broken clavicle redux

As a fairly new teacher, I was a bit shocked to read the experiences of some people who had been severely injured by the front roll. I thankfully have not had this experience (mainly thinking of this as a teacher). I would be very grateful if people could write comments,impressions on this subject/problem from the point of view as teacher. How these injuries happen, how they can be avoided, etc.

Thank you
Charles

Anecdotally, shoulder separations are pretty common (and more common than clavicle breaks) among beginners learning forward rolls.
This seems to be mostly from either 1. launching or 2. not maintaining arm extension.
Some dojo teach beginners to roll by having the shoulder firmly on the mat, in order to avoid this.
There is still a risk that in transitioning to regular rolls folks will "launch" onto the shoulder.

My belief is that first we must emphasize maintaining "arm extension strength" during the roll. When the rolling arm gives in during a forward roll this usually leads to shoulders banging on the mat (which may cause injury). Second, emphasis on the arm being inside the front leg should be made. some guys place their rolling arm on the outside of the front leg during the roll. This again as I observed results in awkward rolls which might cause injury.

I've separated my shoulder learning forward rolls, and have observed it in someone else as well. In my case, I already had some weakness in the shoulder, and was at that special point as a beginner where I felt that I had finally learned how to roll.

I attempted the roll with a little more energy than usual, collapsed my arm for no clear reason, and that was that.

When I first started learning how to do ukemi rolls the only ones that ever gave me trouble were the front ukemi especially after I jammed my shoulder doing them and for a long time I was kinda scared about doing them, but after a while I began to do them easily on my left arm which is my primary arm and now i can do kips on that arm, but I still can't do I correct front roll on my right and I am still having trouble with it but I know that the more I practice on it I will eventually be able to do it. Well that's my story and opinion on it. the more you practice at it even if you start from a kneeling position and work your way up eventually you will become comfortable with it and then you will be able to do kips with out thinking of it.

Cole