Flat spot

Hopefully someone out there can help me with this:

I've been doing aikido for about 10 months now and I'm very comfortable with ukemi. The problem is that the outside of my knee of my folded leg seems to hit the mat as I'm coming out of a forward roll. This tends to make noise and with enough rolling, makes my knees sore. I've watched and asked students with really good ukemi but no one has been able to give me any suggestions for fixing this (most people dimiss this as a minor problem but I'm a perfectionist and I also worry about the sore knees). Anyway, I'm hoping someone has had the same problem and can give me some advice.

Thanks

Hi!

I don't have the exact same "problem" as you. My foot hits the tatami when I do forward rolls, and this makes a sound. My more senior friends don't make this sound when rolling. It's not uncomfortable or anything, but I am also a perfectionist (when it comes to Aikido anyway), so it bothers me a bit.

The only help I have for you, is the same as I was adviced. Try rolling really slow. When I do that, I tuck in my foot better, and there is no "slap" against the mat. Maybe this can help you improve your ukemi aswell? It has helped me a lot. Give it a try. See if you do anything different when you go slow.

Regards,

Patrik

Ken Sparrow (kensparrow) wrote: Hopefully someone out there can help me with this: The problem is that the outside of my knee of my folded leg seems to hit the mat as I'm coming out of a forward roll. This tends to make noise and with enough rolling, makes my knees sore. Thanks

Hi Ken,

It's a little tough for me to picture exactly what you are talking about but have you noticed anyone else doing what you are doing?

Have you noticed if there is a difference between 'live-toe' and 'dead toe'? [meaning that when you come over and your foot contacts the matt, is it the back of your foot, or the toes-flexed ball of your foot that makes contact?]

Having to position your foot for live-toe might rotate your hip enough to reposition your knee. Just a thought.

Try getting very low and very round. Work hard to make sure that you're not getting un-round during the roll.

Best Regards,

I was working on this not so long ago. I was advised to roll slowly, be more aware of the ukemi, and keep the legs close to the body. My main problem was with ushiro ukemi, my legs went all over the place, but sinse I started making a point of tucking my legs in my mae ukemis got better as well. Another thing I found that improves an ukemi is making it really long - I mean stretch forward as you are going into the roll, it helps to make your roll slower, then it's easier to control.

Thanks for all the good advice. I started practicing very slow rolls on a very hard floor and I've found that it makes even the slightest mistake painfully obvious (literally). Our dojo was formerly a gymnastic studio so it has an incredibly forgiving mat. It is great for learning on but I think it is allowing me to be sloppy. After even a couple of dozen slow rolls on thin-carpet-over-cement I've felt an improvement in my flat spot problem.

Thanks again.