By Rebecca Petroula Larsen, Member until 2011

I attended a Ju-Jutsu course on Saturday 12 June 2010. It was a 3 hour long course in fall technique with Renshi-Dai and Brian Renshi-Dai. The course started at 12 and ended at 3 p.m. We learned different fall techniques. Roll fall both forwards and backwards. We learned side falls, - a fall where we had to land on the side and kick off with the arm/hand, one where we had to land on our arms and legs and we also got to try techniques where we had to fall forwards and backwards.

I think it was fun and I got a lot out of the workout (and sore muscles the next day). It was good that the coaches Søren Renshi-Dai and Brian Renshi-Dai were so good at backing you up and were thorough in explaining exactly how to do the different falls and how to avoid hitting yourself, because I think that the falls were a little difficult.

They were really good and gave us a lot of praise and support, so a big shout out to them too! Falling forwards and backwards, I hadn't really tried before, so it was fun to learn something new, even if I didn't really dare at first. I was quite afraid of hitting myself. But Søren Renshi-Dai and Brian Renshi-Dai said that it was better to practice the falls on mats than to fall outside on gravel and get hurt badly.

The pace was quiet and I was happy about that. It was also good that you had so much time to learn and perform one technique at a time, so it was easier to find out how to do them correctly.

I actually needed one of the techniques here the other day when I fell off my bike. I fell over the handlebars of the bike and down to the ground oops... I could have hit my head very badly, or knocked out all my teeth, but I got off with my hands/arms out of pure reflex, and I'm really happy about that, that I got done. It was a good benefit. So I'm definitely glad I got to learn some of the techniques that day. I "only" got a hole in my knee and a bruise on my stomach.

The course gave a lot of courage to fall, and it was good to use the muscles again now that I have been sick and took a break from karate. So the course was a good start.