AikiWeb Poll for the week of August 17, 2003:

What percentage of time in your aikido classes is spent specifically on teaching ukemi?

• I don't do aikido
• 0%
• 5%
• 10%
• 15%
• 20%
• 25%
• 30%
• 35%
• 40%
• 45%
• 50%
• 55%
• 60%
• 65+%
  

Here are the current results.

I think you must remember in this that Ukemi is not simply falling - Ukemi is receiving technique (simple definition) and that is half of Aikido.

I find ukemi to be the biggest stumbling block (excuse the pun) in aikido. Beginners (esp. older ones and females) often hate rolling and many people who start aikido for self-defence wonder why they need to practise ukemi at all.

We do ukemi practice at the start of every lesson, but usually I make sure that it is also related to a technique (e.g. kokyu-nage, kaiten-nage); the techniques being done very gently.

For beginners I do some special additional sessions so that they rapidly learn to ukemi(I find people who are slow to learn ukemi loose interest quickly).

Ian