Topic: How Do You Roll?

[Jordan Strybos]

Hadn't seen that vid. Thanks for posting. I roll left shoulder to right hip and when I come out of it, my left foot tends to hit the ground very hard. I guess I should just be fine tuning it until I can get my feet under me better right? I also have a problem where, at the point where my spine is on the ground, I basically skid a little bit. How should I enter the roll so that I don't have all the extra momentum causing me to skid?

For your foot problem, you pretty much just need to tweak your roll and foot placement slowly and safely until you find something that's comfortable. Just try to be extra-aware of your foot positioning at the moment when your feet come around and touch the ground again for the first time. As for the skidding, it sounds like you might just be rolling a little inefficiently...are you balled up as much as you can be? If you aren't properly tucked, your back could be somewhat flattened, which would cause you to slide a little bit with all of the forward momentum. Hope this helps!

[Bandito]

Thanks Jordan. I was able to pretty much fix the foot problem while I was training today. There's still an impact, but it's not as jarring as it was. I'm still skidding a little on my back, but I read in one of the other rolling threads that I may be coming out of the roll too soon. I'm glad I'm training on grass right now and not concrete Just curious, how long is the typical learning curve for the roll? 2 or 3 weeks? I'm just trying to judge where I'm at.

[Belhade]

What if I don't have hardly any meat in either place? I'm really skinny honestly, so should I wait until I muscle up there? How would I do so for the hip? Or am I just doing it wrong?? 

I'm pretty skinny too, and I don't have  much problem rolling. Sometime I go over my hip bone which sucks, but other than that it's pretty smooth. Just takes practice. Figure out which side you roll better on - for whatever reason I roll better left shoulder to right hip (as a right-hander).

[Jordan Strybos]

Just curious, how long is the typical learning curve for the roll? 2 or 3 weeks? I'm just trying to judge where I'm at.

Honestly, you can never stop perfecting your roll. That being said, it shouldn't take too terribly long to get used to the basic form, so I think a reasonable answer to the question you're asking is somewhere between 2-4 weeks...