Hey all,
So glad to see people active on here!

As for the fall- the first is definitely not the worst. Well actually, that may not be true. I've been spinning for about five years now and have actually only had four "bad" falls, none of which were really all that bad. Just for fun, I'll list them here:

-Trying to slide under it while it spun alone in place. Didn't make it through fast enough and took it straight to the elbow and couldn't move my arm much for a day or two.

-Working on spinning upside down while doing coin spin. Hit a perfect spin, couldn't believe I was actually spinning perfectly on the axis upside down and then promptly lost my balance and fell, backward. Not a good way to fall, headfirst while spinning...

-Doing "switches" on a too-slick floor for a video shoot. Right as i kicked it out fast for the switch, it lost its grip on the floor and went flying. I flew backward, managed not to let go of the Roue, and then hit the ground with my head. Not fun.

-Last week, doing a simple rolling sequence and hit a slick spot on the marley at too sharp of an angle. Slipped out and landed on my kneecap. (this kind of fall has actually been my most common, but this time was worse than the others. knee was a bit swollen for about four days)

Lessons I'd share from years of trying not to let falls become "bad falls" include:

-DON'T LET GO! Falling sucks, but getting hit by a rotating mass of metal sucks worse. Learn to hold on. this also avoids the Roue flying out and breaking something and you not having a place to train anymore.

-Learn to be sensitive to how sticky the floor is and how far off axis you can accordingly go. Sticky floors rock, as they allow you to make more mistakes and stay committed so you can get past technical hurdles quicker. I"m currently on tour with a circus company and we travel with our own marley, which I'd argue is the best floor that exists for the Roue. In fact, if you've never spun on marley, do yourself a favor and call local dance studios in town and rent one for a few hours that has marley over soft wood, the best combination on earth!

-when I work on rolling combinations a lot on not sticky floors, i sometimes wear thin kneepads. nothing chunky enough to notice, but when I'm really going for it and experimenting with rolling, the ROue slipping out is not uncommon and the kneepads give me more freedom / less fear.

As for the kartwheel / coin spin question: hmmmm. well first of all, Stephen's advice is great. definitely think of that rolling point of contact, as if it were part of your body. I've also found that many of my obstacles with rolling came from not committing early enough. Meaning I wouldn't shift from "pulling" to "pushing" with my hands earlier enough, so I wasn't really set physically to be upside down. I think about getting ready to push with my first hand for example, long before it's near the ground.

as for coin spin. I'd much rather coach it in person than try to describe it in words, as it's really a visceral thing that's easy to see but hard to describe. But, I can say that there is a need to basically throw your head toward the ground, which is scary as hell at first. But you basically need to get into a really controlled waltz, nice and wide and practice getting more and more horizontal on the side where you would drop into the spin. then once you have that and you feel confident that you know when you need to drop, there's really no magic, you just need to drop and commit. one helping hint is that if you're spiraling the ROue more, you'll have more traction and it'll be easier. In other words, you're not just doing the equivalent of a very tight kartwheel, rather you're trying to keep the roue spinning on itself while doing the coin spin. That will give more speed and traction.

ok, gotta go to the theatre for lights and get ready for the show.
good luck
David