Falling From Stilts

[Pele]

Not that I have, but...

I have a friend who insisting that if he is on 30" durastilts with knee pads that he can fall forward on his knees and be okay.
Several other performers and I say no. Knees are easy to damage really, and we are trying to explain a "valley drop" to him
(kind of a sideways crouching fall with arm extended to spread out the brunt of the blow).

Any other suggestions or falls that might be of help?

Thanks!

[Stretch]

Ok, sometimes maybe, but not always. And some guys can do a forward roll from stilts. But when two guys come running through the crowd, from behind you, and you happen to be in the way, you are going down. Period!

I've gone down hard, and I've fallen softly. First time I fell I dislocated an elbow. I had tried to turn a corner too fast while moving too quickly and lost traction. Haven't broken anything . . . yet. There are plenty of victims of broken stilts, dura and otherwise. Broken arms, wrists, collar bones, legs, you name it. Personally, I concentrate on staying upright, rather than how to fall. Others practice falling. If I fall it is nearly always too quick to happen to think, ok, I'm going to fall this way, or fall that way. Too quick to think of anything, except "how did I get on the ground!?!!!"

If you have a chance, avoid a straight arm brace, I think a bent elbow
might be better, less chance maybe of a broken wrist and collar bone. 30 years ago, my judo instructor taught me to slap the ground when falling, and to distribute the point of impact over the broadest possible area. Or tuck and roll. Both techniques hard to do when on stilts!

Be careful where you look, that is where you will walk or run toward.
So beware of pitfalls but focus on where you want to go, not on areas
you want to avoid. And lose some weight. The bigger /heavier you are, the harder you will fall. And of course the faster you are walking or running, the greater the impact when you fall.

Take care, good luck!
Bill "Stretch" Coleman

Stretch's Lair: Home of stilt walking world records and stilt trivia and history.

[ 09-05-2003: Message edited by: Stretch ]</p>

[clapchap]

I fell on stilts the other day, they are about 6 feet to waist so maybe 2 and a half feet to foot. What happened was my top velcro ripped off the screw, and its extremely hard to balance without a knee strap. I was on grass (dry), so i landed knees then a quick half roll type thing. No hurt, but it definately was a scare both for me and the audience. I have a friend that was on wet ground with ~2' to foot metal stilts. He sunk in a good foot and brought up a bumload of grass, and a portable curtain he landed on. Not a good scene, but he was alright, and most of the audience didnt notice (senior home).

Either way, falling on stilts isnt fun for you or the audience. If you are going to be just cruising on stilts, like at a paid walkaround gig, and you're goign to be up for a while, i'd put some pads under the pants (i used them for a parade). Noone will know and it might help you out down the line a bit.
Stretch whats this about two guys running at you?

-Hope it helps, Eric

[Circusnews]

[quote]Originally posted by Pele:
<strong>Not that I have, but...

I have a friend who insisting that if he is on 30" durastilts with knee pads that he can fall forward on his knees and be okay.
Several other performers and I say no. Knees are easy to damage really, and we are trying to explain a "valley drop" to him
(kind of a sideways crouching fall with arm extended to spread out the brunt of the blow).

Any other suggestions or falls that might be of help?

Thanks!</strong><hr></blockquote>

While I know many of you have been doing this much longer than I have, in my experiance it really depends on the design of the stilt.

If the stilt is properly designed to take a fall to the knees, and the student is taught to do a proper landing, then it is the safest way to fall. The roll and the vally drop are both fairly complex to do compared to the knee drop. This complexity makes it harder to exicute correctly, and increases the risk of injury.

I have never been able to explaine a proper knee drop in writing, so I am sure this will be lacking, but here goes...

First, you need a proper pair of strapon stilts. I have 2 designs you can look at 1 and 2. (BTW, double the padding and ignore my spelling errors... I'll fix them later...)

When you drop. you knees bend, and your but lands just above ankles, taking all of the weight of the fall and cleanly transfering it to the ground. You teach kids to never flex the knees, and never to try to absorbe the fall with the knees. This is the safest way I have ever found to teach kids to fall. It protects the knees, prevents the stilter from adding any rotation to the fall, and becomes a reflex as opposed to something people have to think about.

I will see if I can take a short video clip of a correct fall, and put it up for you to see.

P.S. for walking on grass, or other rough terrain, try this. It works wonders!

[Dan Tastik]

Knees with pads all the way. I fall (deliberately) a lot. of course this only works up to a certain height, once we're at about the 2.5 - 4 metre height you dont really want to even think about falling. But then again if you're on them you should be able to control them. There are always random assailants, if you're at a height where them knocking you will cause death/serious injury/fatal embarrassment then minimise the risks, have a ground clown with an uzi to watch your back.

Oh and i've never seen someone do a forward roll/dive roll from a fall, it's always been a controlled move. I do them myself and can't see how there would be any more safety/cushioning than from knees with pads. I reckon less indeed.

[Steven Ragatz]

I would never recommend purposely falling on the knees. I teach a shoulder roll where the stilt walker tucks and rolls from across the back of the arm, to the shoulder and across the back, exhaling and vocalizing (Hungh!) upon impact. It is something that should be practiced with mats so that when the moment comes, and it will, the stilt walker will be confident and will know how to react. It is not a complicated move, and the student should learn the maneuver as a prerequisite to walking on stilts.

If you are working with arm stilts as well, I teach that it is important ditch the arms at all cost as you go down. You want nothing to get tangled up as you try to control the fall and if one of those arms gets caught between the legs then all of the body weight is forced against the elbow.

It is paramount that the stilt walker avoids putting stress on the elbow, wrist or knee joints. The leverage against the elbow or knee is magnified when you extend a limb with stilts. A simple lever-arm example from a Physics 101 text will show the great mechanical disadvantage that a stilt offers the wearer's joints. The joints are prone to injury anyway, and they are complicated injuries to mend.

Pads, plates, wrist guards, even helmets would definitely be a good idea if the situation allows, but I wouldn't rely on the protective wear to completely protect the wearer. Wiping out on stilts isn't the same as taking a spill while skateboarding, because in the latter case, the skateboarder and the board are not attached. Often, the critical issue isn't hitting the ground, it's having the weight of the fall transferred through the stilts to the joints.

Steven Ragatz

[Stretch]

[QUOTE] Stretch whats this about two guys running at you?[QUOTE]

It was after midnight on the mall on New Years eve. I was Father Time, on 30 inch Bigfoots, with a big white cane. Friendly crowd of 15,000 - ages 15 to 25.

Two guys, some ways in back of me, started teasing each other. One starts chasing the other. Kid comes running through the crowd, just as I ws taking a step with my left foot. My left foot was "bumped" up to my head level, and I was sitting on the ground in a blink. My left leg was straight out in front of me, on the ground, and my butt was on the ground. My right leg was bent, and my right foot, ankle and knee were off the ground. Stretched my right hip, knee, and ankle conciderably. Was helped to my feet, and I was grateful that Father Time's costume includes a cane! I pretty well healed up in 5 or 6 months.

Here is what the costume looked like then. The red blob is "the world's loudest whistle". The two guys were part of the crowd. One kept bowing down and calling "Jesus, Jesus". Others wanted to know if I was Moses! Public schools!

I found the whistle helpful to kindly discourage the repeated advances of a 15 year old girl who seemed to find pleasure in groping me! I was almost old enough to be her grandfather!

Father Time, 1998

Another time, on 43 inch Bigfoots, with a cane in a gusty 30 mile an hour wind (!) two drunks scared the hell out of me, by diving between my legs from behind! Bumped the stilts slightly, and it was over before I knew it started. I didn't fall, or even wobble, but about soiled myself!

Then there was the time on the up escalator. DO NOT GRAB THE MOVING HAND RAILS!!!! Only harm was a small tear to my pants.

The time I found gopher (?) holes with one of my rare appearences while on peg stilts. Sunk in 18 - 24 inches !

I've slipped on ice and did a very slow motion controlled kneel. I've steped into a 18 inch big hole in the dark, completly unexpected. Should have cleared the moisture from my mask and goggles. Broke my fall with my "long arms". One was damaged and required repair. Bruised my knee.

In 1999 I stilt walked my first marathon, and a 9 or 10 year old tried to pull my pants down. But, that's another story!

Walking tall and stretching imaginations!

Bill "Stretch" Coleman
web page

[Circusnews]

[quote]Originally posted by Steven Ragatz:
<strong>I would never recommend purposely falling on the knees. I teach a shoulder roll where the stilt walker tucks and rolls from across the back of the arm, to the shoulder and across the back, exhaling and vocalizing (Hungh!) upon impact. It is something that should be practiced with mats so that when the moment comes, and it will, the stilt walker will be confident and will know how to react. It is not a complicated move, and the student should learn the maneuver as a prerequisite to walking on stilts.</strong><hr></blockquote>

I would never recomend this as the default method of falling. While it is true that a risk of knee injury is their with the knee fall, the risk of spinal injury with this kind of rolling fall is much greater in seriousness and in my view probibility than the risks of a knee fall.

[quote]<strong>
If you are working with arm stilts as well, I teach that it is important ditch the arms at all cost as you go down. You want nothing to get tangled up as you try to control the fall and if one of those arms gets caught between the legs then all of the body weight is forced against the elbow.</strong><hr></blockquote>

Good point, and one I completely agree with. Any time you have a fall, drop the arm stilts if possible, but not if it otherwise increases the risks of the fall.

[quote]<strong>
It is paramount that the stilt walker avoids putting stress on the elbow, wrist or knee joints. The leverage against the elbow or knee is magnified when you extend a limb with stilts. A simple lever-arm example from a Physics 101 text will show the great mechanical disadvantage that a stilt offers the wearer's joints. The joints are prone to injury anyway, and they are complicated injuries to mend.
</strong><hr></blockquote>

When dealing with any kind of uncontroled fall you must (in order)

• Protect the head and torso first
• Try and minimize the rotation of the body
• Try and minimize the the speed of the fall
• Minimize impact on all of the bodies joints

The roll and the vally drop both encourage rotation during the fall. Rotation in a fall proportionally increases the risks of the fall. Likewise, they increase the speed of components within the fall (as you go into the roll, you speed up the stilts as they go up and over your body). This increased speed translates into increased force within the equation of the fall.

[quote]<strong>Pads, plates, wrist guards, even helmets would definitely be a good idea if the situation allows, but I wouldn't rely on the protective wear to completely protect the wearer. </strong><hr></blockquote>

On this we again agree 100%

[quote]<strong>Wiping out on stilts isn't the same as taking a spill while skateboarding, because in the latter case, the skateboarder and the board are not attached. Often, the critical issue isn't hitting the ground, it's having the weight of the fall transferred through the stilts to the joints.</strong><hr></blockquote>

And this is, I think, where the problem is. It's not so much a question of transfering the force, as it is spreading it out over the largest area possible. When you calculate out the force of the fall, and divide it by the area you are spreading the force over, you get a lower transfer of force through the body with the knees drop than with either of the other two methods mentioned. The trick with the knee drop is that you do not try and absorb the momentum of the upper body with the knees. You let the force be transfered along the length of the thighs to the calfs/stilts, and down to the ground. The knees are flexed, and in the position that provides them the most protection in this kind of an impact, and protect the head and torso at the same time.

[Steven Ragatz]

The concern about neck and spinal injury is of course justified, but taking the fall into a roll with the shoulder doesn't cross over the spine, and by tucking, you protect the head. The impact is cushioned across the arm and the shoulder. I doubt that one could actually do a complete shoulder roll with stilts strapped to the legs - the added weight would surly keep one from tumbling.

Additionally, the few times I've gone down, there has been a horizontal component. The fall pivots from the ground, doing a "walking fall," so not only is the stilt walker going down, but they are moving forward (or backward?) as well. This would further make me inclined to execute a cushioning roll rather than to try to take it in the knees.

Also, my legs are rarely parallel when I'm on stilts - I'm always moving. The two major falls I've had were both from slipping on an iced stage, resulting in crossed or straddled legs - certainly situations where there were no options for kneeling.

It may very well be an issue of size. I might be persuaded to consider a different fall for shorter stilts, and although I've never been on any of the sky-high stilts, six foot peg stilts (two meter to the foot plate) are as high as I've ever regularly used, I just can't envision a way of impacting the ground with my knees from that high up that wouldn't just tear and smash everything up.

Do you, or people you teach, actually practice this drop?

Steven Ragatz

[Stretch]

Soft volunteers - that's the best. "ARE YOU SOFT? ARE YOU SOFT? - because if you are going to push me over, I need someone soft to land on."

If you don't have someone soft to land on, don't fall.

[Circusnews]

[quote]Originally posted by Steven Ragatz:
<strong>The concern about neck and spinal injury is of course justified, but taking the fall into a roll with the shoulder doesn't cross over the spine, and by tucking, you protect the head. The impact is cushioned across the arm and the shoulder. I doubt that one could actually do a complete shoulder roll with stilts strapped to the legs - the added weight would surly keep one from tumbling.</strong><hr></blockquote>

The few major stilting injuries I have seen have resulted from people trying to roll like this in a fall. I have never seen, or even heard of a major injury result from a knee drop as I (and many others) teach it.

[quote]<strong>
Additionally, the few times I've gone down, there has been a horizontal component. The fall pivots from the ground, doing a "walking fall," so not only is the stilt walker going down, but they are moving forward (or backward?) as well. This would further make me inclined to execute a cushioning roll rather than to try to take it in the knees.

Also, my legs are rarely parallel when I'm on stilts - I'm always moving. The two major falls I've had were both from slipping on an iced stage, resulting in crossed or straddled legs - certainly situations where there were no options for kneeling.</strong><hr></blockquote>

A knee drop will not help you in a case of the splits. However, I have had kids go down many a time with crossed legs. In the few times where they were unable to get the cross to the stilts (so it was wood-to-wood that was crossed), the result was a bruised calf, nothing more.

[quote]<strong>It may very well be an issue of size. I might be persuaded to consider a different fall for shorter stilts, and although I've never been on any of the sky-high stilts, six foot peg stilts (two meter to the foot plate) are as high as I've ever regularly used, I just can't envision a way of impacting the ground with my knees from that high up that wouldn't just tear and smash everything up.

Do you, or people you teach, actually practice this drop?</strong><hr></blockquote>

Yes, all of the time. And we use peg stilts from 2 - 6 feet (to the foot plate). I am in court all week, but one week from tomorow I will have a group of stilters at a fair (though I think the tallest pair of stilts will be 5 feet). As the terrain is rough, the kids all tend to fall at least once during the day. I will take a video of them falling and post it for you to see. I will try to get one where the kid is not expecting it, but I may end up just telling them to fall and taping it. Could you do the same with the shoulder roll? (and some one else the vally drop?) Then we can pick apart the videos, and make sure we are comparing apples to apples.

[Circusnews]

[quote]Originally posted by Stretch:
<strong>Soft volunteers - that's the best. "ARE YOU SOFT? ARE YOU SOFT? - because if you are going to push me over, I need someone soft to land on."

If you don't have someone soft to land on, don't fall.</strong><hr></blockquote>

Just use parents!

[Lampwort]

Although this is a year on from the last post, as a new member I would like to add my point. I walk 2ft aluminium peg stilts for fun (there is no chance of my doing it for a living). Having found it difficult to make or use the regular stilt tips on alum tubes, I have designed my own which uses quad-skate toe stops bolted to a steel cap which fits neatly over the stilt which is then duck-taped to the stilt. I get over 20 hours use from each set which can be changed in minutes.
I go cross-country on my pegs, frequently attempting to go up and down steep muddy hills - seeking the adrenalin rush that I crave for. This of course results in many falls. The adrenalin rush occurs in that split second between being comfortable and upright and being on the way to being horizontal on the ground or recovering from a possible fall.
The fall to be avoided at all costs is backwards as the momentum will usually cause your head to hit the ground.
For safety I always use skateboarders reinforced knee pads and wrist guards which have kept me safe, not even any bruising.
When I cannot avoid a fall I make an attempt to do a knee drop. Even when I missed the top step of a 4 concrete step flight, I landed on my knees at the bottom on tarmacadam with only slight jarring to my neck. Most of my falls occur when one stilt launches sideways in an attempt to cause splits, but I have found that the sudden stop of this stilt when it touches a different surface can cause a fall just as much as the initial slip. In these cases I believe a knee-drop is the easiest and safest to execute.
Of course everyone is entitled to their own opinion but on pegs up to 3ft I think that the knee-drop is ideal. Perhaps on taller stilts the forward or shoulder roll would possibly be safer, but I have no intention of going higher than my 2 ft just to find that out. By the way I am 56 yrs old and have been stilting for about 10 yrs. Bill (Stretch) Coleman thinks I am eccentric, but is still interested in my progress

[Lampwort]

I am researching stilts, stiltwalking and stiltwalkers ambitions and views on safety. I would like to make contact with anyone who is willing to discuss such matters either by e-mail or ICQ. I am especially looking for someone who stiltwalks for pleasure like myself rather than performance. Please make contact. Thank You.

[Circusnews]

Intro to Stiltwalking Textbook

I just thought I would take a moment to let people know that I have written a textbook to accompany the introduction to stiltwalking classes I teach. As that text answers a lot of questions about stilts and stiltwalking, I thought I would share it with you. You can download that textbook here . Just remember, this textbook is NOT a replacement for hands on instruction.