Originally Posted by
cyccommute
I've not got any martial arts training but I've got lots and lots of crash training. I stick by what I said with regards to crashing on a bicycle.
Most people "brace" by stiffening up limbs and probably holding their breath. In other words they tense up which means that any impact is transmitted throughout the body. However, you are describing a stationary impact that you'd expect in a martial arts setting. On a bicycle at speed, there is not opportunity to plant a foot. "Planting a foot" is a good way to get it broken.
I'm sure you've seen pictures like this.
His legs aren't haphazardly flopping - he has positioned himself precisely at his feet, his hip, and the angle of his shoulder. His right foot is "planted" taking a portion of the impact, and his left arm has already pounded the floor to ease the impact on his shoulder.
You can absolutely do this on a low slide fall off a bike, if you are quick enough. You *could* do it over the bars - the bikes speed does not stop you - but you would prefer a less jarring technique.
Again, I have no martial arts training but a bicycle crash is more analogous to a Judo throwee. The person getting thrown doesn't attempt to stop the fall by planting anything. They are rag dolls.....
With all due respect, having no training and no knowledge, you might refrain from making pronouncements about it. You have described it incorrectly here, the bolded part diametrically wrong. I don't have any problem with your advice for people who don't know how to fall, and don't need to put the time it takes into learning it, but you shouldn't be misinforming them about how to protect themselves vastly more effectively.
You guys with the "added speed of the bicycle" - you realize that the added speed is parallel to the ground, and doesn't add anything to the vertical impact of the fall, right? The impact you feel from the speed is added by deceleration from friction, and whatever rises from the surface, including "concave up" shaped road grade. On a flat and smooth road, you could fall at 100 mph and that fall is not the danger. Getting part of your body wrenched back, or sliding into something, is where the danger is.