Drills: Rolling

Video Clips

A moving picture is always helpful and so I hope to add plenty of videos to this and other drill pages to help with grasping the big picture. Please let me know of any clips you have found helpful with your training and I will try to find a place for them on these pages.

The goal is to become soft and fluid, hard surfaces are a great teacher.

Kevin Secours has provided some very helpful drills to improve your ability to roll and which are especially helpful. Rolling is really a fundamental skill in Systema and can give you greater confidence and natural movement with practice. I have taken the liberty of converting some of Kevin's drill descriptions into step-by-step format that you can follow with your training partners group. I have also taken the liberty of giving them names so you can easily refer to them in class. They are intended as a collection of drills to be done in progression from beginner to advanced. Hopefully, nothing is lost in translation between Kevin's intent to his description to my paraphrasing. Comments and suggestions are welcome, as always.

I also add to these basic instructions as I find more interesting variations from training partners or videos and so on.

Smart Shoulders

I often practice these sitting at my desk, by out stretching my arms on the desktop and just rolling one shoulder forward and down toward the desk surface. It is precisely this joint mobility in the shoulder, what is often referred to as "loading" and "unloading", or applying weight or strain and then alternately releasing it, that will give you what Vlad calls "smart shoulders" or what a physiotherapist might call kinetic intelligence in your shoulders. This drill is especially helpful because it provides the foundation to the biomechanics you will need. It also serves to coordinate your breathing with movement and calm your nervous system.

Kneeling on the floor with your arms outstretched to either side, placed flat on the palms and with your finger tips pointing out to the respective directions.
Have at least a foot of distance between your chin and the floor. Keeping your palms fixed in place, inhale, then as you exhale, bend your left arm at the elbow, leaning towards it, and completely stretch the right arm out long and straight, touching the front of the right shoulder to the floor (or getting as close to the floor as you can get). You should feel a stretch in the front of the shoulder, the bicep, possibly even the back.
Then inhale back up and exhale to the right, bending the right arm and touching the front of the left shoulder to the floor.
Do at least 10 to warm up.

Smart Shoulders, Subtle Arms

Begin the in the same position as with the Smart Shoulders drill and continue with the following while maintaining the same breathing.

Begin to rotate the extended arm, switching from the palm onto the back of your outstretched hand as you touch the floor with each shoulder.
For example, as you exhale, bending your left arm and leaning in towards your left, touch the ground with your right shoulder, carrying that shoulder rotation down through the entirety of the right side and flipping the right hand from the palm onto the back of the hand.
Do about 10 of these.

Turning Heads

Continue from the same position but now adding proper movement of your head. The goal in an actual roll is to avoid contacting your chin to your body or your head to the ground so keep that in mind as you work on this movement drill.

Now as you touch your shoulder to the ground and roll your arm, begin to roll your face toward the bent arm as if tucking your head into the hole created by the bent arm.
For beginners, tucking your head down to touch your pectoral muscle is acceptable but try to avoid that temptation and tuck it just enough that it does not touch the floor as you touch your shoulder.

Back Basics

The first three drills have begun to warm up your shoulders, neck and lungs. Now we make the transition to "educating" the back. The key to correct rolling is to begin the roll on one shoulder, travel across the shoulders (trapezius muscles) and exit on the opposite shoulder. We want to avoid contact with the spine. I will include some additional exercise below for this but at this point will continue with the series we have started here.

Continue from the same position as before.

Begin now to thread the head completely through the hole of the bent arm. If you are looking through the bent left arm, your right arm will be completely extended and since you are already rotating that right arm outwards and contacting with the back of the right hand.
Exhale a little more fully from the stomach and greet the floor with your right shoulder. Practice just kissing the floor with the meet of the shoulder, trying always to relax the joint, kissing the ground, inhaling up, switching sides--repeatedly.
When you feel ready, begin rolling a little more deeply on the shoulder. Try to take some of the weight off of your legs.
Note: This is typically where we encounter the greatest tension, either rolling back to our starting position like we've hit a road block, or else falling forward or to the side, seemingly without control. If you are having this trouble, you can try performing this exercises while kneeling in front of a wall. Give yourself enough clearance to just tuck your head underneath your arm. In this way, you can use the wall to help stop your roll. It is precisely the in between position between the start of the roll and the actual roll that would need work on in this case, so stay there for a complete breath. It's almost like a yoga shoulder stand or plow. Give your nervous system the time to integrate the movement, to take a mental "snap shot" and learn the movement.

Forward Rolls

Now it's time to complete the roll. In most Oriental martial arts, they seek to distribute the force of impact by maximizing our surface area when impacting. They typically do this by slapping the ground. While this works fine on mats, on natural terrain it is far less ideal. Systema also seeks to maximize our surface area on impact, but rather than slapping the ground as we exit our roll (in the case above, rolling out on our left shoulder), we seek to "lengthen the line" of our body, stretching our leg (in this case our left) to sort of slide into the earth as if we were sliding into home base. When done fluidly, the transition from your first shoulder to your second shoulder to the side of your body to the length of your leg, should be so smooth that the lead shoulder to the opposite foot should make one long diagonal line.

If you bend your left arm (looking under your left pit) and extend the right arm, the roll should begin with the right arm.
Roll across the meat of the right shoulder to the left shoulder.
Lengthen the line of your body by stretching the left leg out as you exit the roll.
Repeat for the opposite side, right arm bent, roll from left shoulder to right and stretch out right leg on exit.
Repeat about 10 times.

Back Rolls

Rolling backwards is actually a little easier.

Sitting with the legs out straight before you, simply place the palms of your hands on either side of your hips, finger tips pointing outwards (you will likely be leaning backwards a little).
As ridiculous as it sounds, condition your form by pre-bending your neck. For example, try to touch your left shoulder with your left ear. This will create your opening for the roll on the right side (your right neck and trapezius area will be completely open).
Begin the roll by "screwing" your right elbow in towards your ribs (protecting the point of your elbow from impact on the ground). Greet the earth with the right side of your back (avoiding spinal contact) then your right shoulder and push back and over your traps.
Note: It will probably be helpful to inhale before the roll and then to exhale continuously, pushing your legs calmly back over the open trapezius. I recommend push yourself completely over, sliding out onto your stomach so that you are lying completely on your front. This will help you relax. Once this is comfortable, you can work on landing on your toes (never your knee caps) and standing back up.

Helter-Skelter Rolls

Play with the rolls now, forward, backward, chasing a partner (or imaginary partner) as they move to avoid you.

Squat Rolls - Forward Then Backward

Once you are comfortable with rolling from your a kneeling position, you can begin the front roll from a squat position. Begin this drill on your toes instead of kneeling.

Instead of touching the ground with your hands (a natural flinch response), condition your body to "funcitonalize" that flinch by screwing the extended arm in the air. It's helpful to imagine that you are loosely holding a screwdriver in that hand and screwing a screw into the wall at your side.
Screw the arm in the air, looking away from it and under your bent elbow on the opposite arm. Always "greet with meat" - avoid impacting the ground with the bonier protrusions of your shoulder. Work at a pace slow enough to permit a soft and gradual contact and roll.
Apply the same motion to back rolls, save the arms will begin by dangling at your sides from the squat and the screwing action will occur more from the elbow (screwing the point of the elbow protectively into the ribs).

Standing Leapfrog Rolls

Try this with a partner to make a fun game out of the drill. Go slow until you can consistently roll without your head hitting the ground and you are able to roll naturally without tension.

Your partner starts out on all fours and you are at his side.
You bend over and "fall" forward over your partner and roll - remember to breath and attempt to land just as you did when rolling from the squat position.
At the end of your roll, come up to be on all fours so your partner can follow.
Go slow until you and your partner can begin to speed it up a bit safely.

Linked Partners Rolls

Try some of the rolls while holding hands or ankles tied with one or more partners.

Rolling in the Water

Try the rolls in shallow water to challenge your breathing. Attempt to do as many as 10 rolls in sequence as a goal. Combining water with the Linked Partners Rolls is especially helpful in that it inhibits you from anticipating when you will need to inhale and challenges your natural fear of losing breath underwater.

Combine rolls in water-sparring with a partner by pushing your partner under trying not to let them anticipate when they will be dunked, letting them roll out back to the surface where they can push you under in the same way.