Yoko Ukemi

Key points

• Land on the side of your body, not on your shoulder blade
• Slap with the whole arm on the landing side, palm down
• Top leg stays bent and lifted so your knees never collide

Step by step

Left-handed: these steps use the standard right-handed form. Swap every left and right.

1. Stand with your feet shoulder width apart and hold both arms out in front of you.
2. Swing your right leg across the front of your body to the left, and let your weight follow it down.
3. Tuck your chin to your chest and keep it tucked.
4. Sit down onto your right hip and roll onto the whole right side of your body, from hip to shoulder.
5. As your side reaches the mat, slap hard with your straight right arm, palm down, about forty-five degrees from your body.
6. Finish on your right side with your left leg bent and lifted clear, right leg on the mat, chin still tucked. Repeat on the other side.

VI judo notes

Learn it lying on your side first, so the slap and the position are known before any falling happens. The reliable cue is the outside of your hip touching down: the arm slaps at the same instant, not after.

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.

① From the chōza (long-seated) posture: yoko-ukemi with the arm only

From the chōza posture, raise both arms and both legs upward as in ushiro-ukemi (rear breakfall), fall diagonally backward, and take the breakfall with one arm. The opposite hand touches the belt; take the breakfall with the left and right arms alternately.

Printed page 104

② From the face-up posture: yoko-ukemi using arm and legs

From the face-up posture, raise both arms and both legs, turn the body to the side, and strike the tatami hard and simultaneously with both legs and the whole of one arm. Do this alternately to left and right. At this time the lower leg should be forward and the upper leg to the rear.

Printed page 104

Point

When tori throws correctly, uke ends up in the yoko-ukemi posture. From the elementary stage it is important to practise repeatedly in pairs, linking the breakfall to the throwing action.

Printed page 104

③ From the sonkyo (deep crouch) / chūgoshi (half-crouch) posture

From the sonkyo posture, extend one leg diagonally forward, then fall diagonally backward and take the yoko-ukemi (side breakfall).

Printed page 106

④ From the standing posture

From the standing posture, extend one leg forward and bend the knee, drop the buttocks close to the heel, and take the yoko-ukemi.

Printed page 106

Point

When a technique is actually applied to the right leg, the breakfall has to be taken with the left hand. The reversed breakfall must be practised at the same time. From the sonkyo (or standing) posture, extend one leg forward and bend the knee, drop the buttocks close to the heel, turn the body over and take the yoko-ukemi with the opposite arm.

Printed page 106

Point

Practise the reversed breakfall as well.

Printed page 106

The pages this is taken from

Printed page 104Close ✕

Printed page 106Close ✕

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.