Break Falls for Injury Prevention in Snow Sports

I learned to ski when I was in my mid-forties. I absolutely loved it from the beginning. My first lesson was at Whistler/Blackcomb, a world class skiing and snowboarding resort that hosted the winter Olympics in 2010. All resorts have inexpensive beginner packages and they are terrific at marketing to new skiers/snowboarders. I took the class with a group of other beginners, and one thing that stood out to me was the lack of instruction on how to fall down. As a beginning skier you are going to fall down. Stopping and turning on skis takes practice. If you fall when off balance while moving on skis it can be disastrous. Injuries from falling are a significant reason beginners quit snow sports. Wouldn’t it make sense to teach beginners how to protect themselves when they fall?

Teaching break falls has been a component of many traditional martial arts for centuries. There are well established techniques for falling in every position. Falling forward on your face, on your side, your back, flying forward headfirst, and when you are being driven headfirst vertically into the ground. In arts that contain throwing techniques you are going to get slammed repeatedly into the mat during training. At times you will be picked up and slammed violently head first. It is irresponsible to expose a student to this type of training without first teaching them break falls.

I know from my experience as a martial artist that different throwing techniques have the opponent hit the ground with varying amounts of force. Getting knocked down you hit the ground with less force than when you are picked up shoulder height and slammed into the ground.

You can use this to your advantage as a beginning skier. There are going to be times as a beginner that you will find yourself out of balance and lose control. With practice you will learn to recover your balance and correct your posture while skiing. When you lose your balance as a beginner, many times you are better off executing a controlled fall. It’s better to get back on your feet and start over than to risk falling while you are out of control.

How do you execute a controlled fall? Simply squat down so your posterior is on, or near the snow, and roll over on your side. You fall from a squatting position. The distance you fall squatting is significantly less than when falling from a standing position. The force of impacting the snow is less falling in a squatting position. Once you are on your side you are facing downhill and sliding in the fetal position. You can rotate your body while sliding so your skis are downhill, then extend your legs and dig an edge into the snow and stop very quickly. I call this the “snow anchor” because of how quickly you can stop. You minimize getting banged up from the fall and it is very easy to perform. It doesn’t take long to learn. A beginner can practice it a few times before hitting the slopes for the first time. This is a handy tool to have if you are out of control and heading for a tree or a drop off.

It’s not just snow sports that have failed to incorporate falling technique in beginners’ training. Break fall training needs to be utilized as a common training practice for injury prevention in all sports, not just the martial arts. Some falls are worse than others. Some are catastrophic. We can’t fix spinal cord injuries.

Failing to teach break falls is not just a gross oversight by the sports community, but the education system as well. We should be teaching break falls to grade school kids in gym class worldwide. Kids are going to fall down. They are going to get thrown off skate boards and bicycles. They are going to get knocked down playing football and soccer.

We aren’t using every methodology available to us to prevent athletic injury unless break falls are part of training.

Sensei Gil