Thread: Beautiful Uke
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Old 03-21-2011, 08:33 AM   #69
Walter Martindale
Location: Edmonton, AB
Join Date: Jun 2006
Posts: 802
Canada
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Re: Beautiful Uke

Judo ukemi...
After one "match" (I have trouble calling it a 'fight' because there are rules and referees) I was told that I'd knocked my opponent out with an ippon-seoi nage. We were both ikkyu at the time so his ukemi couldn't have been too shabby. Not really sure why the referee (from the same club as my opponent) awarded only waza-ari but I was already walking away from the throw when I heard it, so I walked (yes, walked) back to the opponent and put a hold-down on him - I think the bit of stimulation and chest compression woke him up. He put up a few groggy attempts to get out of the hold-down, and muttered "Good throw." after the match was over. That's the only time I've actually witnessed a competitive judo person getting knocked out by being thrown. (My next match, against a nikyu, with the same referee ended up with me throwing the guy, waiting, hearing waza-ari, picking him up again, and throwing him again - neither throw this time being as hard as the first match, but those were three of the cleanest, hardest waza-ari I've ever seen.) The rules I believe were changed shortly after that, and you're not allowed to hover, pick up, and throw again, but "homer" referees put people in danger no matter what happens.

A few years later, one of the rowers I had coached told me that he "had words" with another person while they were on different sides of watching an ice-hockey match. The usual push-push and then the person I had coached called up from nowhere the judo training he'd done before he started rowing (6 years earlier), threw the other fellow, (on his back, I assume) rendering him unconscious.

Remember - the population of people who train in Aikido, Judo, MMA, BJJ, wrestling, greco-roman, etc., are accustomed to landing on the ground with varying amounts of velocity. I'd submit that professional and amateur football players, ice-hockey players and a few other athletes are also pretty robust when hitting the ground, but the "rest of us" - those who haven't got the training, will be badly affected if someone tries to break the pavement with their torso or head.

The Ippon throw in judo is "Ok, you've thrown the guy cleanly, on his back, and with sufficient force (to knock him out or kill him if he doesn't know how to land safely)" If you haven't controlled your opponent sufficiently to land him (ok, or her) cleanly on his (her) back, then you don't get the full point - the opponent has partly escaped.
W

Last edited by Walter Martindale : 03-21-2011 at 08:40 AM. Reason: verbosity - I wanted to add more... 8-)
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