Topic: Rolls - Keeping Momentum

[urbanparkourdude]

Over the last year of me doing parkour, I have done it in different places and drilled the move ment now I know how to do must of the moves. I love jumping off things and landing and rolling but I cant landroll in sted I land_____roll, can any one give me tips on how to landroll not land____roll. I need to  know because when I land it is buggering up the grass when it is damp and making it a painful landing and slippy landing.

[W0LF]

This sounds like a really basic answer but Repitition my friend. This doesn't mean go out and jump off a roof over and over until you get it right    LoL. That's more than a little dangerous if you can't do it right. But start by just rolling on the ground, then like jump off a picnic table and roll. You don't HAVE to roll when you jump off a picnic table, but this is at a much lower level then oh say the roof of your house, and it'll give you that landing and going into a roll right afterwords without the risk of not rolling and injuring yourself. Just keep drilling that and then slowly move to bigger drops if you want. Hope that helps ^.^

[Leon Mederos]

Assuming that you know the proper technique and you've worked your way from kneeling rolls, to standing rolls, to walking/jogging rolls then you should just practice over and over. Also try this little tip to help you get over your fear of "fluidity" I guess. Seems silly but it works 

Practice falling flat on your face ON A BED.

Then find a bigger bed and instead on falling on your face, bend your back over, stick your arms out, tuck in your head under your armpit, and roll over smoothly. Just practice practice pratice.

[Skipper]

the land ____ roll thing sounds like you are trying to absorb all downward force with stiff legs, and THEN rolling to absorb forward motion. what you should do, is when you land, continue moving downward into the roll. basically let your legs collapse, in a sense, into a roll. that way you absorb forward and downward force with a simple roll.

not sure if that makes sense or not.

[Michael Zernow]

One thing that you may be mistaking isn't the actual move of the land and roll, it's the movement before the result. Often if you do not have enough forward moementum it makes it increasingly difficult to roll, because instead of tansferring your momentum into a roll you are driving all of your force into the ground, straight down. In this case it can cause a person to land and absord then force a roll out of the straight falling motion. That's one thing you should remember, if you're doing everyhting right, at no time in parkour are you falling, you are always controllign your movement, you re jumping or vaulting, you can fly, but when you start fallign you have lostcontrol and you are headed towards either injury or in this case an sloppy landing. So try jumping out more, this should create a more natural flow for the roll since it is by nature a movemetn of forward momentum.

[Skipper]

Well put frosti... well put

[ERI104]

... i'm not sure if frosti said this but heres my input...


don't force the roll. it should come naturally. bend your knees entirely and allow yourself to kind of collapse into the roll. start off by trying it off a small ledge (Assuming you can do a sitting roll and standing roll) and then get bigger. Eventually you'll get your roll down sooo well that you'll be able to do them on concrete! but if you want to move from grass to concrete you have to start the process over again by doing the "sitting" roll (where you're crouched down ready to roll) and the standing roll before you do it from a height. You do this because you'll feel pain everytime you mess up doing your roll.

[Flippusmn]

When you land don't try to absorb anything and just let the momentum carry you forward into a roll. If you do this right you will have to work and try to not roll.

[Kipup]

"basically let your legs collapse, in a sense, into a roll. that way you absorb forward and downward force with a simple roll." - Skipper
Going with Skipper said...

Lean FORWARD when you land and sort of collapse into the roll.
Remember that landing with a roll is not the same as landing as you normally would, and then adding on a roll to disperse your horizontal momentum.

If you plan to land and roll, your body should be leaning forward so much that the only way you can successfully land is with a roll.
This leaning forward is scary untill you become comfortable with your rolls and more confident in your abilities - PRACTICE.

Did that make sense???

[Jacob Steven Battye]

Well i find roles to be fun. But i have on proplem, maybe you guys can help me. Now i can get the roll good at first but then i get back onto my feet i some how hit my lower back. Kind of like I fell on it. I think its becouse I turn to much when i role. But i really dont know

[Tyson Cecka]

just study this
http://tinyurl.com/azteu

I recently changed my rolls to match Belle's a lot more and man did it help. Almost a jump forward into it with one arm prebent so you can control it with the upper arm and shoulder.

[Flippusmn]

Thing is when you do them like that you have a better chance to bash your shoulder but it does work a bit better if you do it right.

BTW: old topic brought up by you, but you had a good reason so good call. Props

Edit: One more thing, when Belle rolls he rolls almost completely sideways which if your skinny would actually help take some impact off of your hips as it does for I. But when you do this make sure you finish up straight and not sideways but when you pass over your spine be sideways then transfer right after you cross the spine into a straight roll. Thats basically an add on the his explanation so go by both.

[antwawn]

Here's another thing that may be affecting your rolls. I find that the higher one jumps from, the faster he must run to execute a good roll and transfer momentum forward. I think that in order to roll, your forward momentum must approximately equal your downward force. For example, you should be travelling at close to or slightly greater than a 45 degree angle as you go down. That's why when you are above about a 4 foot drop, you can't roll without a running start, because you just don't have enough forward momentum to lean into a roll. If you are higher than that, and must leap from a stand, do so straight down without a roll because if you force the roll without enough forward momentum, you will either (1) collapse too quickly and downwardly, resulting in you striking your shoulder or chest harshly, or you (2) won't have room to bend your knees enough as you lean into the forced roll and land straight legged (very dangerous for joints and bones), or finally you will (3) land and absorb most of the impact in your legs and force a redundant, useless roll. I should write a full article on this with diagrams, but basically you need a good running start for drops higher than 4 feet if you want your roll to be effective. And I'm talking about experience here, because I tested this when I was under the impression that you must always roll yesterday, and I experienced all these things without any real injury, just some minor soreness in my knee later that day. Don't fear about an 8 foor jump straight down without a roll if you've trained the muscles in your legs to quickly absorb impact. Practice low and move progressively higher as always, same with jumps with rolls.

[Flippusmn]

OK OK, but yeah, you can roll without a running start. I do it all the time man. Efficiently to .

[antwawn]

Yea that's true, just adequate forward momentum. I mean check your angles because as you get too close to falling straight down, you can lean forward and move forward enough to roll without keeping your legs straight and that'll hurt. Good forward momentum is imperative for the roll, and with practice you can do it without needing a good run up.

[Flippusmn]

Exactly, I can do them standing still and leaning faward or straight down off of a building doesn't matter really, as long as you push a bit with your legs a roll will work if you know how to roll right. Thats where Belle's roll comes in handy. BTW you should always bend your legs when rolling even when you get a good fast run going because if you jump from a large height even though you roll you might still break your legs. For example watch Belle in this vid USA.Parkour. Best vids section in case you hadn't known.