Ukemi

Hi, this is Mark Roemke with Ninja Training TV, Pathways Dojo, and Ninjas in Nature. In today's blog I will discuss ukemi. Ukemi is the art of falling. It's about taking things in life and "rolling with the punches." This saying is a really good analogy for this technique. When you are doing ukemi, you are on the receiving end of training techniques, or many times you are being thrown. The person who receives ukemi is known as the uke. The role of this person is to pay attention the whole time and to be fully alert. If you just "shut off" and relax when you are receiving a technique, you aren't truly connected to your partner and you won't train properly. Plus, you may find that you won't have many people who want to train with you if you aren't practicing good ukemi. When you are training and taking ukemi from your partner, that is when you are going to learn a lot, just by paying attention. The thing I like about it too is that when I am taking ukemi, I am watching my partner and feeling for where I can have an opening to do a counter move. I love this aspect. 

Ukemi is a really good skill to know for everyday life as well. One of the most common ways people in this modern world are injured is by falling. I have had several occasions where I have tripped over something like a curb or a branch and have caught myself by using ukemi techniques and thus avoided smashing my teeth or breaking my nose. Several times I have been hit from the side by objects I and because I learned to twist and roll with the energy of the blow, I avoided serious injury, in other words, I knew how to take ukemi.

Ukemi is a really big subject. In this video below, Kyle from Pathways Dojo demonstrates two types of ukemi: zenpo ukemi, which is forward breakfall, and koho ukemi, backward breakfall. In most falls, you are either going to be going forward or backward. These are the two ways we move the most so we picked these two skills to start with for ukemi. 

If you like these techniques for ukemi, we have many more ukemi techniques in our white to black belt series at ninjatrainingtv.com for adults or our white to black belt series for youth at pathwaysdojo.com. 

Good luck with your ukemi training drills!

In gratitude,
Sensei Mark Roemke