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Old 08-19-2008, 03:29 PM   #9
DonMagee
Location: Indiana
Join Date: May 2006
Posts: 1,311
United_States
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Re: Ukemi makes you (feel) tougher...

It's not good ukemi until you can survive O Soto Makikomi where the guy who out weighs you by 100 pounds lands with his elbow right on your throat.

Get up from that and you have good ukemi.

I actually thought I knew how to fall until my first judo class. I realized at that point that I knew how to throw myself to the ground or make myself roll. It took me a few years to learn how to fall. Never thought it made me tough, but new people think it makes you insane. When I teach falls, I show them on the ground, from the knees, etc. Then I show them their ultimate goal, I get the sensei or someone else to throw me with harai or some other huge throw as hard as possible makikomi. I actually had a few people just decide then and there that judo wasn't for them.

- Don
"If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough" - Albert Einstein
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