The Art of the Fall

If you’ve been following me for a while, you already know that I am passionate about helping people learn how to fall. Safely. You know, without getting hurt. Falling in a way that you do not get hurt and can effortlessly pop back up to a standing position, with the only thing that gets injured is your ego.

I used to be terrified of falling. Even after 50 years of downhill skiing, I rarely, if ever, fell down. My youngest sister, who was a fantastic skier and on the Penn State ski team in college, used to push me to go faster, take more chances. She actually once asked me “Don’t you want to lose control sometimes?”

I looked at her in horror and replied, “Haven’t you met me?” Falling was simply not in my repetour, nor in my future. However, that all changed once I began my martial arts training. Every class began with a series of fifteen different rolls and breakfalls. I hated every moment of it, and simply couldn’t get the knack of falling and rolling. But opting out was not an option, not unless I wanted to quit. Which was very tempting on bad days. But I pushed through.

A few months later, I hated it less. One year later, at the age of 50, I was falling, rolling, leaping, doing cartwheels, and other sneaky ninja moves with grace and confidence. I couldn’t believe it.

Then, on a cold January day, I had a spectacular fall as I was walking out of the dojo after a day of training. One moment I was walking to my car, carrying my notebook, katana, wooden sword, water bottle, and keys. The next minute I was flat on my back, on the cement, surrounded by my classmates, terrified that I was badly injured. I wasn’t. Still on the ground, I looked around and saw everything that had been in my arms a moment earlier was scattered around me. I looked up at my fellow ninjas and said, “Did you see my breakfall?”

That story circulated through the dojo for years, along with several others, of students who saved themselves from disaster because they knew how to fall. But, I will save those stories for another day. Until then, I have another spectacular fall to share with you. One that could have ended very, very badly. But it ended well, as you will soon discover.

To be continued….