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Old 05-26-2003, 05:21 PM   #21
akiy
 
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Join Date: Jun 2000
Posts: 6,049
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Hi everyone,

Sorry for the late reply here...

Thanks to everyone who commented on my thoughts on ukemi and the ukemi class I usually do here. I enjoy leading it and I also enjoy inviting other folks where I train to lead the class on occasion.

As far as feedback on the class has gone, some folks come for just one class and then never come back whereas others seem to keep coming back. I think the most touching comments I've gotten are from folks who told me that the class doubled their pleasure in the regular classes as they could now try to "work on aikido as uke" in the same way they used to work on it as nage.
Quote:
David Ellard wrote:
Say you go to do Ikkyo (from ai hamni) and as you raise and move the arm uke turns their back on you. In the way that a lot of people seem to do when they are first learning. Now by moving round, using atemi etc we can get to Ikkyo, no question, but the when uke turns their back they present other techniques that are far more appropriate from that position, not to mention they have exposed their rips.
Interestingly enough a couple of weekends ago, Saotome sensei was commenting on doing ukemi from just that type of ukemi. By changing the technique to a more tenshin/tenkan version of ikkyo, it's easy to break uke's balance and take them down to their back balance point. As far as uke stiff-arming you in ikkyo, you can "cycle" the ikkyo by letting their resistance carry them into the direction of their resistance and then using it to "cycle" back into regular ikkyo. And so on.

Over the last several months, I've been working on getting people to attack effectively and efficiently as uke. I've also spent time in working on the actual falling past of ukemi as well. However, I have to say that the most interesting part of ukemi and, hence, the most difficult would be the space in between the attack and the fall (if there is one). The "middle section" of ukemi seems to be the least well-defined but, perhaps, the most interesting. There's a lot of stuff to be discovered and chewed on there!

-- Jun

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