06-18-2019, 10:59 PM
(06-11-2019, 01:39 PM)Mark Reich Wrote: ...snip...
I used to "catch" falling objects with my foot all the time. Still do, but surprisingly, not barefooted. ...snip...
Nice that you "learned" from that one mishap.
I have been "catching" falling objects with my feet ever since working in my father's machine shop as a teenager... some at least, and avoiding others by jumping out of the way. In the machine shop context, there are two kinds of objects.
1) Those that are carefully machined with crisp edges and corners and precision surfaces - that don't want those nasty dents and burrs that come from meeting a hard object like the floor. For these at least, when they are small enough so as to not crush my foot, I would put my foot out to break its fall. I think this was good training for becoming a pretty good Hacky-sack player later in life. (Just like being a champion bowler as a teenager contributing to being a pretty good horseshoe player. Oh, yeah, and then there was the rollerskating contributing to becoming a good snow skier.)
2) Similar to #1 objects but too large/heavy to risk my foot. Fortunately, these are more likely to be held/gripped better so fewer of them seemed to get dropped.
It has always fascinated me how quickly our brains figure out which is which in mid-fall and the foot might start out to try to break a heavy object's fall, but gets retracted quickly or the jump out of the way happens. Given that a knife is more in category #1, I wonder if my brain would "catch" the difference/danger and pull my foot away before impact.
Rick