Ukemi Rant

Our dojo has had the same comments from visiting instructors from Japan and India the last few months.  Our ukemi is lacking.  Not the actual fall, but the intention in the rest of the ukemi.

Typically, ukemi is taught as the final piece, the actual fall.  This is something I refer to as “gymnastics.”  We practice basic tumbling, but we do it in isolation of any external stimulus.  This is not really anything to do with ukemi at all, but it provides a necessary foundation.  Gymnastics is to Aikido what a baby learning to walk for the first time is to a marathon runner.  Learning to roll is learning your A, B, Cs.  Actual Ukemi is writing a novel.

The ukemi starts with the attack.  The attack is full of intent and aimed at a specific target, and it is cutting through that target.  An attack that stops short of the target is not something that can be blended with.  An attack that misses the target is not something that gets blended with.  An attack that misses Nage altogether is a waste of time to practice with.  For Aikido, we need a real attack.  There is no blending with an attack if there is no attack. 

A Nage who tries to stay within a kata when the attack has no place in that kata will lose sensitivity and ultimately, their Aikido will be worse for it.  When an attack is too low, trying to work with a kata created for a high attack means much more force gets used and the kata is more difficult.  If the uke doesn't attack for the kata, then Nage never gets to actually practice the kata and the blending with an attack that is supposed to be learned never gets learned, because neither side ever has a chance to feel the blend. 

An uke who stiffens up and refuses to feel kuzushi can only do so because they know what is happening.  Nage is stuck within the “rules,” so uke can stick their hands in their armpits and feel they have a victory.  Of course, stiffen up and stick your hands where no one can reach them is the height of stupidity in any martial situation and this reflex will get you killed.  The uke can run in the opposite direction from the nage and feel they have a victory.  No one practices.  Nage hasn't learned to deal with an attack, uke hasn't learned to attack or blend.  It's not like sumo or wrestling where landing on the mat is a loss of points.

Freestyle practice starts to create a chance to learn to blend.  A kata that calls for a high attack while the uke attacks very low requires more force and probably more clashing, but a technique for a low attack will work well.  Make something difficult, something else gets easy.  But, Nage hasn't practiced with feeling the difference between high and low attacks.  Uke hasn't practiced being thrown by a well blended technique.  Freestyle will be more frustrating and more scary for both sides.

After the initial receiving of the attack, uke responds somehow.  If the kata is kaitenage and uke tries to stand tall, the kata is rougher and less beneficial.  Nage should be learning to go with an uke whose balance has been broken forward and downward in kaitenage.  For the instructor from India, he taught us kaitenage and the class was full of people standing tall and refusing forward kuzushi.  His next movement was to follow an uke and break their balance upward.  Several senior students then started doing the ukemi they were supposed to do for kaitenage and fell on their face (making the new kata impossible).  There was no way to follow them upward to break their balance, as they never went upward.  Made the kata impossible to practice, and nage doesn’t learn to follow the movement of uke.  The time came to practice kaitenage, and people had to be bludgened downward, and they had to be physically powerlifted to get of the ground for the kokyunage.  Neither side learns to blend.  Uke has not made a more realistic attack, nor does adding more resistance make someone's technique better.

Freestyle corrects some of these flaws, as the Nage doesn’t have to pretend to lead out a contracted, hesitant, badly aimed attack.  The opening given is the opening taken.  This makes the ukemi more demanding, and ultimately more dangerous for uke as they never did learn to blend.  They have no way to read what is about to happen to them, and they are constantly surprised.  The whole movement feels shocking and frightening, as they've never moved with even gentle force being applied.

For the Japanese instructor, people were attacking in a very static fashion.  They would quietly approach, hold back (their face and body completely exposed), and then grab his shoulders with both hands – and stop moving.  There is no attack that is standing testicles, ribs and face wide open while holding someone’s lapel.  We are not getting ready for Prom; we are not asking someone to pin a flower on our lapel.  The Japanese instructor’s comment was, “I just want to hit you guys!”  He was right.  That was the opening there, there was nothing else.  Try to blend or do a tenkan with that movement?  There was no force being applied, so nothing to blend with.  Some Uke's then complain about a Nage who does Irimi movements too often.  This becomes their excuse to do less forceful, more hesitant attacks which require much more Irimi on the part of the Nage.  It leaves the Nage of either stopping practice, or constantly attacking which really has no place in Aikido.

A friend in Canada was doing his Ikkyu test and he had a randori.  One of the attackers had been watching too many Brazilian jujitsu videos and tried to cling on after he had been thrown.  He got stepped on, and probably by both the other attackers and my friend.  I had a fellow student who tried to cling on too long myself and in moving through I accidently put a knee in his face.  I figured if it happened by accident, it could certainly happen on purpose but I felt bad.  The Japanese instructor was very clear we should take the fall after a certain point.  I think my training back home agrees with this.  Too much holding on leaves the uke too vulnerable, and forces the Nage into atemi.

Some uke also like to clump up or attack too close to the wall or the edge of the mat – this sets up collisions or severe injuries.  Nage doesn’t learn to take the movement that is there, they learn to stop the movement and fight the momentum and the uke feels like they were run over - but this is all done to keep the uke safe.  To just blend is to throw the uke off the mat or into the wall.

As a nage, I find I need to move faster with some ukes because the genuine movement I illicit with genuine kuzushi is not going to last.  Uke already wants to break with the kata and is trying to cover up.  I made an opening, and I follow it because that is the blend.

The kata can be practiced slowly – but it requires an uke that is ready to “lose” and who is willing to move at slow speed the way their body moves at fast speed.  With slower speeds, uke can adjust several times and they can perceive what is coming next.  Uke can stuff the technique a dozen different ways at slow speed, but they never could at real speed.  They need to follow the kata.  Uke’s job is not to protect themselves – their job is to teach and give feedback.  Without good ukemi, there is no teaching and no learning.