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Gyroscopes and Break Falling"So what" you may ask, "do gyroscopes have to do with breakfalling in Jiu Jitsu?" Others may ask "what's a gyroscope?" - so we'll deal with that one first.Gyroscope A universally mounted spinning wheel that offers resistance to turns in any direction Without getting too much into the physics of the matter (which unfortunately I'd really like to) when things like wheels spin they tend to want to keep spinning in the same direction. It takes some external force to turn the wheel. A gyroscope is a just a wheel in a frame that lets it sit in any direction, and once it starts spinning, it wants to stay in the same position. The faster it spins, the more it wants to stay spinning in that direction. "So what" (you ask again) "do gyroscopes have to do with breakfalling in Jiu Jitsu?" Well, whilst Jiu Jitsu doesn't exactly have gyroscopes or spinning wheels, it does have bodies that rotate - literally! The gyroscopic effect can be applied directly to any jitsuka performing a rolling breakfall, and has a few tips that can thus be derived.
If you are having trouble rolling in a straight line because you keep losing your balance, try speeding your roll up a
little. This should help you keep moving in a straight line. This is particularly useful for those no-handed sideways
rolls that some of the more demanding instructors are so fond of.
Some people have a problem turning around into a good stable stance. Firstly slow the roll down a little. You probably
have too much momentum. Next allow an external force to do some work in stopping your continued movement - use gravity
to counteract your motion a little. As the feet slide into stance, drop the body's centre of gravity by bending the
knees. As well as acting as shock absorbers, the dropping motion should also act against the body's desire to keep
moving in the direction of the roll and instead make it want to sink to the ground.
On a related topic, some may find they simply can't speed their rolls up any more, and they are constantly being asked
to do their rolls faster. The way to spin faster is to draw as much of the body in towards the centre of rotation as
possible. Obviously this has problems where this would destroy the physical form of the roll and could easily lead to
injury. The key is to keep the form of the roll until a safe position has been reached and then to 'tuck-in'. The most
common example would be a forwards roll. Perform the roll at a normal (fast?) pace, and then as the roll moves onto the
lead shoulder tuck the legs in tight. This movement will actually provide an additional impetus for even greater speed
of technique; but by bringing the legs in tight, the speed of the roll will increase.
There are many places where the gyroscopic effect can be seen in full spin throughout Jiu Jitsu, but the art of ukemi is where it really comes through.
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