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Falling, Does this work?

3K views 14 replies 8 participants last post by  Qball 
#1 ·
What I do, is that whenever i am riding, i always make my hands into fists. So if i do fall, I stop myself from breaking my wrists. Is that a good idea or does it work?
 
#2 ·
Well if the impact is strong enough, landing on your fists will still cause significant damage to your wrists. What I always tell people is to make a X with your arms over your chest. And if you need to fall face first, just land on your chest.

But fists are definitely better than using hands/palms. I have a torn UCL in my left thumb because I landed on it.
 
#11 ·
All those long lists of things to do if you're falling are fine and do work, IF you can do the long list in time.... Typically it's going to be a sudden/fast fall and you're not going to be able to pull off some long list of things to do.

Get padded shorts for your ass, don't ride out of your comfort zone, and I don't fully recommend wrist guards... I've seen worse breaks from people with wrist guards then people who don't wear them and break a wrist. I actually havn't seen anyone who's broken anything if they just make fists but I'm sure it's happened.
 
#14 ·
When I fall forward, I let my elbows and forearms take the brunt. Breaking your arm is a possibility, but the impact absorption is much more evenly distributed throughout both forearms since there is a larger area. Also, dislocating a wrist stone or fracturing your hand is worse than a breaking a forearm. Trust me, I broke my 4th and 5th metacarpal (bone that leads to your ring and pinky fingers respectively), fractured a wrist stone and completely dislocated another stone on my right hand from a non-snowboarding related injury. This was two years ago. I can't bend my hand up as high as normal. My wrist bone constantly pops and so does the 4th metacarpal. The icing on top? I have arthritis and have to take ibuprofen whenever I have discomfort. This is my dominant hand. I would have gladly taken an arm fracture over this. That's the thing, fracturing your arm probably won't be as severe because it is a much denser bone and harder to break than bones in your hand.

The only time I use my hands to break my fall is if I catch a toe edge and fly head first. I do this because I much rather injure my hands than my face. Even then, using the cross method would probably do a good job preventing head injuries. I just haven't completely gotten used to making that my reflex yet. :(

As for wrist guards, I used to use the type that goes palm side. I hated the ones that were on the backhand side as they seemed like it would injure my hand a lot worse. The palm side guard actually helped a lot when I was snowboarding with my healing hand. Plus, falling backwards was more pleasant since I was able to use the guards to absorb some impact.
 
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