Landing from height and rolling...

[kingtheking]

what is the approximate height where a roll is considered necessary. I lazy vaulted off a 7 foot drop today without a roll (didn't feel like i had enough momentum) on my way to tennis practice. to my surprise i landed quite well and didn't hurt my body absorbing the impact. So what height is a roll considered necessary? 5-9 depending on height and strength? any advice or differing opinions? was it stupid not to roll even though i didn't have much momentum?

[Fyrel]

It's generally advisable to roll from any landing higher than your nose, especially if you have forward momentum. It's generally harder to roll from a straight drop, however. For the most part slapouts will work from a higher drop if there's no foward momentum going in, but in all cases it's generally more advisable to roll. The landing should've been ok, just don't make a habit of it and you'll be fine.

[SafeNSure]

I like to roll when I have momentum, no doubts about that... yet the considerations are multiple and of various degrees of importance... among them:

- your age; if you're still developing your bones/joints structure also impacts that "didn't hurt your body absorbing the impact", do indeed hurt it, long term... it's not "one" impact affecting you, its the sum of all of them.
- your plyometric leg strength; which approx. corresponds to how quick and how strong your lower body muscles contracts when undergoing the sudden force created by the multiplication of your mass and gravity;
- your precision, your accurateness and your balance when landing on the balls of your feet;
- the area of your landing and the type of ground... this includes safety clearance of rolling area for hidden or obvious dangers.
etc., etc.

As a rule of thumb: descend as much as possible instead of dropping, roll whenever possible and safe, and keep your center of gravity low and centered -yet slightly forward- at all times... if you cannot run out a stable landing, it means that it would have been a better idea to run out a quick land-and-roll.
;)

[hillexallen]

I like to roll from anything that is taller than I am. However, there can be exceptions. In your situation, I don't think I would have rolled either. A good safety landing, or "slap out", would probably do the job in that situation, and trying a roll might even hurt more than the safety landing because it is hard to go into a roll when you have no forward momentum. But, sometimes when I'm jumping from just a couple feet and I have a lot of momentum going, I like to roll because otherwise it is easy to fall forwards.

It's a good topic!

[Philosofist]

Well, reffering to TK17's Parkour Pilgrimage he mentions that drops and rolls should be developed starting at even a height of 1 foot corresponding to your physical condition. His take on this is probably the safest.

[Philosofist]

Starting at a height of one foot and ascending of course.