Advanced ukemi (break fall) exercises...

So in response to this thread:

http://www.sherdog.net/forums/f12/ukemi-need-advice-788252/

I made a quick video showing some advanced ukemi practice ideas. I have some basic videos on how to do ukemi also, but I haven't edited them yet and I have to crash before work... so Maybe I'll get them up this weekend.

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There are a lot of things you can do, but these are the more common ones that we use.

 

I belive ukemi is one of the most overlooked and underated group of techniques of grappling, judo excluded. Dave Lowrey, who writes for Black Belt magazine, wrote an article last year on the most important technique for saftey and self defence is .......ukemi. It will serve you better in life than a fancy guard pass or an X block to a roundhouse.

 

sweet jumps

 

Ukemi is a must. If you can't survive falling down, being taken down or thrown, or taking someone down, it's not much use.

For self-defense, you have to make changes to your ukemi, since they don't work in the same manner when you hit a concrete floor as opposed to a mat - like if you "hit" with an open palm a concrete floor (to dissipate energy), you will get your hand broken or will have fissures.

 

Ukemi is very important. Those look pretty cool

 

I tell people who come to my Judo class, that how quickly they excel at Judo will be dependent on their ukemi. If your ukemi sucks, you will learn Judo very slowly.

 

Great video, although I did find the audio to be a little tinny. I think its just the acustics in your dojo.

I especially like that side breakfall. I find the side breakfall to be the most useful but you can't really get any amplitude doing it the traditional way.

Hey, maybe mods can make an instructionals stick so these things don't get lost and forgotten??

 

QFT. We teach people to just keep on going with it and roll up on their shoulders as opposed to slapping the ground.

TS is proof that big guys can take a fall.

 

In my experience (I'm just a lowly sankyu), one doesn't usually last long as a student either if he/she doesn't take the ukemi seriously due to the jarring.

 

good post

 

Thank you very much, just what I needed!

 

This sankyu agrees.

As for slapping concrete during a fall, let me say that it works (yes it does still hurt!). I slipped on the re-surfaced deck of our base pool. By tucking my chin I stopped the back of my head from connecting to the edging (an inch away). I slapped making it loud, and my fingers to my elbow stung for a sec, but I jumped up and walked out immediatly after falling.

The looks on the faces of the other swimmers and the lifeguard were priceless.

 

In my first aiki-jitsu style we did practice similar to what is shown in TS's video...basically everybody after 3 months. For my first 10 years of training (in a couple of different styles) I did a lot of practicing rolls and falls. I originally started with a strong hand-slap but moved toward a more relaxed version. One thing I noticed was that senior students of styles that emphasized relaxation were much more willing and enthusiastic to practice more difficult falls. That's not to say students of the style with the strong hand-slap weren't tough, but why waste that toughness on the ground...save it for your opponent.

At one point I was doing what we called straight-overs (also sutemi) both on concrete and on thin carpet directly on concrete. A straight-over is a forward flip from standing position to a side breakfall position (somewhat similar to the video but no running start). Hitting the bare concrete was fine, primarily resulting in the slapping arm going numb for a few seconds and tingling for a couple of minutes. Carpet over concrete felt like the same impact to the body but was less unpleasant on the arm. In both cases the errors in landing position/relaxation were amplified versions of what was felt doing the same fall on tatame.

Overall, the hand slap doesn't help the fall in any way, but it's unlikely to hurt it much and if it distracts you from the sensation of your body impacting (thus helping you not be as tense) then go for it.

 

^^^^

 

Body relaxtation is the key. On some concete falls I got away with slaping the grpund and on one, backwards break fall, I really wish I hadn't. On backwardfalls now I just bend a leg in and fall starting from the lower legs frist so by the time I get to my shoulders the fall was a totall nothing. (In a self defense training situation)

 

I agree that the hand slap in ukemi is stressed way too much at a lot of places.

I do understand why the hand slap is a part of it. It is almost natural for me and tough not to do it if I have the chance. However, I think the key point here is natural. I don't slap very hard or even think about it too much; it just kind of happens as I fall.

I've seen it commonly taught to beginners to keep the arm very stiff and slap as hard as they can. I don't think that gets the right idea across. It is not the act of crashing into the ground with your hand that breaks the fall; it is the act of yielding to the ground with a relaxed body to spread out the shock safely.

So while I do typically slap the ground naturally with a straight (but not stiff) arm, it would not be a point I would stress too much when teaching ukemi. It should just happen.

 

The hand slap is VERY useful for preventing elbow and wrist injuries caused by people trying to catch themselves and thereby spiking their elbow or whatnot. This is especially true on concrete.

 

You get pretty good height on the lapel ukemi for such a big guy ... I'm jealous. :redface:
One way to work up to the running flip ukemi is to have them grab onto someone's belt and flip over that. Once they're comfortable doing that its a small step to doing it without someone there. Of course, some folks (mainly athletic kids) can go straight from rolling to jumping ukemi ... nice to be 12 and indestructible again :icon_cry2

Good video btw :icon_chee

 

On a front breakfall you are going to hit eblows on concete regardless whether you hand slap or not but on the other common falls the arm getting involved isn't nessessary. If a guy can breakfall with the slap on hard surfaces and it works then do it but in this course I took once we were encouraged to discover for ourselves out in the parking lot and I learned my lesson.

 

You know the more I think of the more I realize that I'm not forcing my hand to slap, its more a result of the momentum of going over. Then again I've taken a million falls and ukemi is probably just hardwired into my system by now.