Topic: Eliminating Roll Bruises

[Othniel]

I haven't posted on this forum pretty much ever, although I have been practicing for a while, so this is new for me. 

I thought I would put together a visual on common places where people bruise when rolling.  I know when I was learning to roll, I kept bruising myself every time I tried the roll on concrete, and it took a while of trial and error to solve the problem.  I assume others, especially those starting out, have similar problems with the roll, so I put this diagram together to help.

The areas marked in red are areas I commonly bruised myself when I was still learning proper technique to the roll.  However, in a roll with correct technique, all of these areas will not come in direct contact with the surface, eliminating the potential for bruising.

The green line is just a generalization of where your back is making contact with the ground.  Note, this is showing a roll where you are tucking with the right shoulder, obviously... so if you tuck the left shoulder, just reverse everything.



If you have not done so already, I would suggest looking at the roll tutorial (http://www.americanparkour.com/content/view/264/177/) because I am assuming you already understand the basic principles of the roll.

The first area I commonly bruised was the red area on the shoulder, which is the scapula.  If you are bruising this area, you are most likely not tucking enough going into your roll.  You should land below and to the left of the scapula, on the muscular part of your back.  In addition to the tucking, I found that an exaggerated sweeping of the right arm towards the left leg helped immensely to solve the shoulder bruising problem.

Also, I found that one of the vertebrae in the lower back sticks out when in a hunched (or roll) position.    On the pelvis, the inner edge is also easily bruised as it sticks out.  If you are bruising any of these points, it means that your roll is not diagonal enough across your back. 

Finally, the top portion of the femur, right below the hip can also bruise when finishing a roll.  You want to be coming out of the roll on the outer meaty part of your butt, making sure to no make surface contact with the bone.

I am sure you can bruise alot more areas if your roll is a mess, but I can't help if you are doing a belly flop, or face plant etc.   I hope this helps anyone who is having trouble with the roll.  Later.

[Andy Keller]

Very nice job man! I'm sure this will help some new traceurs not get injured!

+1

[crazyted]

"Finally, the top portion of the femur, right below the hip can also bruise when finishing a roll.  You want to be coming out of the roll on the outer meaty part of your butt, making sure to no make surface contact with the bone."

Nice Post, lately I have been having trouble with this spot.. How do you change your roll to come up on the outer meaty part? Like you said for your shoulder you tuck more, how to change your roll so that you come up on the meaty part?

Thanks

[Othniel]

Crazyted, i'll try to answer your question as best I can, I might have to throw together some visuals when I have time, but see if this helps at all...

One thing that might solve this problem is making sure as your coming out of the roll, right when you are hitting the top of your femur, to notice the spread of your legs.  Or more importantly, the spread of your left leg(assuming your rolling by tucking the right shoulder).  It's possible that when you are hitting your femur, you left leg is too spread out, and needs to be rotated in slightly.

For example, when you do the butterfly stretch (which spreads your legs apart), you'll notice that the top of your femur touches the ground slightly, bring your legs in a little bit more, and your femur no longer makes contact with the ground.

So try to keep your left leg in a little bit more and see if that helps...

Also, if your roll could be slightly too diagonal, it can still feel fine on the shoulders and the back, but when you continue in the roll, it hits the top of the femur.  So going a tad bit less diagonal across your back.  You need to find the right angle so you still miss your pelvis/vertabrae while avoiding your femur.   If you don't know how to go less diagonal across your back ask, cause my brain hurts right now to explain it. 

Most likely, a combination of the two might help.  Just experiment around, because everyone's roll is slightly different.  I could go into more detail... but it's late and i'm not thinking straight, so tell me if that helps... and if anyone else has any better/other suggestions speak up...

[Unique]

+1 also nice tutorial wish I had this when I was starting out.

[Muse_of_Fire]

*applause*

[Warpigs330]

could you go into a little more detail regarding the pelvis bruise area, I always hit that and feel like if I do it much more diagonally I will come up too far to the side.

[Andy Animus Tran]

could you go into a little more detail regarding the pelvis bruise area, I always hit that and feel like if I do it much more diagonally I will come up too far to the side.

Lay on the ground, your legs up as if you are coming out of a roll.  Pivet along the area around your hip where you would come up.  Basically, just roll up to your feet from this position as you would normally ina  roll.  Repeat the small movement and get a feel for where you will need to roll up to have contact with the MUSCLE of the small of your back instead of rolling on your iliac crest (hip bone).

[Leon Mederos]

+1 This is a very helpful visual. Mind popping in a few more visuals with a few more problem solving tips and submitting it as an article?!

[crazyted]

Thanks

[Othniel]

+1 This is a very helpful visual. Mind popping in a few more visuals with a few more problem solving tips and submitting it as an article?!

I have some more info for fixing roll problems etc, but I have no clue how to edit my existing post, or submitting it as an article.  This is probably a stupid question, but how do I do that?

[Matthew Lee Willis]

HEHEH, roll correctly.

[Donotfeedthemax]

I have some more info for fixing roll problems etc, but I have no clue how to edit my existing post, or submitting it as an article.  This is probably a stupid question, but how do I do that?

I think it's impossible to edit your post after a little bit after you post it.
To submit an article, you've gotta rent a jeep and ride it up the side of Mt. Everest as far as you can get, and when you can't drive any further, you jump out and light a really big bonfire, and send smoke signals to M2. He will then go down to his basement to the giant cauldren, bubbling over with green mist and periodically shooting out bright bolts of blue lightning, and he'll chant an incantaion and throw a goat into the cauldren as a sacrifice, and then you, still on Mt. Everest, have to do a rain dance, and if you do the rain dance right, your article will appear here on APK. Easy as that.

Seriously, though, nice visualizational aid thing. I don't quite know what to call it, but good job. I think I havn't really been rolling correctly... gotta work on that...

[Tonyy]

Wow thanks so much for this post.. I have a bruise right now on my shoulder at the EXACT spot you have on that picture.. After praticing some more rolls if swinging my right arm towards my left leg really really does help! Thanks alot!

[Andy Keller]

+1 to Donotfeedthemax for the...uhh...interesting explaination of how articles get submitted.

Have a great day.

P.S. You missed the part about slaying the arrogant 19-headed dragon named 'wolfeerf nabru!' How could you miss that part?!?!?!

[Donotfeedthemax]

Well, I left that part out because I wasn't sure EXACTLY how many heads he had. I knew if was somewhere around 18, but when he caught my shirt on fire I kinda lost count, and I couldn't count the heads on his corpse because I slayed him by incinerating his heads...

Both my applauds have been for acting ridiculous... and people are always like, quit it, you're acting ridiculous. NO!

[Dustin Evanetich]

i find that instead of torquing my arm or body into the roll, i roll more to the side to get more surface area on the ground. i swing my right arm out and push off with my left hand to right myself onto my butt for a clean exit from the roll. i find the more area i put onto the ground at once the less absorbtion into my body i feel from the concrete, but thats just what works for me.

[Leon Mederos]

Othneil, just write it up in a PM to me and I'll post it up under you. I forgot how users submit articles (hah... guess I should now of all people) but I usually go through the admin page. This was very good stuff so please, send me that PM!

[Jordan "Sirlig" Nelson]

I just learned to roll yesterday. Well, I watched the video tutorials for about a week before that, but I couldn't make much sense out of them until someone showed me yesterday.  I practiced them a lot and thought I was doing all right on grass, and I tried my first one on concrete today.....not good.    I made contact right where that shows on the scapula on the diagram.  I need to tuck my shoulder more.

But every time I come out of the roll, I'm always on one foot and on the ankle of my other foot, almost like I'm half-cross-legged, and I have to push off the ground with my hand to get out of the position.  Anyone know what I'm doing wrong, why I can't come out of the roll on two feet and just use my momentum and legs to get up without pushing with my hands?

[chipset]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rekmYbFRbK0 look at DB, he is pushing off with his hand too
What kind of momentum you got though? If you tuck well and don't "clap" leg on the ground even normal broad jump will give you enough of a momentum. I never got enough of it when I stepped into roll though.