which is which?

~~Even after years of practice I still have trouble with the words ura and ushiro. I was told that one is more 'behind you' and the other 'to the rear' but continue to mix them up. Got any easy way to associate which is which and when to use them? Thanks!

It is my understanding that ura is a description for how nage moves in defending him/herself.

Ushiro describes where uke's attack is coming from.

Of course I may be wrong

Michael Ellefson (MikeE) wrote: It is my understanding that ura is a description for how nage moves in defending him/herself.

Actually, I'd say that the terms "irimi" and "tenkan" more describe how a person moves. "Ura" and "omote" more describe the location of such movements. (In other words, you can do "irimi" and "tenkan" movements to the "omote" side of uke's body. You can also do "irimi" and "tenkan" movements to the "ura" side of uke's body...)

Ushiro describes where uke's attack is coming from.

In aikido parlance, "ura" usually refers to describing the technique (eg ikkyo ura) and "ushiro" refers to the attack (eg ushiro ryokatadori).

Literally, "ura" basically means "the rear side" (as in the "rear side of the house") and "ushiro" basically means "behind" (as in "behind the house"). Subtle difference, but there you are...

-- Jun

Kosa-dori ushiro (waza) nikkyo, of which there are two; omote and ura...

Cross-handed grab of the wrist, nage does her thing (enter, spin, uke gets spun around) omote would would be to the ground and pin; ura would be that lovely pin, then nage enters again (to ura="backside" relative to attack) spins and pins again on ground.

...now I'm confused...

"Her" thing?

...now I'm confused...

Jun's description is exactly what keeps the words distinct for me.

Ushiro is a word that has always meant "behind" as in the area behind me. Attacks are named ushiro, and there are jo movements like "ushiro tsuki"... so ushiro always means behind me..

I guess that might not help but that's what makes sense to me.

--JW

Got any easy way to associate which is which and when to use them?

Just train in seidokan aikido. We don't use ura (or omote) so the source of your confusion would just go away

Bronson

Let me see if I can confuse this, er....

Ushiro means "behind". It can also be pronounced "KO", as in "kohai". Let's call it a relative modifier, a perspective conscious word. Other words might be "in front" (Mae), "inside" (uchi), "outside" (soto), etc.

"Where are you?"

"I am behind you."

The kanji shows a person walking with a string dangling onto the ground behind them.

Ura means "back side". Let's call it an object modifier, like top or bottom, front or back. "Mae" means "in front" or "to the front", "omote" is just "the front". "Ushiro" means "behind", while ura is "the backside". If you describe a box, one of its sides would be the ura side; where you were standing in relation to the box would tell you whether or not you were ushiro.



Jim Vance

~~Thanks all, I think I'm actually getting it now, especially with the linguistic references. Much appreciated