How Break Falling Saved My Life

Speaker 1: The life skills we can learn from Judo, how break falling has saved my life. More than once, Joe. Oh, really? Yeah, I uh You're so you're talking about off the mats. I'm talking in like, yeah, day-to-day life, how learning how to fall has kind of probably stopped me from dying or serious uh disability and dismemberment. A couple of those moments myself. Tell me tell me about a recent break fall. Okay, so I've been doing strongman training on the weekend. So I do my normal training during the week, and there's a big fella named Bradman. He's uh I saw him on Instagram. He's a big guy. He's huge in it. 6'6. Thing is about 150 kilos. Second strongest human in all of Australia. Open elite strongman, fucking strong. Anyway, he had us doing a thing called a continental clean, which is you've got an axle bar, so it's very hard to actually do a proper clean as you would with a normal Olympic bar. So typically, the big thick thick bar. Thick bar, the big boys will park it on their belly and then kind of kind of kip it up from there to the chest to press it. I don't really have a belly, thankfully. I got like an ab I got an ab belly. If I relax my posture, ah, it's coming once I go up to 110 kilos. No, so uh typically folks who are slimmer use a belt. You kind of pull it up, park it on the belt, and you do the clean. Yeah. I have never done this before in my life. And I didn't want to look bad in front of the boys. Cuz I was like, nah, I got to I got to hold it down. Anyway, I had no idea really what I was doing. And so it's it's 110 kilos. Uh I I'd done some lighter weights and I felt okay, but I I barely got this up to the belt and I was like, I got to heft, I have to flip, yoink, hoist this mother up. But I went too hard. So, it's from here, I've gone, and I almost ate the bar. So I was like, So I'm falling backwards and the bar is absolutely coming for my face. So, there is Olympic plates on the bar. The bar is thicker, and I was on an angle. So the the bar could have fallen on my knee. It could have easily hit me in the face, but as I fell, I just forgot I just totally didn't wasn't worried about everyone watching. I just like, fuck this. As I fell, I pushed the bar away and I turned to try and like break fall. So it was a bit of a side break fall. Needless to say, I did get, you know, the kind of judo chop like the side slap, but I landed on my hip so hard, bro. It was just like, everybody went, ooh, you know, when you see something, even on video, you're like, ooh, that fuck that hurt. I landed so hard on my hip, but because I landed on my hip and I did the kind of side break fall, I didn't land on my spine, I didn't crack my tailbone, like Yeah. Even though it was kind of a little bit embarrassing, a bit painful at the time, everybody came over like, fuck, dude, are you okay? I was like, I'm fine. I don't I'm fine. Just got up. No, no, shake it off, shake it off. It was fine. Anyway, I didn't eat the bar. I actually didn't sustain any serious injury other than I kind of bruised my my side ass cheek. Bruised your ass. Bruised my ass, not my asshole. So, yeah, it was it was okay. It could have been a lot worse. Yeah. Because in my head, as soon as I was like, fuck, I'm falling, I immediately thought about how do I break this fall? You had an aerial awareness in that moment. Yeah, it was just a split second of get the bar as far away from you as possible, but then also don't eat shit completely. Because it it occurred to me like, okay, I'm going down. Just in it's just it's a split split second thing. And I've had other times where I've tripped or I've I've just kind of misstepped and immediately I don't necessarily like reach, but I'm like tucking the shoulder or going to the next thing. Yeah. Have you had a situation, Joe, where the break fall saved you from eating shit? Um, or can you think of a time when you've incorporated that kind of movement into life? Yeah, the break fall specifically, no. Um, what I what I have incorporated into defending myself in a life situation against gravity is a forward roll. Okay, yeah. Or rolling generally. But I remember once I was um I was in Centennial Park and I was I had my skateboard and I was like hammering at home. I'd gone to meet some friends there. And then I was hammering at home and I was just booting it down this this road. There was no cars on there at the time. And I was like, it's like a short longboard, so it goes really fast. Yeah. And uh I was you know, I was I was going really fast. Relatively flat and then I just hit like a a tree, cedar or nut or something. And it literally just went And it skateboard just stopped and I went and I got pitched and I I just remember flying through the air. Oh my God. And I just went I just went into a shoulder roll and then came up on my feet. Whoa. And I was like, Oh my God. That was fucking sick. And I and I looked around and there was no one there. Oh, no one. And I was like, fuck, that was that was some Jackie Chan shit. Wow. Yeah. Amazing. Um cuz I was just going to face plant, you know, so it was just a question of just like tucking the chin and you know, bringing the shoulder over. Yeah. Um so like that that side of like the jit stuff has served me well in in quite a few occasions. Yeah. Or even even being in the gym and like yeah, whatever like dropping a bar or something and and you know, I've I've fucked around with a bit of parkour and whatnot over the years. Sure. That sort of thing has come into it. But break falling, I've always had a bit of a um I don't know if I quite trust it for myself. Fair. Because when I did, remember I told you I did that sambo coaches course years ago. Yes. That's to be a certified instructor. That's right. And uh I'm a level one sambo coach, whatever that means. Who knew? Under some kind of New South Wales Federation that probably doesn't exist anymore, but I have the certificate. But he was like, he was on his bedroom wall. Dimitri was like, no, no, no break fall. And someone was like, why? Cuz it's all people like, why? And he's like, you're flying through the air, you put your arm out, hit the ground. He said, it's very common you can you can land on your hand, break your arm. He said, no, we we just tuck into a ball. Like if you're going down, you just sort of protect yourself. And and I was like, I can actually see the I can see the relevance. The break fall is great if you've got the timing. But if you pre-empt that shit and put your arm in the wrong place, could be a fucking snapped elbow there. Yeah, but I think that's a misunderstanding on his behalf of what a break fall is. Like in judo, they definitely they they teach you not to put your arm out. Right. That's a mistake. You will not get punished, but like the coach will be like, what are you doing? Like you don't post. You definitely like it's more that you're trying to distribute the impact. However you do that, right? But if but there's a timing piece in that, isn't there? Yeah, definitely, which is the skill. Like there is skill to that. And yeah, you might break your wrist. But it's better than breaking your neck. Yeah. I think this is the this is the trade. In those situations where you're like, oh my God, I could totally just fucking break my face here. And like you said, the the idea of the kind of chin tuck and the shoulder roll, that that's in judo too, right? And they they do variations of that. I think it's also around the idea that you don't want to get KO'd when you hit the ground. Yeah. Because then if it's a fight, well you're dead, right? Like if we throw it back to kind of older times where if you were to come in with the sword and they were to shoulder throw you, if you were just KO'd in that spot, then you're getting ganked. Yeah. It's game over. Uh, I but how about this? Stop wasting money on useless sports drinks that do not help your hydration for BJJ. You know what you need? You need Sody. Sody is the perfect blend of sodium, potassium, and magnesium. These things are what they call electrolytes, which keeps the water in your muscles to keep them working for better rolling. Now, they have all the flavors of the rainbow. It is the chef's kiss of electrolytes. And when you use the code bulletproof15 at checkout, you go to sody, S O D I I dot com dot au, you get 15% off. So not only do we save you money, but you also get the best product out there. Go to sody dot com dot au and get it today. In competition, you've been you've been thrown in competition? Yes. Rarely, but it's happened. Did you break fall? Yeah. Or do you just eat it cuz you're still trying to keep your grips and keep fighting? Well, no, it's it's I guess it there's two parts to that. You do at a critical point with which you're being thrown, you don't you don't have much say in what comes next. If you're an expert, you might turn slightly so you don't get landed straight on your back. But even that elite level pros do. It's when you get thrown clean, it's not that bad. You might get a bit winded. Getting thrown clean is actually great. It's when you get thrown a bit ugly and you like you land a bit off, that's when it gets a bit kind of that's when it's fuckery and that's where you get injuries, get spiked, land hard in a bad spot, them and your weight, etc. Yeah. So, in that way, I I think the familiarity with being thrown and being comfortable with not having that fear reaction of putting out your arm, you're more likely to go with it in in whatever controlled way you can, so you're actually less likely to get injured. I fuck, was Merengali break falling against Michael Pixley? Bro. I don't know what Merengali was doing. Did he dislocated it? I think he just he he was Did he move to another planet? I've not seen shit from that guy ever since that ADCC. Maybe he just got a personal coach. He said, hey man, stop talking about your 17-year-old girlfriend, all right? Like that don't play in certain states in America, okay? Like no, I I think there has I don't know what's going on with him. But uh yeah, I mean maybe he's maybe he's training judo now. Who knows? He needs it. But um I mean I've had similar experiences to you with the the forward roll with the the skate where I I literally just not been paying attention, I tripped, and then it was like the ground was rushing up at me. Yeah. And in that moment, I went shoulder tuck and pulled out a roll and it and was like, fuck, am I a ninja now? Like if I just have I just graduated to some new plane of skill? Michael Dudikoff skill. Fucking get at me, Segal. I just need some fucking throwing stars and shit. Um it it's one of those things that if you've trained it, I think the key thing is if you don't ignore it, if you accept that falling on the ground is part of grappling and you practice it, it's not something you can think of in the moment. It just it happens. You just you have to react so fast. Yeah, yeah. And so another reason why this came up is like, so my this is why I think it's valuable in life. I mean, my parents are getting older. I am concerned about them tripping and falling. Yeah. And getting up and up and down up or off the ground is a is its own skill. Even though we take it for granted, getting off the couch, getting up off the ground, but you know when you feel pretty sore, or let's say you've been sitting and your coach is talking for a while and you go to get up, you go, oh, I've sit the adrenaline's worn off, you're a bit stiff. Getting up the other night, getting I was like, oh the old knees. Yeah, the knees, the ankles that you're like, oh I've sat cross-legged for too long. Yeah. It it can be uncomfortable. You know, when you get to your 60s and 70s, your reaction time slows down. So falling and knowing how to fall is actually like quite a good skill. And so I saw a video where Eugene Teo was talking about his mom had a fall. And so what he wanted to do is teach her how to fall. So she doesn't just smash her head or break her hip. So even though you might get some bruising, it's not going to turn into like a surgery level problem. Yeah. And I think this is a huge value for a lot of folks. Even though people like, oh, I don't train judo and man, it's too traditional. I I think all people should do a certain amount of training with break falls and also being thrown. Like just getting familiar with not fighting it and going with it is actually uh finding a way to just at that last second turn yourself so you don't break your neck is very important. You know, I think um I reckon that like a very cuz I have the similar concern for my parents. more so my dad cuz my mom's got my mom's got really good mobility. And therefore, like good flexibility, therefore, good strength, better control. Moves better. Yeah. Yeah, dad not so much. Um I think that the benefit of jiu-jitsu or judo for them would actually just be getting used to doing something on the floor other than walking on it. Yeah. This is the problem for the West is that the we only walk on the floor. We don't sit on it. We don't sit, we don't we don't kneel, we don't you know, yeah. And so as a result, our relationship with it is pretty it's pretty non-existent. Yeah. So this is, you know, and so this like like my old man has a hard time getting down cuz his wrists don't have the flexibility, right? Yeah. Whereas if he lived in a if we lived in a culture where you do a lot of things on the floor, that naturally would have he would have naturally nourished that range of motion through his hands and shit to get up and down. Yeah. And, you know, it is a soft mat that we use in jiu-jitsu and judo and whatnot, but you're on the ground, you're standing up, you're on the ground. You get that practice in. Yeah. And and they have shown that for longevity, your ability to get up off the ground unassisted really determines how long you live. So they have it's it's it's got its own score. If you can get up off the ground without using your hands within a certain amount of time, that will predict your longevity. But the more points of assistance you need to get up off the floor and the longer it takes you, this will predict that your um overall life like all cause mortality will be higher. So, I think there's a massive other than the comical, lucky no one was recording, the comical outcomes of me just fucking eating shit at strongman training, save myself in the last second. If, you know, I not that I'm going to be taking my parents to judo, but definitely what I have done more recently is I've said, all right, you guys, all right, on the floor. Now, pick one foot up, put one foot down. Like just hip stuff. Yeah. Use the couch, don't use the couch. Yeah. Can you kneel? Can you squat? Like I and I'm not trying to throw it in their face. I'm just saying, No, it's I know you don't want to go to the gym, but it's like, yeah, like it's we don't have to do yoga, but like how about a bit of a like a This is This is what they would pay big money for or the government would pay for an occupational therapist to do. Which is what will happen once they have a fall and someone breaks a wrist or God forbid breaks a hip. Yeah. And then it's like, then then they'll listen, right? And I know the same with my dad. Yeah. You know, it's like, now he'll listen cuz it's like, cuz the stats show that if you fall and break a hip, your chance of dying in the next five years goes up by like fucking 80%. You know, like it's pretty significant. Yes. Um so yeah, that's the coolest shit for you to be doing with your with your parents. Yeah, and you know, I'm pretty overbearing. I mean, I try to be I was soften them up. Make them some breakfast. I mean, they produced you, so. Cup of tea. I am a byproduct. I I always say to them, You reap what you sow. That's right. I am the son of your contributed like sum total of your stubbornness, so it's revisited upon you. Tough shit, mom and dad. Yeah. I saw this mad meme, which was like a woman who's like, she's like, me reading my parents' blood work the same way they used to read my report card. You know, it's for your own good. I fucking told you. So, yeah, I I I think there's a huge value in it. So, look, as much as people might say different things about judo and tradition, I think um if you haven't done any judo or you haven't practiced doing falls, it's it's it's it's very valuable. It does help in day-to-day life, but I think it's going to overall reduce injury in in your grappling too. Boss, boss. Awesome. Cool.