Category Archives: Ukemi

– – – by Kimbal Anderson Sensei

• You have to be trying to get nage‘s center.  And then you have to let nage  get YOUR center. Depending on who you’re training with, you may have back off just enough so that they can get your center.

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So.  The reason that we train the way we train is to help each other learn. So training has to be absolutely honest.  Honest is not being brutal, and over-coming the other person so that they can never do anything. Honest is not exerting an inappropriate amount of force for the level the other person’s at.

Being honest, you need to always take their center, or at least make a good attempt – and NOT with any stiffness – and we always want to get that little shift in balance – if not kuzushi, then the beginning of kuzushi – no matter what role we’re in. Because aiki doesn’t function,  in fact: no martial art functions,  unless you can do that.

So: if you’re uke and you’re working with someone who’s not as  experienced,  we use the correct grip,  so that it’s easy to take their center… so that it takes very little physical force to unbalance nage –  and then you hold that so that nage gets the feeling of “how do I work with that?…” “How do I restore, or avoid…?” or “How do I completely absorb this attack?” And then, hopefully,  their reflection back takes uke‘s center.

And that’s like the essence of benevolent but true training. And then you can increase the intensity as time goes on.

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So, for instance, today we were working on the idea of what ura and omote are, and how omote might suddenly become very present with a certain kind of attack…

So: setting up to do suwari-waza-kokyu-ho, if we both do ura, then we have this balanced thing.  If uke and nage are both doing the same thing, then it’s all very balanced, the system harmonizes, and no-one gets thrown. Then it’s only when uke is tempted to extend –  only when uke pushes and tries harder to play their designated role in kokyu-dosa – only when uke puts their omote into it – and nage maintains their sense of ura, that the system absorbs it all and throws uke. Because that’s the nature of what we’re doing.

That’s the fun experiment we do a million, million, million times…

– – – by Kimbal Anderson Sensei

So this movement of energy we’re showing, this thing, is creating a circulation within  y o u r   body.   Now some forms of aikido never go beyond this:  “I have my center…I take your center… I throw you…”  This is very much  “I’m okay, you’re uke“…  (in other words: “I maintain my integrity and you don’t need to….”)   Well, what I prefer is that you both have structural integrity and you both keep it as you feed in.  Which means that uke doesn’t bail out,  but is able to experience the influences of being drawn into a greater circulation of energy.

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– – – by Kimbal Anderson Sensei

“Taking ukemi means learning to read your opponent and his intentions instantaneously,  just as if he and you are of one mind…” – – – O’Sensei

“Learning to take ukemi is not just a physical discipline but a mental discipline with a profoundly spiritual dimension: it demands…greater awareness and the expansion of  consciousness” – – – Mitsugi Saotome  Shihan

The only way to really understand the gift of aikido is to become an extraordinarily useful mirror. And that is the nature of ukemi: to become a perfect mirror to help the other person polish their technique.

Many people just take the fall which doesn’t help;  other people resist when, in real budo, their arm would be snapped off.

Learning how to roll and tumble and all that is amusing, invigorating and good for you: it’s a kind of massage.

I intend to approach ukemi in terms of what it is: the ‘presence’ of uke. There is a condition of mind that you want to be in: at any moment you could become nage – if you’re like the perfect mirror. When the person moving with the technique backs up, does some sort of movement error, concentration error, you should be able to fill in the void, causing them to increase their adaptability and adjust to that… or causing them simply to discover that they are backing up. So you become the perfect vehicle.

Almost all the aikido stories I’ve heard center on ukemi: including the people I’ve trained as soldiers: stories like: driving down the road, the road blows up, they’re airborne in the vehicle… and they take a roll and walk away. While the vehicle’s tumbling after them they walk away…

Because they’re aware, and they move to the side.

It is the marvelous jewel.

In olden days often you trained three, four, five years, only doing ukemi with the teacher, and you learned the techniques inside and out.

Done really well, you should be able to do all aikido techniques without a nage: you should be able to do all the movements. They should be so embedded in your body…

It is the marvelous jewel of aikido.

– – – – – – – – – – ukemi, receiving and blending – – – – – – – – – –

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6U2Cp0vskOc

“…when they’re reaching, you’re already producing two spirals at least, and then the third spiral: rotation, and then the fourth spiral: time et cetera…”