Hello all,
I remember reading just about everything Geoff Gleeson and others wrote about ukemi back in the 1970's and discussing the matter with coaches in the 1970s and 1980s about ukemi as well. I remember hearing some of the leading competitive coaches (at that time) tell us that "breakfalls are for losers." Then, other leading coaches took the opposite view.
In fact, as a young coach, I experimented a fair deal in not teaching ukemi to beginners. I gave it a fair try and was objective about the subject. Here's what I came up with...
1-Ukemi (breakfalls) are fundamental for safety in judo. I found that athletes can't aggressively randori when they are not skilled in ukemi. I also found that ukemi teaches confidence. Knowing that you can instinctively fall safely is reassuring and helps a judoka learn judo more fully.
2-In discussing breakfalls with some top wrestling coaches, I discovered that many wrestling coaches told me that they would welcome some system of fallng safely during practice for wrestlers. Many injuries take place in that sport as a result of not landing well. My experience in sambo is that back in the ealry days of sambo in the USA, we had a lot of collegiate wrestlers show up to the sambo nationals (in the 1970s and early 1980s). I remember several of these guys getting broken arms and dislocated elbows from landing poorly from a hard throw from a judo athlete or someone skilled in the throws of sambo. These collegiate wrestlers simply did not know how to land safely. I also saw a kid (about 20 or so) land in a neck bridge and they carted him out on an ambulance gurney. Fortunately, he didn't break his neck, but it could have easily happened. He simply didn't know how to fall and his opponent slammed him with a hard throw.
3-Ukemi teaches an athlete to move more freely (something I touched on in #1) and more confidently on the mat. Example...I did a judo clininc at a club where the coach did not teach ukemi at all. He believed that "breakfalls are for losers" (a quote that was popular then) which was common during that time (in the 1980s) in some places in the United States. Anyway, I was teaching okuri ashi barai (sliding foot sweep) and used one of his athletes as an uke. As I demonstrated the throw, the young man hesitated quite a bit in being my uke. I wondered what he was trying to prove. This young man had a brown belt on and had about 5 years of judo training and had competed in several junior nationals and was about 20 years old. I stopped the demonstration and told him to relax and that I was just demonstrating how to do the move so he didn't need to resist it. When I threw him, he landed with a hard "thump", took the force of the fall directly in his ribs and just laid there. He was hurt. I did the throw properly and with skill...this is one of my favorite throws and I had never hurt anyone doing it before, not even in a tournament. What happened was, he simply landed poorly and took a hard shot. He didn't slap the mat or take a breakfall in any way. He got up after a few minutes, but was shakaen.
I asked his coach why he didn't take a good breakfall and his coach simply replied "breakfalls are for losers." His coach told me he would rather see an athlete break an arm or rib than take a fall and "be a loser." (This comment brings up a lot more questions on ethics in coaching, but I'll leave that to another discussion.)
I realized why the young man resisted initially. He was unsure of himself when falling and he instinctively resisted me.
Now, this may sound good to those who want to win judo matches, but if every randori round or every throwing practice went like this, no one would learn much of anything. Taking a fall in randori isn't anything to be ashamed of and if you don't know how to fall safely, you will end up getting hurt quickly and often.
Also, one other point which may be of interest. In 1981, I attended a national training camp where a young, upcoming "innovative" (his description of himself) judo coach had 2 or 3 female adult athletes attending. I heard this young coach tell his athletes on the first day of camp, just before randori was to start for the session, "I don't want to see you take any falls. Breakfalls are for losers and you're not losers." No kidding...this is the truth...the very first round of randori, one of this guy's female black belts was doing randori with another female black belt and she got thrown with a harai goshi. This woman stuck her arm out in an attempt to stop the throw (or possibly attempt a turn-out) and the arm broke. This took place at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs and we had a trainer there to give her immediate first-aid and she was taken to the hospital. But, here was a good example of why ukemi is important in judo. I might add that even though the young lady did not do a breakfall, she was still thrown. The breakfall would have simply allowed her to avoid injury and continue with the training camp.
I've been in judo over 39 years and practiced it in 14 countries with members of various national teams and national training camps, as well as in local dojos. My conclusion is that ukemi is important for not only safety, but overall judo development.
Something else to consider. I remember in my physical education theory classes in college that safety is one of the things physical educators should teach. Teaching the skills of any sport or physical activity safely and allowing for some measure of safety was, and is, a part of teaching physical education. So it's not only in judo that safety is considered important. In addition to ukemi, I use crash pads in my dojo, but we often do lots of nagekomi (throwing practice) moving about the mat and crash pads are not useful for this drill. This is where ukemi is important for good judo practice.
Several years ago, I wrote an article in my "Inside Judo Newsletter" (now out of print) titled "Are Breakfalls For Losers?" making the points I did here.
Ukemi is very useful and if you look at it objectively (as I have tried to do over the years), I believe you will come to a similar conclusion as me. I teach it and encourage my atheltes to use it. I might add that I work hard on defense and hip blocks with my competitive athletes so they won't have to use ukemi in a tournament...but if they get caught cleanly I would rather them land safely than get injured. Also, not everyone who does judo is a competitive athlete.
Anyway, that's my contribution to the subject.
Steve Scott
