taking falls as you age

Maybe you can limit yourself to 20 throws a night rather than the whole class with throwing. And maybe not do the hard throws like O soto gari or a seoi nage? Also you could pick your partner, specificly one who can throw well and "assist" your landing rather than work with someone who wants to practice hard throwing.

just some thoughts...

Hi Zach

we do most of our throws and tackedowns on your standard mats that we use for karate training, however, the school has invested in a really cool high jump mat which means your can get absolutely smashed in any throw and still bounce back up having felt little of the impact but all of the velocity associated with that throw.

I personally am finding the opposite as I've aged  and that is that I need to make my technique more perfect when throwing to stop the good old back going. Where ten years ago you might have just muscled a not very well timed/executed throw now I really need to focus on the technical aspects of the throw and getting  the biomechanics right.

Cheers

Thanks for the suggestions guys. TAS, when I did Judo for a bit we had a crash pad like that, it was great, but I doubt I could afford one, though if you have any leads there i'd look at em lol.

Luckily my Jujutsu teacher is also my friend, who I have been sort of "trading" Karate instruction for Jujutsu instruction with,  he has back issues himself, so he is pretty understanding about my desire to be careful, like I said I am just paranoid about the long term effects on discs/cartilage. It seems like no matter how good one's ukemi, there is a price to pay, though maybe i'm being too paranoid.

I can relate to that as well because I've started TKD as a kid all the way up to my late teens...Soon after, I've studied Hakko Ryu Jujutsu in my early twentie's (23 years old at the time) for 3 and a half years without any rank but for self defense understanding, but after many judo throws, my lower back was taking a toll of my body. Once the Jujutsu dojo closed down, I took a 9 month hiatus until I join Kykokushin and now I've been practicing for 3 years already and I enjoy my training, but practice your ukemi's so that you can learn to take a fall in case that you trip on something at home or on the street,e.t.c...