How to fall safely, fight on your back, and get up quick.
If you happen to fall during a fight you had better trained your response ahead of time or else wind up getting kicked and stomped out.
Fall, Fight, and Get Up Quick
Even if you have done everything right with proper stance and footwork there is always a chance that something could cause you to trip, lose your balance, and fall.
And if you wind up on your back you could be in a world of trouble.
You have 3 primary objectives to prepare for and train:
- Falling Safely
- Fighting on Your Back / Creating Space
- Getting Up Quick
How to Fall Safely
Falling is one of the top causes of death in the world. Primarily from the head hitting the ground. In our case we probably just don’t want to get knocked silly or out cold. So objective number 1 is don’t hit your head. We also don’t want to injure or break any bones or joints such as the wrist or acromioclavicular joint in the shoulder.
So here are some rules to follow:
- Land above your butt pockets – To avoid landing on your tailbone, tuck your tailbone like a dog tucking its tail between its legs (pelvic posterior tilt).
- Round your spine and roll – absorb the landing like a gymnast.
- Tuck your chin – always pretend there is a sidewalk curb behind your head so you will tuck it extra tight.
- Gently slap the ground right as your low to mid back comes into contact with the ground. This helps dissipate the impact of your body slamming into the ground.
How to Fight From Your Back
Once you have fallen your attacker will likely either try to get on top of you and start punching or they will try to kick and stomp you while you are down.
Additionally grappling might be fine and dandy when it is a fair one-on-one fight but if you have multiple attackers you need to get the hell up ASAP.
Here are some tips to fighting on your back:
- Keep your feet between you and your attacker – keep your head away from them.
- Chamber your dominant leg to kick out.
- Use a horizontal foot angle as this creates a perpendicular angle to their vertical leg so it is less likely to harmlessly slip off as you smash them in the knee.
- Keep your other leg planted to the ground so you can use it to spin. Your attacker will no doubt try to get around your legs so you need to be able to pivot quickly.
- Attach your chambered horizontal foot to your plant leg’s shin. This blocks your groin from a kick.
- Kick out at their knees, groin, head, and whatever you can get to. You can generate some pretty good force from here so smash away and recover quickly.
- Once they are injured or simply move back due to hesitation you have a chance to get up… QUICKLY!
How to Get Up Quick
There is no time to stumble around getting up. Just assume a punch, kick, tackle, or whatever is on the way in as you are getting up.
Steps for a quick get up:
- Plant your left foot and right hand as seen in the photo
- Lift your hips and pass your bent right leg underneath and behind you
- Make sure you pass it far enough back that you wind up in a wide stance that is about 1 ½ to 2 times your shoulder width. Remember you might need to be dug in to stop a tackle. A narrow stance will cause you to get barreled over and you will be right back on the ground.
- Keep your free arm outstretched to block in case you miscalculated how much time you had to get up.
- Land in your fighting stance.
- A cool tip, you can use momentum to hop backwards as you pass the leg underneath you. This gives you some more free space and thus a little more time.
Final Thoughts
This should be a fairly regular drill you do because if you need to do it… you will REALLY need to do it! You don’t want to be trying to remember how to fall or get up quick in the middle of HOLY SH*T!
Until next time,
Brian
