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Today we spent much of our time in class learning ukemi. It's good as we rarely have a chance to spend this much time on it and I for one sorely needed to practice my breakfalls. Friday's class being a generally much smaller one means we have a lot more space on the mat and the instructor has time to give us each more attention.
It turned out to be more fun and less scary than I thought it would be because the instructor kept the breakfalls light and gentle by keeping the speeds down so that people could gradually get used to how to fall. We'd throw each other in such a way that uke could do a slow and soft breakfall almost like doing a roll, but without getting up at the end. It worked very well as there wasn't any slight "leap" into the fall but just tip over at the point of loss of balance. Helped reduce my fear of breakfalls at any rate. Then as we got used to that, we increased the speed and height a little. Not too much, that would be for future practices and this was really the introduction.
The practice was a good one and the women in the class were especially appreciative of it.
09-21-2007 07:05 PM 