Ukemi · breakfalls
Ushiro Ukemi
後受身
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 are written right-handed, as the syllabuses write them. Read every left as a right and every right as a left, and the throw is yours.
- 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.