oh, and sorry for running my mouth off in this thread guys, but i wanted to say something about points of contact:
in lieu of smacking your whole body at once, i'm a fan of a controlled fall where different parts of your body hit at different intervals in a continuous, rolling motion.
your slap should help de-celerate you considerably, but the way the rest of you hits and WHERE you hit matters too.
for almost every throw, i usually land in a sidefall (the burt reynolds pose), but each part of me that hits the ground does so at a different time, so there's more of a roll to it as opposed to a thwomp.
USUALLY, your slap hits the ground first, then your shoulderblade, hip, legs and feet. in that order. that way, instead of taking all of the force, all at once, all in the same area, you diffuse the landing into 5 different parts. each part takes 1/5th the whomp, you dust yourself off, and everything's kosher.
it's kinda contradictory, how you have to be sure to slap hard but keep the rest of your body oriented correctly AND as relaxed as you can, but that's a practice thing. at ISU, there are both Judo and Hapkido clubs, and Master Pak will spend at LEAST 5 minutes, of every hour, of every practice doing ukemi. in fact, the first...i don't know...2 weeks to a month...of the beginner classes are mostly falling.
is that boring? sure. overkill? maybe. does it keep people from being hurt? absolutely.
i guess the bottom line of all of this babble is that everybody here can tell you umpteen different things about the nuances of breakfalls, but just like anything else, it's not gonna matter unless you practice.
the best way to not get hurt falling down, is to practice falling down. a lot.
