akiy

Willi, Alejandro,

Would it be possible for both of you to redirect your efforts from criticizing the other person's use of Japanese terminology for "breakfall" to addressing the terms themselves? All this bickering seems quite unnecessary to me.

As for the topic here, the terminology used by various styles of aikido -- not to mention by certain groups, teachers, or students within those styles -- are often specific to their training. In other words, they're pretty much technical jargon and are not meant to be truly "descriptive" (as in the names describe exactly what is going on). If you stop a native Japanese speaker who does not do budo on the streets of Shinjuku and ask them if they could tell us what the techniques of "shihonage," "kaitennage," and "ikkyo" looked like, I doubt they would be able to do so from the context of the terminology themselves.

As far as a "breakfall" is concerned, I am guessing that we are referring to the kind of falling in which uke uses an abrupt slapping motion of their arm(s) to "break" their fall.

I can see what Alejandro is referring to when he says that "tobi ukemi" doesn't imply a "breakfall," per se, as people can certainly jump and take a simple roll without slapping. Similarly, Willi's contention that "zenpo kaiten ukemi" doesn't imply a breakfall, either, in that people can take a "rotating frontward ukemi" without the slapping motion, either. However, in both cases, within the context of each of their training, the terms may very well refer to very specific actions -- just as "shihonage," "kaitennage," and "ikkyo" refer to specific techniques within some of our training contexts, too.

With all of that said, would people like to direct the discussion to the terminology that they use to refer to breakfalls and the reasoning why they use said terminology within their context of use?

Thank you,

-- Jun