The End of My Break Fall Career

by Brian Johns April 6, 2015

My story 7

One of the things that I enjoyed over the years was taking break falls. Unfortunately, my break fall career has come to an end.

I first started learning serious break falls as a freshman at Notre Dame, specifically as a member of the Notre Dame Martial Arts Institute (NDMAI). See my reminiscences of the Saturday morning practices during those years.

I did break falls on these mats. — I was introduced to break falls on these ugly green mats. And yes, that’s me in the black gi!

We all took regular poundings on those mats in those Saturday morning slam and jam sessions. Additionally, we also practiced rolls and falls on the hard floor as well. To keep those falls and rolls as pain-free as possible required great form. If your break fall form was off, you paid for it.

After I graduated from the Notre Dame Law School in 1990 and moved to Columbus, Ohio, I taught one-on-one Vee Jiu Jitsu private lessons to several Notre Dame friends, either living in the Columbus area or attending nearby Ohio State University. These ranged from Laurie McNeilly, Stuart Tyner, Jennifer Kovass, Brendan Burns, Kate Noll, and Dan Westmeyer. In May of 1996, I bought a house that had a decent basement. I bought some mats from Tiffin Mats and put them in the basement.

Through these private lessons, I continued to hone my break falls.

There were rough workouts, and some partners tested my break falls, particularly Stuart Tyner. Stuart played football at Notre Dame and was 6’5″ and 290 lbs during his playing days. He got into martial arts through the NDMAI after his playing days ended. By the time he came to Columbus to attend graduate school (molecular biology), he had slimmed down to the 260 lb range but was still lifting regularly.

Stuart and I would meet at one of the facilities located on the Ohio State campus and use the wrestling room to work out. Now, at that time, I was 5’8″ and 175 lbs to Stuart’s 6’5″ 260 lbs.

I took some hellacious falls from Stuart and loved every bit of it.

Fortunately, Stuart was particular about executing techniques correctly rather than relying on his size and strength.

If you are not able to view this video, click here.

Moses Powell, Professor Vee’s most famous student, is doing his stuff. The break falls depicted are typical of what I did at ND and in the years after.

Unfortunately, after one year at OSU, Stuart decided to finish his degree in Texas. I was looking forward to a few years of working with him. Still, I had a great experience working with a large guy like Stuart.

Make no mistake, though, other folks, while not the same size as Stuart, were just as brutal to me as he was. A great example is Laurie McNeilly. She was from Circleville, approximately a half-hour to 45 minutes from Columbus. In the summers of 1991 and 1992, she came up twice a week to work out. I was living in an apartment complex at that time. So, we would often work out in the backyard of the complex. During those hot summers, the ground was hard.

We gave each other no quarter in slamming each other to the ground.

Laurie was one of the best workout partners I’ve ever had, and she turned out to be a hell of a martial artist and is still active in the Chicago area.

As I got into Modern Arnis and Master Chuck Gauss realized I could take break falls, he used me as uke regularly, particularly for techniques that required a fall. Master Chuck came from a Judo background before getting into Modern Arnis, and so many throws and takedowns he performed over the years are familiar to me. Man, there were times when he threw me around like a rag doll. Those were fun times.

If you had asked me ten years ago when I would stop taking break falls, I would likely have answered “when my body can’t take it anymore” and referred to the pounding my body has taken over the years.

In the last few months, I have had to stop my break fall career, but for reasons I would not have expected a decade ago. Surprisingly, my body feels good, and I can likely take break falls for a few more years. Alas, it is not meant to be.

The reason is the cochlear implant and a tube shunt in my right eye.

Yes, I have hardware inside my right eyeball. First is the cochlear implant. Many of you are friends with me on Facebook and have followed my journey. Long story short, a hole was drilled into my skull, and a receiver was implanted just beneath my skull. My cochlear implant doctor was concerned about my martial arts practice. I assured him that I would stick to teaching.

Post cochlear implant surgery. — I healed pretty quickly from this!

A more significant concern is the tube shunt implanted in my right eye to treat my glaucoma. I never knew of this particular medical technology until last October. I still have difficulty believing that there’s hardware INSIDE MY FREAKING EYEBALL. On top of this, I had a setback in January where a combination of inflammation, a tube shunt “sometimes working too well,” and exercise-related stress caused the pressure in my eye to drop to zero, causing the retina to buckle and severely distorted vision. I recovered quickly but still have some slight wavy distortion that will likely take months to recover.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that my break-fall days are over due to these two implants.

Don’t feel sorry for me, though. I haven’t dwelled on it for a single second. As President Bush Senior Dana Carvey said, “Wouldn’t be prudent.” The end of my break-fall career is just one door closing. That’s it. My medical experiences have humbled me and reminded me never to take a single day for granted. I get out of bed every morning with a mission!

But man, I’ve had some fun slamming and jamming in the past!

So, where do I go from here? It turns out that there’s much more that I can do. Teaching classes, private lessons, and seminars. Teaching all aspects of Modern Arnis, including the ins and outs, nuances and subtleties of tapi tapi, anyos, joint locking, and positioning. Essentially, anything and everything except break falls. There will be no problem helping Master Chuck demonstrate wicked tapi tapi material at a seminar or camp, as long as no break falls are involved. I will seek to expand my martial horizons in any way I can and pass the knowledge to my students.