Thread: soft breakfalls
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Old 06-04-2003, 12:25 PM   #51
akiy
 
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Join Date: Jun 2000
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Quote:
Charles Hill wrote:
By "back breakfall," do you mean where uke's legs "kip up" like off a clothesline type technique?
Right. Basically the way that I do it (although it more resembles a half-frozen fish flopping onto the groun moreso than a silent, graceful ukemi), the "inside" arm (closer to nage touches the ground first, then the shoulder, then across the back to either the other shoulder or the opposite hip.

There are variations to this ukemi, of course. I saw one of the uchideshi folks from Yoshinkan Hombu dojo do this kind of ukemi for Inoue sensei, although a bit differently, very silently and elegantly, indeed. Quite nice. I'm hoping the person who took the ukemi will be at the Aiki Expo again this year since I want to talk to him about the ukemi...
Quote:
Does Donovan Waite just show it, or does he teach it clearly?
If I remember correctly (since I haven't wanted the video in a while since I donated it to the dojo video library), he does demonstrate it quite well (of course) and his first video provides pointers on getting that fall as well.

There are exercises designed to help folks with the basic feel of the technique without having to kick up the feet. They look a bit like an upside-down barrel (sideways) roll at first, but does help in learning this ukemi. (It's basically like the description that I wrote in the paragraph above except with the feet on the ground and the roll occuring from hand to arm to shoulder to other shoulder -- all with the butt off the ground. More easily seen than described, I'm afraid...
Quote:
BTW, I really wish people would go to the video section here and clearly describe and comment on the videos listed. If it helps one, the videos are quite cheap, but if it is not what one needs, they are expensive.
Yes. I encourage people to take a look through the Videos section of this site and review the videos there. It can only go to help out folks out there who are curious about the videos...

Hope that helps.

-- Jun

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