Ukemi · breakfalls
Ushiro Ukemi
後受身 · うしろうけみ
The rear breakfall: how to land safely on your back. It is the first thing taught in every judo club and the first thing every syllabus in this reference examines, because almost every throw a beginner receives finishes here. The whole skill is keeping your head off the mat and spreading the landing across your back and arms.
Demonstrations
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Key points
- Chin tucked to your chest from start to finish
- Slap the mat with both arms flat, at about forty-five degrees
- Land on the rounded muscle of your back, never on your elbows
Step by step
Left-handed: these steps use the standard right-handed form. Swap every left and right.
- Start crouched, sitting back on your heels with both arms held out in front of you at shoulder height.
- Tuck your chin firmly to your chest and keep it there: this is what keeps your head off the mat.
- Roll backwards along the curve of your spine, keeping your back rounded rather than flat.
- As your shoulders reach the mat, slap it hard with both arms straight, palms down, angled out about forty-five degrees from your body.
- Keep your legs relaxed and let them follow; do not let your heels crash down.
- Finish looking at your own belt, chin still tucked, arms flat on the mat. Practise it low and slow before doing it standing.
VI judo notes
This is a solo skill, so it is one of the easiest to learn without sight: work it lying down first so the ground is already found, then from a crouch, then from standing. The cue for the slap is feeling your shoulder blades touch the mat, not seeing the ground come up.
How it is taught elsewhere
Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology has published guidance on this. Choose whose to show under Organisations' own guidance on My progress.
Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology · Japan
This guidance was written for compulsory school physical education in Japan, not club instruction, and is taught to a whole class, including everyone who did not choose judo. Its teaching stage does not indicate how difficult the technique is.
Backward ukemi (uke takes the breakfall while falling backwards)
In order to acquire the throwing techniques, it is first important to acquire ukemi thoroughly, so that the body can be handled safely. When a person is actually thrown, the cases divide broadly into two: the case where uke takes the breakfall while falling forwards (Photo ①), and the case where uke takes the breakfall while falling backwards (Photo ②). When tori applies the technique correctly and holds uke firmly (red mark), and uke takes the breakfall himself or herself, the throw can be made safely without striking the head. In teaching, it is important, from the introductory stage onwards, to work on the idea that the two students acquire the technique through cooperation: throwing and being thrown in pairs: while learning the relationship between tori and uke. For that purpose, step-by-step practice of ukemi that emphasises its connection with the throwing techniques, as shown below, is particularly important.
Printed page 98
① From a face-up lying position
Point: Crossing the hands makes it easier to strike the tatami. (The red circle marks the crossed hands.) From a face-up lying position, tuck in the chin, raise the head, and bring both arms up in front of the chest. With the palms facing downwards, strike the tatami simultaneously with the whole of both arms. Open both arms 30 to 40 degrees from the sides of the body. If you press the arms down onto the tatami, a strong shock remains, so make them bounce off instantly.
Printed page 100
② From a long sitting position
Point: By stretching both legs up towards the ceiling, you stop the rotation. From a posture with both legs and both arms stretched out to the front, round the back and lower the upper body backwards; fall as though rolling while stretching both legs out, and at the instant the back of the belt touches the tatami, strike the tatami strongly with both arms. So as not to strike the back of the head, tuck in the chin and keep looking at the knot of the belt until the very end.
Printed page 100
※ Ushiro-ukemi with one arm
Point: When you are actually thrown backwards, you will be taking the breakfall with one arm. Once students get used to it, have them practise the one-armed rear breakfall alternately on the left and right.
Printed page 100
Faults that are easy to fall into
The ushiro-ukemi that is practised first is the foundation of all breakfalls. At this stage it is important to have students master the three important elements of ukemi and to acquire a firm foundation in ukemi.
Printed page 100
Point
First, students acquire the feel of striking the tatami. Make them conscious that they strike the tatami with the whole forearm and palm, that the pain is only momentary, and that by doing this they protect important parts of the body such as the head and the internal organs. This is sometimes called *mae-ukemi* (the forward breakfall).
Printed page 101
Point
At first use a helper; then gradually let students control the roll on their own so that they do not strike their heads.
Printed page 101
Point
At the instant of striking the tatami, the neck muscles are tensed. It is especially effective for girls, whose neck muscles are weaker, to begin with this practice.
Printed page 101
Point
Once students are used to it, the helper places a hand on the partner's forehead and checks how firmly the neck is tensed.
Printed page 101
③ From the chūgoshi (half-crouch) posture
From the half-crouch posture with both arms stretched forward, lower the buttocks close to the heels, fall backward and take the ukemi (breakfall). In the second half, stop the rotation by directing and extending both legs upward.
Printed page 102
④ From the standing posture
From the standing posture, bend both knees while lowering the buttocks close to the heels, fall backward and take the ukemi.
Printed page 102
ア Ushiro-ukemi (rear breakfall) while moving forward
Walk two or three steps forward, then take the ushiro-ukemi.
Printed page 102
イ Ushiro-ukemi while moving backward
Walk two or three steps backward, then take the ushiro-ukemi.
Printed page 102
Point
When, because of changes in lifestyle, there are students who are poor at crouching, work in pairs: raising the starting posture in stages, slowly lower the buttocks close to the heels and take the breakfall backward.
Printed page 103
Point
Once students are used to taking ukemi, the helper checks whether they can still take the breakfall securely even when momentum is added.
Printed page 103
Point
Imagining the situation of unintentionally slipping on ice, swing one leg up and, using the other foot as a support, take the breakfall to the rear. This is the way of taking ukemi when techniques that throw you backward, such as ō-soto-gari (major outer reap) or ko-uchi-gari (minor inner reap), are applied. The technique of taking ukemi while falling backward is the key to safety instruction in protecting the back of the head. Not only in judo lessons but also from the standpoint of preventing accidents in everyday life, it is important to incorporate it into warm-up exercises and to build proficiency through repetition.
Printed page 103
The pages this is taken from
From School Physical Education Practical Instruction Materials No. 2 (Third Revised Edition): Guide to Teaching Judo, published by Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), Japan. Page images are reproduced from that document.
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