[dan-bailey]

I mean, you can avoid going over the bars by riding a recumbent, but that's not going to be a viable solution for riding singletrack. The real trick is teaching people how to fall. I had a coach back in the 90's who was big on that, and it's become instinctual enough where the last time I went over the bars (mid-2023), I was able to manage my landing where I hobbled away with a massive bruise on my thigh, and not much else. I don't know that I've ever seen an MTB skills class that teaches you how to fall properly.

[sick_rik424]

Yes mate. In my 20+ years of riding dh I've never broken a collar bone, let alone my spine. I put this down to learning to fall properly doing breakfall drills in jujitsu. Side fall, and diving front roll being the main falls used in mtb. Side fall involves not putting hand out and distributing impact across whole side; good for loss of traction fall on corners, skidding out sideways. Diving front roll like a commando roll for going out front over the bars.

[liotier]

Even moderate experience with martial arts goes a long way in instinctively managing falls - probably saved my bones a number of times in MTB and skating... The scars always in the same locations and on the same axis show it is a reproducible technique !

[Fricken]

When I was a kid I thought I was going to be a stuntman, and falling down in various dramatic ways, sometimes off of tall things such as balconies, ladders and garages. In the decades since I've fallen off of bikes hundreds of times, I've taken many more falls skateboarding, snowboarding and rock climbing. I've suffered many bumps and bruises. A helmet, however has never had the opportunity to come in handy for me.

The funny things is that in sports such as skateboarding (or BMX) participants fall and crash regularly. There's no point in mentioning to them that falling is a skill, they already know. In the world of road cycling, where participants take a hard slam once every couple seasons or so, it's hard to convince them that skill is a factor.

Of course, with downhill mountain biking even if one is exceptionally agile in the event of a wipeout there is still a good chance they will smash themselves up.