Alive Ukemi/Dead Ukemi
I once asked Sugano Sensei what correct ukemi was. “There is alive and there is dead” he replied. When I asked him what he meant he replied, “Uke is to move, receive technique, become technique. O’Sensei broke from traditional martial arts. Aikido is about life. Ukemi is rolling. Uke moves, receives energy, body becomes technique.” He said that in older martial arts they were about fighting and killing, so the person took falls. “When person takes fall that is not ukemi. That is death. They are dead. Older arts are just killing. Ukemi is rolling because person is alive and continue. Aikido is circle like life. Ukemi is to live, not die.” *
He held up his hand. “This is correct ukemi. Uke like air around hand. You feel nothing but they are there.” He moved his hand. “When you move hand feel the air then. Same with uke. O’Sensei wanted Uke like water, like air, light and moving. Correct ukemi is to move, be light, in contact with Nage.”
Sugano Sensei told me that because as an Uchideshi in New York Aikikai, ukemi was a particular bedevilment of mine. I have always had a weight and gravity to my frame and movement (or lack thereof) even when I was at my lightest. For about the first year of my nearly 3 years as Uchideshi I was simply terrible, usually simply standing there unmoving for a technique. Yamada Sensei just stopped using me because I was so bad (BRIAN! he would shout…
