Forward Rolls & Dizziness

[danko101]

Greetings,

After watching my son take Hapkido for many months I decided to enroll myself. Having never taken martial arts in the past it has been an interesting experience. Now entering my 3rd week, I'm struggling with becoming disoriented after doing forward rolls. I can get through 6-7 without issue, however when the count grows beyond 10 things go bad. Question to the many experienced martial artists here - is this a common experience for beginners? Any advice on improving the situtation? My instructors have been nothing but supportive, but if there is a trick to get past this I'd love to know! Thank you for any advice you may have.

[bcullen]

Actually that's fairly common. When you say after ten is that ten consecutive rolls or is there a break between them?

[Magoo]

That happens to me all the time. The one thing that I find helps is when you roll focus on one point when you come up and when you feel disoriented focus on one point until you feel better. I hope that helps.

[danko101]

The padded area we have to use is rectangular in shape, so we work length of the matt, roll into fight stance, take a couple steps then roll into fight stance at which point we are at the end of the matt so we turn around and roll into fight stance, take a couple steps then roll into fight stance. We do this for what seems like 10 minutes, but to be honest it could be less.

[bcullen]

That sounds similar to our situation, I think if I push it I can do four in a single run with the space we have. Try what, Magoo, suggested and try slowing down a bit, pause and get your berrings between rolls if you need to and use the walk back to steady yourself for another run.

[dngrruss]

Dizzyness is common with "soft" rolls. Unfortunately, there is no "trick" to fix this- or any other training issue- it simply takes more and more experience for your body to get used to it and adapt.

This is one of the reasons that I don't even let my students roll until they get to 9th Gup (about 3 months into training) and focus more on falling in the beginning. We also don't do the "soft" roll and prefer the "hard" roll. It eliminates dizzyness and also promotes the release of inertia from the fall/roll and leaves less in the body to cause injury against a hard surface like concrete.

Just my 2 cents.

[zenpokaiten]

Question to the many experienced martial artists here - is this a common experience for beginners? Any advice on improving the situtation? Yes very common not only for beginners, but advanced also. Try to inhale before you roll. Then exhale as soon as you hit the ground. When you are finished with the roll all of the air should be out of your lungs.

[Alansmurf]

Is it the number of rolls or the roll itself which is causing the issues?

if its the number ask prmission to do fewer rolls at first until you get used to it,

if it is the roll itself.are you doing it right ?
Have you any issues with balance , ears etc?

good luck keep practicing :)

[Alansmurf]

Is it the number of rolls or the roll itself which is causing the issues?

if its the number ask permission to do fewer rolls at first until you get used to it,

if it is the roll itself.are you doing it right ?
Have you any issues with balance , ears etc?

good luck keep practicing :)

[danko101]

Thanks to everyone for the advice, I will give the recommendations a shot. Alansmurf, I am told I'm doing the rolls correctly. The school has been great about doing fewer rolls, and allowing me to proceed at my own pace. As a competitive individual, I push myself to keep up with the higher belts and of course roll myself until I can barely stand. Interesting question concerning balance & ears, after nights of highest number of rolls and greatest dizziness, the next day I've had a sinus headache. There may be some inner ear/sinus thing going on, or I may just need to a lot more time to adjust to forward rolls!

[Hapkidoin P]

Yes very common not only for beginners, but advanced also. Try to inhale before you roll. Then exhale as soon as you hit the ground. When you are finished with the roll all of the air should be out of your lungs.


Good advice!! (and a pertinent name ;) )

This is very,very common..as most new students,and some old ones, have a strong distaste for anything to do with the ground or falling...not to worry..it will get better. Keep on practicing your Nauk Bup and your body will eventually figure it out.

As ZK mentioned..people holding in and compressing their breath before,during,or after a fall could very well result in headaches and assorted ailments. It's your body telling you to keep on doing what you do naturally..that is..to breathe. It couldn't hurt to try a few methods of breathing while taking a fall and then to compare which method felt the best.

Sometimes people close their eyes while falling and that's not very good for you (or innocent bystanders,or breakable objects)either. Just a couple thoughts.

[skitzo]

When one of my students experiences this I tell them to pick a spot on the wall (which they are rolling towards) and then once they have "come out" of the roll to immediately find that spot again. That way they keep everything verticle and there is little to none horizontal scanning with the eyes (which is common when getting into an upright position from a roll)

My advice for shoulder rolls - do not push it. Another balckbelt and I were having a friendly competition to see how many pads we could "roll" over. We got to 5 and a blue belt was keeping up to us. He insisted on attempting the 5th pad, and dislocated his shoulder. - out for 6 months. Side breakfalls are VERY important in Hapkido and many schools do not focus on this.