Quote:
Originally Posted by alex.s
i've heard a lot of varying opinions on what you should do if you find yourself gliding across pavement without a bike under you. some people say cross your arms so you dont break them if you start rolling, others say splay out so you don't start rolling in the first place. some people say grab your helmet and support your head to try to reduce neck injuries. others say stay relaxed and loose so when you hit something it is absorbed instead of deflected. so its got me pretty curious.
what do you do when you are crashing?
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Totally depends on the crash and whether you even have a second to make any of those decisions. I've had them all: ones where I high-sided and knew to tuck and roll, ones where I was sliding and I tried to splay out so I didn't roll, ones where I was rolling so I tucked my arms in. I actually wrote an article on this called How Well Do you Bounce? lol. I think that there are definately some crashes where you don't have any chance or choice of making a decision but that there are also many opportunities to do something that will aid in reducing injury.
I also think that there are things that can really help with how well you manage during a crash- things like your personal physical fitness and flexibility. The more fit and flexible you are the better, as well as your level of body awareness. I was in gymnastics when I was a kid, an athlete all my life, and a martial artist with a pretty decent awareness of where I am in the air. I know almost instinctively where I am in rotation in the air and so I can make decisions to tuck my head, tuck an arm, turtle, splay etc....Anyway, rambling a bit but I do think that in general, you want to be more relaxed than rigid and more fluid than not.
Hard to make those split-second decisions though!
MIsti