Re: Back falls
I agree with Nicholas - it's all a matter of how you're trained to fall. If you start by sitting, then kneeling, then standing, you get over the fear pretty quickly.
Remember that at its most basic form, standing backfalls are just squatting to kneeling position and rolling back from there. Once you're advanced enough to take falls faster (like falling out of a quick irimi nage, for example), you'll already instinctively know how to do it without needing to think about it.
An easy way to do yoko ukemi (side breakfalls) is to kneel with one leg straight out in front, fall to your side and slap the mat with the hand closest to the mat. After doing that several times, try it from standing.
Hope this helps!
-Bryan
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