Originally Posted by
rumrunn6
good if you can do it, but all the times I've done a rollout, during/after a crash, was due to my body being thrown that way, so I just went with it. once you land hard & stop, a rollout won't do squat
...the practice (and it does take a lot of repeat practice,) encourages the bracing of your arm and the shoulder tuck until it becomes your natural reaction to being thrown forward head first. And you practice it on mats, which are not foolproof, but hurt less than on hard floors or pavement. We probably did fifty or sixty right and left side rollouts as a warmup in every class I took. Alternating sides, down the length of the room, then back. I don't understand people who say you can't train muscle memory, because IME, you can.
Falling the right way is why more people don't come away from Judo with more serious injuries. Which is not to say you can't still hurt yourself. Dislocations of fingers and toes is not uncommon. You see a lot of people taped for this reason.