*************************************************************************** BREAKFALLS *************************************************************************** CONTENTS ========== 1. Advice on Koshi nage breakfalls 2. Nikkyo ukemi 3. Practicing breakfalls *************************************************************************** 1. Advice on koshinage breakfalls ================================= Julian jfrost@ODAIKO.CTS.COM ------------------------------ Try some partner ukemi exercises. For example: Stand with your partner in Ai Hanmi (left hand holds left hand or vice versa), but *each* of you should hold onto the other person's wrist. Uke then turns 180 degrees by stepping forward with the back foot and then pivoting, so that she is now facing the same way as nage. Her own arm should now be across her belly (at her Tanden [center]). Now for the ukemi! Nage maintains the grip, and good balance! Uke leans forward onto her own hand, comes up on tip-toes, and uses her own arm as if it were a bar "stuck in concrete". She then allows herself to simply roll over it. Because Nage is still holding on, uke has the support of nage's arm. Because uke is in complete control over when and how she falls, confidence should be increased in this ukemi. Chiba Sensei constantly reminds us to "keep tension" in our spines. When taking ukemi for koshinage, he tells us to keep our backs straight (springy) and not to "collapse" on top of nage. Collapsing has the effect that uke looks like a sack of potatoes being carried by nage... and often feels like one too! Instead, uke should look more like Superman! It is important for uke to extend his/her legs out in one direction, and to extend his/her head in the opposite direction. This has the effect of making uke and nage work together like a see-saw. Nage should be *under* uke's center of gravity while throwing, this has the effect of "spinning" uke. The upshot of this is that uke rotates onto his/her back, instead of landing on his/her head. Just as an experiment, try collapsing on nage and see how hard it is to land properly (safely), and ask nage how hard it is to throw you. Then try it "with tension in your spine" (back straight, legs straight and extended away from your body) and see what the difference feels like to both of you! Gregory D. John" -------------------------------------------- About taking ukemi from katatedori koshi-nage... especially if nage doesn't get very low (so the feeling is, gee, it's a long way down!) If nage will let you, hook your free arm around his leading shoulder (if nage is doing what I think he's doing, then he should have hold of your "attacking" hand); his leading shoulder is the one pointed to where you're going to fall... the one that's immediately connected to the arm/hand holding yours. So essentially you've wrapped your free arm under his armpit and your hand is probably around his shoulder. This will keep your head up off the ground as long as you're holding on. The other hand (the "attacking" one) will be free to slap the mat, if nage lets go of it ;-). Paul Findley ---------------------------- Anyway, I'd go along with Julian's advice about (to paraphrase) keeping a straight back. However, if your koshi waza ukemi practise goes anything like mine did you'll find it _very_ difficult to do this at first. Later it'll _feel_ right, but, in order to work up to it, I found that it's important to overcome the psychological barrier of being thrown in this manner first. Try this: Once loaded across nage's hips, reach around the front of his/her waist with your "lower" hand (the one farthest from nage's head) as far as you can -- Be sure to use techniques where this hand is left free ( not juji nage :+) ). This has the effect -- I found -- of making the fall more "psychologically acceptable" because it feels more like the forward ukemi you are used to doing and has the added bonus of keeping your head tucked in. Wrapping your arm around nage's waist gives you a fulcrum about which to rotate too which gives a taster of the spinning effect Julian mentions. Also, get nage to raise your hand just before you hit the mat. This will obviously depend upon the technique being applied, but generally nage tends to have a grip on your hand (kote gaeshi for example). If timed properly, this lifting of the hand will keep your head away from the mat and assist in flipping your body. I want to make it clear that I'm not advocating this as correct ukemi. However, I do recommend it as a way of overcoming the apprehension many people experience (or was it only me? :+) ) when learning this advanced ukemi. Once you're comfortable with the fall, you'll find that progressing to Julian's "Superman" pose is easy (and surprisingly natural). Jim, BAKERJ@MEDLIB.HSCBKLYN.EDU ------------------------------- Your teacher is right; curling into a ball makes you land on your hip. It's a fear response which has to be unlearned. One way to get over it is with a breakfall exercise we use. Find a fairly strong partner about your own height and stand face to face. Grab their belt in the front with your right (left) hand palm up and face right (left). Your partner is their only to give you something to hold onto, not to throw you. Try to do a breakfall over your own arm while still holding onto their belt. Repeat several hundred times. Try to think of a breakfall as a roll. Try to have fun while doing it. Chris Jones (jonesc@cshl.org) ----------------------------- I fear koshinage. I haven't gotten the fall down, and I land (more often than not) land with my upper thigh crashing down directly onto my lower, causing high-velocity compression of anything and everything between. Ouch. But I have been practicing... Julian's suggested exercise sounds like a good one (never tried it myself). My contribution is the observation which many have probably had, and I'm just slow: it's much, much easier if nage is able to "surprise" you rather than try to go slowly through the technique. My experience is that the anticipation and knowledge "here we go..." makes uke tense, causing pain upon landing, which makes uke tense, which.... When senior students have thrown me (at my own request -- what am I doing!?!) after class, it has always, without fail, worked best for me if I don't see it coming. "Okay, ready? Now you see the position your body is in relative to mine, and how your arm BAMM!!" Suddenly I'm on the ground, and everything's copacetic. *************************************************************************** 2.NIKYO UKEMI ============= Q What do people advise as the best way to take ukemi from nikyo? Michael Hirsch ----------------------------------------- If the nikyo is coming hard and fast I say get down as low as possible, as close to nage as possible and as fast as possible. Anyone who just crouches is at risk if nage decides to put on just a little bit more. Their knees are in the way and they can't go any farther. Suppose nage is doing nikkyo to your right wrist. The fastest way down is to kick you feet out to the right and land splat on your left side. If you are good you can get you legs out over towards the back of nage--this enables you to counter nage by taking his legs out from under them, if they aren't careful. Also, see if you can get so far down and close to nage that you forearm is actually resting on nage's chest. Now nage can't really crank on your wrist. (There are other responses on nage's part. Nage isn't helpless.) Jeff Frane ------------------------------------- We are taught that the best way to take ukemi for nikyo is to move in close and never turn away from nage. For *all* ukemi, it's important to follow nage's movement and not try to create your own ukemi, unrelated to what's actually going on between the two partners. Pushing back against nikyo is a really good way to injure yourself. I watched one student dislocate his elbow this way, during a nikyo pin. I think the most concrete advice I can offer is: go where nage puts you. Debbie Kranzler --------------- If you relax your arm, but extend through the back of your hand, into nage's shoulder, it makes the pin much harder to execute, especially if *nage* is at all tense. I do not recommend this until you are familiar with the ukemi (in other words, not for beginners). This is NOT resisting. Resistance can be dangerous, especially if nage is fast, good or powerful (ouchh!). By extending, the arm is alive, and connected to your center, so you can still move and respond. I find that this helps to control the intensity of the technique, especially good for tender wrists. If I just relax, let my arm be limp, I am at the mercy of nage and how fast I can tap. Extending through my wrist helps make the application feel more gradual rather than instant crunch. Craig G. Hocker --------------- I also want it be clear that I was NOT referring to "limp relaxation" but to what is sometimes referred to as "dynamic relaxation". Being "relaxed and extended at the same time" is really often what is meant by the term "ki extension" or "extending ki". We do a ki exercise that probably shows up in some form in the practice of various styles, but I will describe it here because it appears from some of the replies that some have never done it. Do the basic nikkyo stretch but don't bend it too far (not past 90 degrees). Stop at maximum (about 90 degrees) bend and focus on relaxing upper body, shoulder, arm, wrist, fingers. At the same time be large and extending. For some it helps to wiggle your fingers. Then a partner comes up and places his hand on your hand which is applying the pressure. With his other hand on the upper arm of your arm with the bent wrist, he applies more pressure. If you are not relaxed and extending, this will immediately hurt. If your are extending and relaxed, he can apply quite a lot force with little effect. But your partner should increase the force slowly to give you a chance to feel what is going on and therefore allow improvement. Once your are able to do this fairly well, the next step is for your partner to take your relaxed and extended wrist up to his shoulder to slowly apply a standard nikkyo. Your other hand drops out of the way. Again the idea is to apply the nikkyo slowly so you have a chance to feel whether (or when) your relaxed extension collapses. Now with good ki extension, you can stop even a very strongly applied nikkyo if slowly applied. If in your mind you start trying to block it, you most definitely will lose the feeling and it will start to hurt. This static practice is of course just a beginning point to help you get an idea of where you should eventually be coming from during fairly dynamic nikkyo ukemi. A similar exercise can be done for kote-gaeshi or sankyo. In my opinion, it these sorts of exercises rather than squeezing tennis balls that allows me to go home after an evening practice of nikkyos without sore wrists. **************************************************************************** 3. Practicing Breakfalls ====================== 530 Kranzler writes: --------------------------------------- >2 teaching techniques that helped me to learn, and that I use when >teaching ukemi: > >1) >2) Nage (partner) stands in stable hanmi with knees >bent. Uke stands in front of nage: > > n > a ---> > g ~ > e | > uke > >and holds onto nage's belt (so nage must be without hakama) using >the outside hand. (If nage is on my left, I hold on with my >right hand.) Then uke does a "roll" over the belt. From: Allan Wong -------------------------------------- Your second method is oddly enough a requirement on a green belt test in the Hapkido style I study. This Hapkido school's curriculum emphasizes kick/punch techniques initially, then progressing to ground fighting, and eventually throwing techniques - so taking ukemi is not stressed until a couple of ranks into the style. Anyway, a couple of the hkd people were practicing this over-the-belt thing but were having some troubles. They were having difficulty committing to throwing themselves over the belt. I recall their reluctance to be the same as my own when I first learned breakfalls - a feeling of having to pull one's own teeth =~). The method I recall that helped me overcome this fear was a variation of the over-the-belt fall: Shaking Hands Method: Nage and uke are in the same perpendicular position as you describe (nage faces east, uke faces north), but nage is kneeling (on his toes) instead of standing. n || North ~ a O | g ||==* e * | =O=| uke Uke stands a few steps back and walks forward to grab nage's right hand (instead of nage's belt) with uke's own right hand ("ai" grip - like shaking hands), uke continues forward as nage crosses his own right arm across his own body and places his right hand down in front of his own left knee so that uke can do a basic right foot forward front roll. The action of nage bringing his arm across his body, gives uke a "boost" forward, and gets uke used to the mechanics of this practice. Doing this exercise in big groups also gets uke used to the fluidity, and trains uke in taking the fall as one smooth motion. Eventually, nage will merely bring his right arm across his body - at shoulder height (not lowering his hand to the mat) and uke can breakfall over nage's hand. Uke should concentrate on bringing his (and nage's) hand into his body (against the knot on his belt), and the fluid forward motion as s/he walks/runs forward and breakfalls. Tell uke that if you're travelling more laterally, than vertically - it hurts less. And that it hurts less if you go faster =~)