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Old 09-30-2008, 10:02 PM   #6
Ketsan
Dojo: Zanshin Kai
Location: Birmingham
Join Date: Feb 2005
Posts: 865
United Kingdom
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Re: Are breakfalls really necessary?

Quote:
Enrique Antonio Reyes wrote: View Post
I've heard of a lot of people getting injured during break falls. Unlike in judo where they spar and make each other fall I'm not sure if it is really necessary to use break falls in Aikido training. I mean it's not like a real attacker outside of the gym would fall that way. (or would they?)

So are break falls really necessary in Aikido training? What do you think?
Hmm, if I stopped taking ukemi and I didn't get injured I wouldn't go back. A couple of times I've had techniques perfomed on me before I was ready to take ukemi, it isn't a pleasent experience.

With Sumi otoshi the first part of my body to make contact with the floor was the back of my skull (feet were in the air) and I was in no condition to carry on after or even for a couple of days after!

Nobody with any sense or experience ever said that ukemi would allow you to avoid injury 100% of the time. Done correctly there is no ukemi, all techniques are modifed to allow uke to take ukemi so that training can take place. They're still not safe, but they are safer.

Ukemi is just a method for escaping most of the destructive power of a technique. In practice the idea is that your opponent doesn't know the ukemi and so recieves all of the destructive energy and is...............destroyed.
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