Fandom Island and Town

Max grinned as he looked around at his nominal students. Because today? Was going to be amusing.

To him, anyway.

"We've talked about balance, and we've talked about endurance, so today we're covering the third basic skill to have in a fight: knowing how to fall down. Then, next week, we'll start doing some actual sparring and stuff." He'd figure out what that 'stuff' was later.

"Falling is an important thing to know how to do because chances are it'll happen to you. Also, the muscle memory you develop here will help you take other kinds of hits more easily too."

"Anyway, the trick to falling is to avoid hitting the ground all at once. You want to extend the time you spend hitting the ground." Max chuckled. "Which is a weird way of saying you want to roll in a way that lets you land one part at a time." To demonstrate, Max fell over. He hit with his shoulder first, rolling across his back and extending his arm so that it landed last with a loud thump on the mats.

"Basically, the more time you can make your landing take, the less it'll hurt. And this is important because hitting something solid like the ground or a wall hurts. Everyone give it a shot for a bit until you get a feel for things."

Max allowed a few minutes for that before calling for a pause. "Now let's let everyone get a feel for how this works when you're not falling on purpose." He explained a simple hip throw, demonstrating it with a few different people, and when he was satisfied they had at least a basic understanding he nodded. "Now everyone partner up and practice throwing and falling."

Max looked around, somewhat gratified that some of his nominal students had returned assuming they had. He was keeping an eye out for newcomers. This wasn't a class at school, after all, no need to enroll. Just show up. And hopefully the word would spread and people would do that.

"Welcome back," he began. "Now I know that some of you are already pretty good with this sort of thing, but I mostly want to focus this class on those of you who haven't had a lot of training or experience with fighting. You're the ones who can get the most good out of this, I think."

With an apologetic shrug, Max looked out over the people he'd noticed were quite good last week. "The rest of you, please feel free to help out. I may be the official instructor here, but I'm not the only one with helpful advice to offer. So if you see something worth pointing out, speak up."

"Today what I want to focus on is balance. Whether you're standing still, or moving around, it's one of the most important things to focus on when you're in a fight. This is because once you're off-balance everything you do is weaker. You can't attack as well, or block, or escape. So balance is important."

"Two simple tricks will help you keep your balance when you're starting off. First, a good stance. The precise way you put your feet is going to be a matter of comfort and fighting style, but making sure that they're placed wide enough apart to give you plenty of support, and never letting your feet cross when you move," Max demonstrated a shuffling little side step, "will go a long way toward keeping you upright."

"The second thing to do is to be careful not to overextend yourself. It's easy to punch or kick too hard and end up leaning farther forward than you meant to. This can be really dangerous, so try to avoid it."

Max smirked. "And so, today, another paired activity. Each of you is going to find a partner, and you're going to practice your balance. You'll face each other, press your palms together, then link your fingers, and try to make the other person move their feet. Be sure to switch partners every so often so that you can get a feel for some of the different pressures you'll face when trying to keep your balance."