# Proper way to fall



## tcapri87 (Jan 17, 2009)

What is the proper way to fall during a mountain bike crash? Obviously everyone in mountain biking will probably fall at one point or another. What should a rider do when falling to their side or going over the bars?


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## Pezzo Twins (Feb 27, 2012)

Always roll. The faster you were going, the more rolls you'll want to do.  Sounds funny but I'm serious. You can practice a "good fall" on some soft grass in the park, but even that sounds painful now that I'm older. Luckily I did all my falling practice when I was a rubbery kid. 

Don't land square on your shoulders.

Don't put your hands/wrists out in front of you to break your fall, unless you are able to do so gently.


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## zarr (Feb 14, 2008)

Without sound obvious, make sure you always wear the proper protective gear when yo rde.(helmit,gloves, etc. Be careful for things hanging above you.(branches,etc.I read a story once about a guy that was decapitated by an overhanging branch.So learn to duck. And remember that when you go down,to remember at that moment that your bike is right behind you,tumbling it's way toward you.At that point try to get your bike away from you.Try to push it away.(mainly on downhill crashes-(endos)


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## surfmeister (Jul 10, 2006)

*Oh, Sh!t Moment*

Sometimes, there's nothing you can do, but land


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## xcguy (Apr 18, 2004)

Rolling always sounds like good advice but some can roll and some can't. I never could. I always figured I'd mess myself up more by trying to do something I can't.

It always happens so fast that you'll always be unprepared, all plans for "falling correctly" go out that split second window.

The only advice I've been able to follow is: make a fist. You'll instinctly reach out to break your fall (tough not to do) but a fist will not bend your fingers or wrist back like full fingered landing.

Other than that, just don't fall!


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## Q-Lock (Feb 10, 2012)

On Monday, I learned the hard way about not sticking my arm out to break my fall. I hyperextended my left wrist and now I'm out for a few weeks and wearing a wrist brace. Sad part is that it wasn't a bad fall at all...if I'd have kept my damn arm tucked and landed on my side I would have been fine. Lessons learned...


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## TobyGadd (Sep 9, 2009)

Pezzo Twins said:


> Always roll. The faster you were going, the more rolls you'll want to do.  Sounds funny but I'm serious. You can practice a "good fall" on some soft grass in the park, but even that sounds painful now that I'm older. Luckily I did all my falling practice when I was a rubbery kid.
> 
> Don't land square on your shoulders.
> 
> Don't put your hands/wrists out in front of you to break your fall, unless you are able to do so gently.


Yep, that's solid advice!


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## ToniZg (Sep 26, 2011)

I would put all this in the matter of luck.
I mean you can crash 100 times and not brake anything, and you can crash once and brake something..
I crashed yesterday, and I wouldnt mention unless it was a injury crash. I slightly cracked a talus bone in my right ankle. I took some clumsy fall after a jump, bike landed somehow sideways little bit out of my control and I kept bumping and jumping over the rough terrain for the next 30 feet or so with the bike between my legs and in the process ended somehow spraining my ankle against the ground. Now I am wondering if only I could have got rid of the bike while I was falling, maybe it would have been better, but whats the point


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## xcguy (Apr 18, 2004)

You can think about how you'd fall next time but the next fall will be completely different.


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## mbikerguy (Jul 16, 2011)

Tuck and roll.

It has saved my bacon many times including last week when I endo'd.

Mountain Biking - The Art of Falling - MonkeySee


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## FisherCaliber (Apr 1, 2010)

For slow speed crashes (where you have time to react) tucking in and not trying to break your fall is a good idea. 

For the high speed crash where one second you're in control and the next second you're upside down with 30 pounds of mountain bike still attached to one leg. Prayer helps.....


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## AndrwSwitch (Nov 8, 2007)

I learned to do a couple of kinds of roll when I was in high school. If I bail badly enough, I often end up doing them.

As some have noted, there's not really time to think about how to fall correctly in a faster MTB crash. I think having practiced rolling makes it somewhat instinctive, and improves my odds of not getting hurt.

About the only thing that I think is useful to think of during, or when you've figured out it's going to happen, is to try to stay loose. Falling on a rigid, outstretched arm is a classic way to do a collar bone. Fall on that same arm but let it fold and you get a bruise. Pretty big difference in consequence there. Obviously some other kinds of injury are possible, but the idea here is to try to tip the odds in your favor.


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## Andrewfuzzy (Jan 25, 2012)

Some of it is instinct ... you will fall and roll or fall and knock yourself up.....ive gone over the bars and landed on my face luckily it was dirt and i didnt break anything! thats when i got my met parachute helmet ... dont want to do that again! 

Right or wrong i try and think ahead while riding look for the places to step off or fall if its a tricky section.....but....as mentioned above sometimes its all too quick.

We fall every day doing things so trivial sometimes we are just unlucky


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## swade123 (May 14, 2012)

Pick a line and stick to it no matter what. Second guessing is the easiest way to fall.

Using your legs and arms for a hard mid speed crash is okay if you can allow them to collapse. Picked that skill up after years of playing goalie. You will probably break something if you dont understand how to do that. The meaty part of your shoulder provides excellent contact absorbtion and lets you slide a bit. Your camelback and helmet provide EXCELLENT protection in mid-speed and even high speed to some degree.

High speed crashes is all about your reactions. Jump off and bail and try to keep moving? Tuck and roll? I think you just want to keep jagged rocks and trees away from your thighs and face. Major contusions and breakage are the big worries here. If you come out with a broken rib, arm, finger, toe, foot, etc. you will prob live. Bad enough injury to thigh or face and you may not. Thigh can hold over a quart of blood without you even noticing, so be careful with internal blood loss. 

I actually enjoy a good wreck once in a while. Check out my thigh bruise pics. Its been months and still not fully healed. I think the muscle, nerves, and vessels exploded when i wrapped my leg around a tree.

Practice diving on grass or dirt and it will get you used to moving around in the air and positioning your body for clean impact.


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## eshew (Jan 30, 2004)

Arms bent at a 45* angle. Whatever you do don't try and save yourself with your hands. Use your forearms and roll it you're hitting at an angle/


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## BruceBrown (Jan 16, 2004)

mbikerguy said:


> Tuck and roll.
> 
> It has saved my bacon many times including last week when I endo'd.


Bingo!

You might still get injured, but it will mitigate what it can. I tucked and rolled and still hit my head hard, broke 2 teeth, broke a rib, separated my right shoulder and pulled enough muscles in my neck to give me some pretty nasty whiplash. Had I stuck my arm out - who knows what the result would have been.


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## bisicklay (Jul 16, 2011)

I'll support what eshew said, and add that if you can bring your forearms over your chest, you'll reduce the chance that you'll injure your shoulders or wrists. It's "tuck and roll" I guess. 
I had an awesome BMX coach growing up, and he'd run "falling drills" once a week: one at a time, we'd tear around the track, and bail from the bike, pulling our arms to our chest, rolling like tumbleweeds. It taught me to react that way to a fall. If you don't mind looking like a complete idiot, you might take an old banger bike out to a field, and try it...Though I certainly can't advise it. Heh.

[Now, about twenty years later, I never had a serious upper-body fall injury until a couple weeks ago--on a v. aggressive DH turn, didn't have time to pull my right elbow in, landed on it, and posterior subluxed the shoulder. It went back into socket after about a minute of calming, but I'm struggling with it now--none of the doctors I've seen seem to know how to deal with posterior subluxation PT.]


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## Uphill=sad (Dec 8, 2011)

Take up gymnastics or a martial art like judo or Aikido, you'll learn to fall well and it will become a habit.

They train to fall and roll, it's amazing the falls they get up from with no injuries.


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## ALBM (Jan 16, 2012)

Learn too "Rag Doll". It consists of learning too turn your brain off and just go completely limp. Drunk drivers usually don't get hurt as much because their relaxed, the body will bend around objects if it is not tensed up, when you tense up, you get hurt. I learned the skill of Rag Doll from racing motorcycles (dirt track, road race) and it has served me well while riding pedal bikes.


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## KAriadne (Sep 14, 2011)

bisicklay, I can't imagine throwing myself from my bike on purpose at my age now. I'm very glad I did Judo in college!


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## teamhaymaker (Mar 21, 2012)

run and jump off high things to learn how to react when youre hitting the ground.
I used to jump off high rooftops and bailed alot on my BMX so its basically instinct to me now, but the tuck and roll was learned strictly from jumping from high places


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