The common beginners trap in Aikido is to believe that it’s all about perfecting your throws and locks. New aikidoka often overlooked the importance of taking good ukemi and instead focusing all their efforts into techniques.
Ukemi is one of the fundamentals in aikido training, we practise ukemi in every aiki taiso. It’s the earliest skill set for a new aikidoka to master. But being able to voluntarily fall and roll on the mat is vastly different from falling and rolling off of a technique from a nage. A special conditioning need to be introduced in order to be able to develop this skill.
But why is ukemi that important you might ask. Being good in taking ukemi doesn’t mean that so we can make our nage looks good. In my experience ukemi serves 2 important purpose. 1) To absorb techniques and protect ourself from potential world of hurts. 2) To quickly recover from losing balance (falling) . These are the true function of ukemi.
Being good in ukemi can help your partner be confident and in return, improve his aikido technique. Knowing your uke able to absorb a full force nikyo is a blessing i think that every nage could appreciate. It will help them to finally realise for real that whether a form is correct.
I remember the first time a 7th dan shihan put me on nikyo, I almost instantly plante my face right in front of him. In retrospect, I had once put on a half baked kotegaeshi to a non practitioner just to demonstrate the throw. As someone who never stretch his wrist in life I’ve accidentally made his wrist swollen. And that’s 60% less intensity than what i would exert in the dojo.
What I want you to take from these experience is, how important it is to be able to take ukemi. Being able to survive the shihan technique to me is one of the highlights in my aikido career. You should always put the same amount of focus when it’s your turn to take ukemi. I vaguely remember saotome sensei used to comment that he always in his mind when taking ukemi thinking about kaeshi waza even when its not kaeshi waza training in an article. Your mind should always be aware even when taking ukemi. But that’s a different topic for another time.
*nage = someone who performs waza / throws
*aiki taiso = aikido specific stretches and warm ups
theglorifiedhobo 