A lot of times when we think about our martial art skills, we only think about them in terms of self defense or tournaments. Yet, our martial arts skills can help us in other situations as well. The skills we develop in training such as break falls, rolling, reaction time, etc. can show up outside of our martial arts.
Break falls, for example, can help us when we accidentally slip-on things. There was a judo instructor I trained with for a bit who told us how doing a forward breakfall saved him. He was walking on the sidewalk during the winter in Chicago and had slipped on some ice, and without thinking about it he did the forward breakfall from his Judo. The breakfall helped reduce a lot of the damage he would have taken had he landed on the sidewalk face first. I, myself, was saved by the backwards breakfall I learned in my Japanese Jujutsu class. When I was in college, I was leaving the one of the shared bathrooms in the dormitory. Someone must have just gotten out the shower because the floor was wet and slippery. I wasn’t paying full attention and slipped and fell. As I was falling, I reflexed and did a backwards breakfall. I had hit the floor so hard with the breakfall I ended up pushing myself back. I remember standing up, looking around, realizing I had just fell, and thinking to myself “Did I just do a breakfall?”. I then remember thinking to myself “I’m glad I practice Jujutsu”. Had I not reflexed and did that breakfall, I am sure I would have been in a lot of trouble. The thought that I could have hit the back of my head on the bathroom floor going full speed is very disturbing. I am glad I was able to use that skill I learned in martial arts to prevent a serious injury.
Rolling is another skill that has helped many martial artists outside the school. I have heard a lot of martial art stories regarding people slipping on motorcycles, bicycles, skateboards, and the like. The reason they came out of the situation without serious injury is because they had performed a forward roll. They don’t come out of the situation completely unscathed. I heard some of them ended up with injured hands and arms and someone even broke their wrist. However, in each of these stories everyone was grateful that they didn’t seriously hurt themselves and could walk away to tell their story. I had one martial artist mention that they thought they would face plant onto the ground, but as they were falling their hands just went into position and they did a forward roll, and it helped them avoid a potential serious head injury.
Both of the examples I have mentioned, the breakfalling and the rolling, are results of another skill we train a lot as martial artists, our reaction time. Being about to just react without really thinking about what we need to do helps in a lot of situations. For example, when I slipped in the bathroom like I mentioned. When I was falling, I didn’t think to myself, “Oh my gosh, I need to do a breakfall”, my body felt I was falling and just reacted accordingly. I had practiced doing breakfalls so much that in that situation it just felt natural to just do it, so I reacted without thinking about it. Our reaction time can help us in situations where we may lose our balance or need to jump out of the way of a car or someone on a bike coming at us. We are used to just letting our bodies take over and move from instinct without fully having to think about what happens. Ask any skilled martial artist that comes from an art that has forms, like Tang Soo Do, Karate, and Taekwondo; at some point in their career as a martial artist when doing a form, they just let their bodies takeover. They don’t think about each and every movement they have to do. They just flow with it. Being able to just flow and perform the best possible movements when needed is definitely a beneficial skill to have.
The point I want to make is that the skills we get from practicing martial arts aren’t just limited to the martial arts. When honed and trained enough, they will show up at other times when we need them. When developing our skills in martials arts the best we can, we help them show up outside of the arts and help us the best they can when we need them.
