Take Ukemi Seriously

**Permalost** · Posted On: 9/29/2011 4:20pm

At the last Dog Brothers gathering, there was 2 or 3 matches where someone lost their weapon, and did a diving forward roll to recover it off the ground. One was ducking right under a hard horizontal swing, Bujinkan style. It was some ninja madness.

I'm pretty sure there's another thread where everyone was telling real-world ukemi stories. My favorite is forward rolling off a skateboard when I was going down a hill and hit a bolt that was cemented into the ground. I was looking at a pretty girl at the time and wasn't paying attention to the pavement.

**SifuJason** · Posted On: 9/29/2011 4:29pm

Number one thing I teach my students is break falls, for this reason (it also seems to lower the number of accidents from falling when trying to kick).

To add to the list of stories, when I was in Boston, I once hit a patch of black ice at the top of a set of stairs, and started slipping. My break fall technique is the reason why I ddin't end up breaking something.

**Feryk** · Posted On: 9/29/2011 4:35pm

The sad part is the number of black belts I see in my style that don't know how to fall. Makes me cringe every time one of them gets swept. Seen broken wrists more than once because of it.

**Coast Boy** · Posted On: 9/29/2011 4:43pm

I used to live in Ithaca, NY. Ithaca has real winters and fairly steep roads. The two combined to make my old jujutsu training very useful. So, yes, martial arts training has been useful in my self defense.

**realjanuary** · Posted On: 9/29/2011 4:49pm

I trained for quite a while with a chronically shy and uncoordinated guy, lets call him Ian. You know the type of guy that trains for years and still can't seem to get the basics down, even doing practising ukemi without a partner was a challenge for him. He'd roll over his head and there were always bumping and crunching noises as he trained. Some of the training sank in however.
1 We were doing line training (1 tori with several partners taking turns to attack, tori can do any technique). Nearly everyone had a go and then Athletic Brown Belt has his turn doing hip tosses. Ian strolls up to be thrown, but no ones told Athletic Brown Belt that Ian can't roll let alone breakfall off a hip toss. We all had our jaws open in silent horror as he sailed through the air but landed in a perfect side breakfall. Ian said it happened too fast for him to think and do his usual flinching.
2 A few weeks later Ian slipped on ice and did another side breakfall.
He still couldn't do them in isolation or when thrown slowly, he'd always get nervous and clench up.

Some people think to much when they're falling

**hathor** · Posted On: 9/29/2011 4:49pm

i've been doing judo for about 2 and a half years. walking into work a few days ago, I had only been awake for about 30 minutes and was unaware of the water on the hard tile floor from an ongoing rain storm. I slipped and my feet went up into the air. i fell hard but slapped out of it and kept my chin on my chest. rolled right back onto my hips and got back up

**akuma13** · Posted On: 9/29/2011 4:50pm

I was running for a bus one night after class and tripped over a curb, fell into a front roll & came up without a scrape.

**Feryk** · Posted On: 9/29/2011 4:52pm

Last winter my dog pulled the wrong way when I was sliding my feet over an icy patch. I went down on my back hard enough that a passer by in her truck stopped to see if I was okay.

Not even a scratch. Dog felt bad, though.

**SpamN'Cheese** · Posted On: 9/29/2011 5:30pm

4 yrs. ago, I tripped and fell down a flight of stairs. I broke fall and I ended up breaking my arm. The irony? I mentioned earlier that day how I'd like to experience a broken bone once.