ve also blogged about fear of falling and its bad effects, since moving less out of fear is also really bad for us as we age.

So much of the emphasis in commentary is on not falling. And I get that. There’s lots we can do to avoid falling: strength training, balance work, etc. We can also wear boots with grippy things on the sole, put snow tires on our bikes, shovel and salt our walkways.

We can also work on strengthening our bones so that when we do fall, we’re less likely to break things.

And yet, sometimes falling is inevitable.

Then it’s important to know how to fall well.

Most of us do things that make falling worse. We stiffen up. We brace ourselves. We try to put off falling as long as possible. We stick out our arms to break our fall. These things make it more likely that we’ll break something.

What to do instead? Relax. Get low to the ground so you’re not falling from a great height. Imagine yourself gently melting into the ground. Curl yourself into a ball. Weirdly, embrace the fall. I’m going to fall with style!

How do you learn this? Muscle memory, practise. You don’t need to be a black belt rock star in a martial art. Go get a yellow belt and practise falling. I went to Aikido the other Sunday for the first time in a couple of years. I was happy to find that I still fell softly on the mats. That class I fell dozens of times. In an advanced class it might be hundreds.

Or take out some mats at the gym and fall and get back up again. Repeat each time you’re there.

Akido isn’t just for young people. See. Here’s a story about a dojo just for older women. The photo below is from that story.